Alchemy Factory

A brilliant factory automation game that stays manageable and fun by never overwhelming you with scale or complexity.

Introduction

Alchemy Factory is an instant classic among factory games for me. It blends the store sim genre with factory automation for a perfect combination that I never knew I wanted. After spending significant time with it, I can confidently say this is one of the most approachable entries in the factory automation genre while still delivering the depth that fans expect.

The Scale Problem Solved

I've always loved factory sim games like Factorio and Satisfactory, but I always had an issue where those games become too much of a chore to optimize. That always burned me out towards the later parts when the scale just becomes too big to be manageable in a fun way. I know many people love those games just for that aspect, and I admire that. But it's not for me.

What made Alchemy Factory perfect for me is that it scratched the itch of simulation games where you're planning ahead, figuring out layouts and ratios and automations. It was always a challenging puzzle to solve each time I progressed to a new tier and unlocked new things. But it never got to a point where it was overwhelming. It was always the right level of added complexity from one tier to the next that kept the game fresh and exciting and gave me a new goal. Complexity never spiked to make me feel overwhelmed like other games did in the genre, which is a tough thing to balance. I think the devs did a masterful job at that.

Manageable Physical Scale

The physical scale of everything I construct is much smaller than what I'm used to with these games, and that was refreshing. Not having to build city-block-sized factories is nice, and it builds on top of the manageable feel this game gave me. Couple that with a smart blueprint system and it's a frictionless factory game to interact with.

The Gold Economy Genius

What surprised me and I really liked about the game is that money is just another resource. You can send gold on belts to feed your auto-raw resource purchasing portals, and that is genius. It's possible that another game might have already done this, but for me this was a first. I thought it was ingenious. You can even link up your shop's auto-cashier register to output the gold onto belts and then completely incorporate that into your automated system. That is just brilliant.

Having the expansions and research be just gold requirements is really nice in my opinion. It kept that resource valuable and tied to your factory's expansion. Everything feeds into everything else in a way that feels natural rather than arbitrary.

Early Tutorial Confusion

Going into this game blind did result in some confusion early on about not knowing exactly what I was doing. The game offered some GIF tutorials which helped, but I wish there were more of those at least for the first hour until you have an idea what the purpose is. But I think this is a non-issue for fans of this genre. You're going in knowing what to expect and with hundreds of hours of potential time to spend, so the earlier hours are irrelevant in the grand scheme.

Early Access State and Future

Personally, I think the game mechanically exceeds what I would expect from an early access title. It's vast and there are hundreds of hours of time to sink into this magnificent factory automation game. If I had to wish for anything, I hope the devs can focus on other aspects of the game. In short, scale horizontally rather than vertically. Instead of more tiers and complicating the game further, they should try and focus more around the non-mechanical parts like the NPCs, the store management system, some quality of life improvements, and performance optimization.

I feel they perfected the factory sim side of things, and if they can polish everything else around that, they have an absolute masterpiece brewing. I believe that Alchemy Factory could be the bridge that brings more players into this genre while still satisfying the hardcore audience. The multiplayer system, which I have not explored, might also be a nice solution to get other people to try this genre. I will be keeping a close eye on this game.

Verdict

Alchemy Factory is the factory automation game I've been waiting for. It delivers all the planning, optimization, and problem-solving that makes the genre great while keeping the complexity manageable and the scale human. The genius gold economy that integrates money into your factory belts is one of those ideas that feels obvious in hindsight but I'd never seen executed this well. The progression never overwhelms you, and the smaller physical scale means you're always building satisfying systems rather than maintaining sprawling cities. Yes, the early tutorials need expansion and performance could use some work, but these are minor complaints for an early access game that already feels mechanically complete. This has the potential to be the gateway that brings new players into factory automation while still delivering the depth that veterans expect. If the devs polish the rough edges and focus on horizontal improvements rather than just adding more complexity, this could become an all-time great in the genre.