Hi! I'm Charlie, I made 11 PM

It's a minimalist factory game. You place machines on a grid, link them, and slot modules into them. Each module changes one rule of how its machine produces, a bit like the jokers in Balatro but for a production line. Most of the game is finding which modules work well together.

The demo is free on Steam, and it will be in Steam Next Fest (October 19 to 26): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4930650/11_pm/

If you try it, what helps me most is knowing where you got stuck or bored in the first 20 minutes.

Well, I finally went and played the demo. The nostalgic interface is cool. It's all about making PowerPoint slides, and the grounds for your factory look a lot like a slide deck. The big slide you are editing has a grid with which to place factory stuff on, and places to send inputs or outputs to other slides. And that seems unique, at least to me, having such a limited space to build factory components but that you are allowed to connect inputs and outputs to deal with it. Sort of a forced one-purpose thing. It happened in Shenzhen I/O but that is also more of a programming puzzle game to me, though it probably qualifies for being an automation game. Does this happen in many other automation games?

At first the tutorial sort of felt overwhelming but I got through it enough to play without trouble. I wonder if it really was overwhelming or if I'm just burnt out and getting dumber and older with a brain that is no longer a sponge for new information, and this is how learning new stuff will usually be.

The "lol work sucks/is nonsensical and corporate life is unrewarding" in the emails feels annoying, though, I admit. I see this type of complaining too much online to feel any catharsis instead of just annoyed. It is part of why I closed the demo early. I hadn't appropriately adjusted my expectations that there would probably be Work Sucks Snark, I was just expecting factory with nostalgia, and I'm not sure if that was my fault or not because the Steam preview images are not loading for me right now so I can't see if it was adequately advertised. It wasn't in the text, albeit the "PowerPoint factory" premise probably should have tipped me off. But hey, nothing and nobody is perfect, and I'm sure it resonates for other people!

I got as far as the next tool after the Merger. And the newly-unlocked tools reminded me of what I'm given in Shapez. I wonder if that is a genre-common thing, because after all, combining and splitting factory inputs seem like pretty basic functions. Like level-up systems and inventory management systems, and it would not mean one game copied/was heavily influenced by another just for having this. I admit I don't get to sit down and play too many all that often—I was just willing to step up and post about new games and get rid of spam. This is not a complaint, just a question!

I have a massive backlog to get through, less time than I'd like to do it, and a wishlist I'd like to decimate, so I can afford to be very picky. Enjoyable, but 50/50 on if I come back.

SpaceTraders is a space-themed economic game with HTTP endpoints for automating gameplay and building custom tools.

I finally open sourced my game!!! I was mainly working on getting it a better title (it still may change in the future) and figuring out licensing.

This game comes from me playing with the minecraft mod computercraft and my friend pondering the idea "what if you played the game from a bedrock box by only controlling a turtle" and everything just kinda spiraled out of control from there. The game is in a very bare bones state, just with a basic interpreter for Hive--, the truly god awful programming language you use to command your workers. The automation aspect of the game is very much meant to encapsulate both the diegetic resource gathering and processing you do as well as the tools you create to make writing the code easier. It's very much not a game for most people and isn't trying to be commercial or have a large audience. This is solely a game for people who are as autistic about programming (and slightly insane) as I am.

You can keep track of development using the git.gay

Hooded Horse and Lantto Games have announced an early access release date for Sandustry, their 2D factory-building spelunker in which every pixel has physics.

Would you play a Star Trek engineering simulator? Because SpaceChem devs Zachtronics almost made one, later reborn as philosophical puzzler U.V.S. Nirmana.

U.V.S. Nirmana on Steam

If you love the idea of building up a massive sprawling factory and taking your time doing so to chill out - shapez 2 is a safe bet.

Inspired by the old Windows 95 theme and classic PowerPoint, Factory 95 is a fresh retro-styled automation sim out now with Linux support.

And with a whole suite of additions too.

Went and bought it once it got out of EA. Pleasantly surprised by it being under 2GB.

Snacktorio is a little less sandbox and a little more sautee

I feel like this one is borderline, but maybe a decent baby's first automation game? Or if you just really like conveyor belts.

In an effort to be a financially responsible elevator I'm cutting back on engaging with video game Lemmy—the less cool games I get exposed to the less I am tempted to be a financially irresponsible elevator and buy something new I don't have the time to play. Actively looking for automation games to post, or even just crossposting others' posts, is part of this exposure that I am trying to limit. I've also gotten much busier and have less time for social media. Happy to hand control to someone else.