shapez

Take any factory game you've ever played, and consider - what really matters here? Does it matter that your metal ingots you've smelted have ray-tracing and reflective metallic shaders? Does it actually matter that your smelted metal ingots are used to make metal rods to make some other part to make a new kind of conveyor belt? It's nice that there's a glorious sunset, but does it really matter? Ok, this widget plus this widget makes computer chips, but is that actually important?

Shapez distills the factory-building game into its purest, most unadulterated form. The fact that there are even conveyor belts is but a gracious allowance of a semblance of reality, for it knows that it is difficult for mere humans to see beyond the shadows on the wall and grasp the true form of the factory game.

There is no world here. There is no rocket or space elevator to build. You do not exist. There is nothing but the shapes you have in front of you, and the shape which you must create from the meager tools at your disposal.

You will paint shapes. You will slice them. You will stack them. You will do this because, ultimately, life has no meaning but that which we create. You will be rewarded for your diligence with new ways to stack, split, and transport shapes. You will hunger for the moment you've finally delivered 50,000 purple windmills, because the marginal paint speed bonus that you earn will be utterly game-changing, despite the fact that it throws off the exquisite balance of your existing pipelines. You will be overwhelmed by the additional headroom in which you're suddenly drowning - it must, MUST be utilized.

You will return to your earlier designs, and realize that you are, truly, a stupid idiot. How could you possibly have been so shortsighted? These shapes are being wasted, you must re-purpose these designs, make them better. Reroute the output where needed, or demolish them entirely and try again. You will begin to design with an eye on your possible future needs, standardizing inputs and outputs, coming to grips with the challenges and benefits of vertical and horizontal scaling.

You will be riding high, swimming in endorphins when you reach your first, true skill check. Shapez players all know what it is. I am not ashamed to say that it took me longer to figure out this fucking shape than it took me to defeat Margit, the Fell Omen. But the rush, the absolute RUSH, when you build it for the first time will be unforgettable.

Around this point, doubt will begin to seep in. You are beginning to understand that the shapes you see in front of you are but a shadow on the wall, a base approximation of the true form of the factory. This is beyond the challenge of just sourcing materials and managing a power grid - are you up to this task, truly? Never fear. God only tests you because you are capable of surpassing the challenge.

God will then declare,
"BUILD ME CbCuCbCu:Sr------:--CrSrCr:CwCwCwCw!!!"
and you will say "yes, God, I will build you CbCuCbCu:Sr------:--CrSrCr:CwCwCwCw!"

And you will fail.

It's just a simple shape - you can see how to make it, the recipe is right before your eyes. Despite this description you will try and you will fail. You will reflect on your career as a software developer and realize that you're not nearly as procedural of a thinker as you think you are, nor do you really know how to implement a half-decent load-balancer.

But this is all part of the path. Have faith. You will realize that you are at but level 26, and there are 50 more levels before you reach the most complex shapes of the divine mandate. Keep in mind the mantra that there is always room for improvement - for this is the true meaning of building video game factories, at least.

Essentially a lightweight, abstract version of Factorio. shapez ditches various "superfluous" elements of Factorio, like resource management. defense, and vehicles, to focus on the core gameplay of building the factory. The idea to use shapes as resources is pretty clever as it allows for loads of combinations that are intuitive to create (not needing a recipe tree or anything). Definitely worth the price. Also check out shapez 2!

Need a game to mindlessly play with the satisfaction of automation? This is the one. Its like Factorio.. only you arent a person.. and you farm shapes.. and you cant lose... It makes my neurospicy happy.

Shapez is exactly what you would expect from looking at the steam page. You may ask, "what's the point of just putting shapes together?" I wondered the same thing before I decided to give the game a shot. The game gives you goals as you progress, asking for more and more complex shapes to unlock methods of making even more complex shapes, so you do have goals, even if they aren't as complex as something like launching a rocket.

The thing that really struck me about the game is how much more approachable it is, compared to something like Factorio. See, when you're faced with creating something new in Factorio, you're faced with looking up a series of recipes that lead to the product you want and if you have memory issues, (like I do) then trying to remember all the steps involved can lead to a lot of time spent sorting through menus.

In shapez, everything you need to know about how to create a shape is shown in the shape itself. So instead of trying to remember a list of occasionally obtuse ingredients, you simply look at the shape you need and put it together. Imagine if all you needed to make a green circuit in Factorio was visible just by looking at the icon for one. Instead of sifting through recipes, you can spend your time actually creating the systems that craft what you need.

You also don't have to worry about actually crafting the machines and belts to make your systems work. That removes some of the challenge, but it also lets you make systems as large and complex as you like, without having to wait for things to craft. There's also no antagonist to speak of, nor an avatar with a limited reach. Just you and everything you need to make the factory of your dreams.

If you've always wanted to get into factory and automation games, but found yourself overwhelmed, Shapez is the game for you. It's approachable and intuitive, but still leaves room for complexity. Of all the automation games I've played, (which is a lot) Shapez strikes me as the perfect entry point for the genre. Even if you're a veteran of automation games, Shapez is still a more relaxed approach to automation and sometimes, it's nice to just build what I want, without worry that something is going to blow it up.

If most of factory games went with gritty industrial graphics, controls galore and often unclear or overwhelming goals, Shapez managed to extract the very essence of the concept and serve us a very elegant and simple universe in which we can tackle very ambitious production chains.

Nailed it: 10/10

Tried the demo. Decent game, bought it...

I blink. What the-?

3 hours have passed. Barely knew where or who I was, but that shape I recognize. I can make it.

5 hours in, I'm a border collie on crack.

If your brain craves perfection, and needs a constant river of stimuli to survive, this is your drug.

10/10, would forget I exist again.

I have played Factorio, Dyson Sphere and Satisfactory. This game falls in line with these titles. Simple to understand, yet complex to master. This game is relaxing while also being a mental challenge. My favorite aspect is the ability to fully automate almost every aspect with enough know how and circuit setup. You don't have to "finish" the game to feel satisfied.