[HN Gopher] Awesome Engineering Games
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Awesome Engineering Games
I've spent way too much time both playing and finding engineering-
focused games, and haven't been able to find very detailed or
comprehensive lists online. So I made one :) These games are both
fun and often quite educational, presenting gamified versions of
real-world challenges and professions. There's a lot of different
sub-genres of "engineering game", such as: * Factory automation
(Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program) * City builders (Cities:
Skylines, Anno series) * Route-builders (Mini Motorways, Railway
Empire) * Comp sci (TIS-100, Bitburner) All games on the list are
very highly reviewed. I've played most (but not all) of them, and
provided personal recommendations alongside the reviews. Many of
them are also playable on GeForce Now (if you don't have a gaming
PC). Please contribute if you know of more, or have any
comments/suggestions!
Author : solardev
Score : 74 points
Date : 2023-11-19 19:22 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| valyagolev wrote:
| Add Cosmoteer, where you build and fly a starship: playing it
| makes me think of John Boyd
| shhsshs wrote:
| Shapez.io is a great introduction to factory building games. It's
| basic and visual enough to be immediately understandable but
| there's a lot of room for advanced builds. It is getting a sequel
| soon, too.
| solardev wrote:
| It's in there! (as Shapez) I should add the free demo at
| shapez.io though.
|
| Can't wait for the 2nd one :)
| jfoutz wrote:
| An old old one worth mentioning https://robotodyssey.online/
|
| It's abandoned and available for dos box as well but the web
| version is easy to get started with.
| dllthomas wrote:
| And its simpler predecessor (IIRC) Rocky's Boots.
| azhenley wrote:
| Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans are great on iOS.
| piersj225 wrote:
| I'm not sure where Human Resource Machine would belong,
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/375820/Human_Resource_Mac...
|
| might be worth adding this and 7 Billion Humans
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/792100/7_Billion_Humans/
| rammer wrote:
| Is there a mobile app version of this list? Someone should create
| it?
|
| Mobile apps , I'm tired of playing bridge builder.
| Kiro wrote:
| Suggestion: Hydroneer
| rft wrote:
| Honorable mention: tech-focused Minecraft (Java!) mod packs
| (don't laugh), if that floats your boat
| gene-h wrote:
| RoboCo is a nice vehicle building game. https://roboco.co/
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067220/RoboCo/
|
| It has one of the best mechanism simulators I've seen in a game
| with all sorts of gears, differentials, slider joints, springs
| etc. I've found it handy for virtually prototyping, you can mock
| up and test machine concepts much faster than CAD software.
|
| Oh and it has a python API: https://docs.roboco.co/latest/
| solardev wrote:
| Awesome, thanks! I'll add it.
|
| May I please cite your comment as a recommendation and link to
| this?
| gene-h wrote:
| Sure.
| dllthomas wrote:
| Possibly add the Incredible Proof Machine (https://incredible.pm)
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| along these lines, the Natural Number Game (
| https://adam.math.hhu.de/#/g/hhu-adam/NNG4 )
|
| (the ceiling on the game this is an installment of is pretty
| high, eg https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2023/11/18/formalizing-
| the-pr... )
| robotnikman wrote:
| Not sure if its exactly relevant, but I would also add From the
| Depths as well.
|
| It has a very steep learning cliff, but once you learn it you can
| build all kinds of war machines, from ships to robot walkers and
| spacecraft. And you create the individual systems which your
| vehicles use as well, such as steam engines, weapon systems, AI,
| etc.
|
| Its a game I've spent many hours in.
| greggsy wrote:
| Universal Paperclips and Adventure Capitalist are more about
| finance, but that's still a key part of engineering right?
| YaBa wrote:
| It's missing RuckIngenur, for those who like electronics and
| hardware hacking.
|
| https://www.zachtronics.com/ruckingenur-ii/
| s_dev wrote:
| Civ VI (more precisely all Civ series games) should be on this
| list. There is a whole category of Great Engineers and the game
| mechanics allow these real life Engineers to aid in the
| construction of Wonders and triggering a win condition. City
| planning is a big part of the game.
|
| Poly Bridge is also a game that is focussed on building bridges.
|
| Kerbal Space Program is focussed on constructing a Rocket and
| launching it.
| mcphage wrote:
| The most recent Zelda game (Tears of the Kingdom) has a pretty
| fun vehicle builder component. People have made all sorts of
| crazy things using it.
| jonahss wrote:
| For Demolition category, there's this old N64 game which has
| stuck in my memory: Blast Corps
| leprechaun1066 wrote:
| Transport Fever 2 if you like choo-choos.
| drewcoo wrote:
| It's not a computer game, but Car Wars up to version 4.
|
| https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13354/car-wars-compendiu...
|
| Players spend some "homework" time designing vehicles, then they
| test them in turn-based combat, then it's back to the drawing
| board to revamp designs. For every hour of combat play, it's
| probably at least one hour of design time, tweaking designs
| within constraints . . .
|
| Starting with version 5, they started dumbing down the rules and
| focusing more on faster combat and moving around larger toy cars
| instead of designing anything. Because who wants to play a geeky
| engineering game, anyway? (me)
| jader201 wrote:
| I wish that there was a separate list/category of games involving
| coding (block or actual).
|
| One game that I really got into for a bit was Autonauts [1], but
| ended up falling a bit short of what I was really looking for
| (due to very awkward UI and controls).
|
| But would really love to see more games with automation (like
| Factorio) but where the automation was coded. Or tower
| defense/RTS games (like Mindustry) or simulation (like Rimworld)
| where you could automate the AI.
|
| I see some games involving coding, but mostly look like hacking
| games, which I think are more puzzle games, vs. sandbox.
|
| Like I said, Autonauts would have been this, but it's just too
| awkward, and not quite as deep as I was hoping.
|
| I was excited this was such a list, until I realized it wasn't
| _software_ engineering.
|
| (My very first experience with something close to this was FFXII,
| which I loved, but fell flat for many because they _didn't_ want
| to automate the battles, which was my favorite part!)
|
| [1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/979120/Autonauts/
| speps wrote:
| I've heard about Screeps which is close to what you describe:
| https://screeps.com/
| alex-mohr wrote:
| Look at Screeps: World [0] for depth in a programming base-
| builder RTS.
|
| You write the code for each of your units, either natively in
| Javascript or Typescript, or via WASM you can run Rust, Python,
| etc. You use a private server or join a shared MMO world.
| There's a free sim [1] to try out the basics, though the actual
| game has much more depth. And an active Discord for help [2].
|
| There's also a variant Screeps: Arena [3] that focuses on 1:1
| PVP battles with ranked ladders if you prefer short-lived
| matches to a long-running world.
|
| [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/464350/Screeps_World/
|
| [1] https://screeps.com/a/#!/sim
|
| [2] https://discord.com/invite/RjSS5fQuFx
|
| [3] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137320/Screeps_Arena/
| [1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137320/Screeps_Arena/
| jader201 wrote:
| I knew about this one, but was turned off by the review
| talking about the base CPU isn't enough, requiring a
| subscription.
| Svip wrote:
| I feel like it's kind of unfair to put Factorio's release date as
| 2020. Yes, that's what Steam says, and that's it's 1.0 release
| date. But Satisfactory is listed as 2020, and that is still in
| early access. So maybe note on the list when a game is still in
| early access?
| ilikeitdark wrote:
| Great list, thanks! Does anyone have a recommendation of a semi
| realistic house building game for a teen?
|
| My daughter loves Minecraft and the house building games on
| Roblox, but trying to find something a little deeper but still
| fun..
| Galxeagle wrote:
| If it's the interior design aspect that's enjoyable, we've
| gotten a lot of mileage out of the Animal Crossing expansion
| pack
|
| https://animalcrossing.nintendo.com/new-horizons/happy-home-...
| delanom wrote:
| Surprised not to see "Baba is You" on the list! Great puzzle
| built around programming logic.
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/736260/Baba_Is_You/
| disintegore wrote:
| I have two suggestions :
|
| TerraTech (https://store.steampowered.com/app/285920/TerraTech/)
| for the vehicle building category. Very streamlined and
| surprisingly deep, although the campaign gameplay can be
| frustrating.
|
| Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic (https://store.steampowered.
| com/app/784150/Workers__Resources...). A planned economy city
| builder. It's apparently an extremely deep game with a steep
| learning curve. Seems to have developed a cult following.
| hlandau wrote:
| There seems to be a fair bit of overlap with "base-building
| games" (a genre I'm fond of), including base-building games which
| I wouldn't necessarily describe as engineering games but just
| more generally management/simulation/strategy games (e.g. Evil
| Genius, Prison Architect, etc.) - Rimworld is on the list but
| feels a lot less engineering-oriented than say, Factorio, but on
| the other hand, (Open)RCT2 is missing which is surprising.
|
| Basebuilders seem to divide into two rough categories: ones where
| things you build appear immediately (e.g. RCT2), and ones where
| minions have to go and install what buildings you command to be
| installed (e.g. Evil Genius, Factorio's robots).
|
| Recommendations for interesting basebuilders are always of
| interest.
|
| While we're on the subject: games with level editors
| (particularly those with some kind of scripting system) are kind
| of interesting as even if the gameplay isn't "engineering", you
| can get sucked into level _design_. DROD comes to mind. A list of
| games with level editors would also be interesting.
| ivxvm wrote:
| Check out Modded Minecraft Expert Modpacks like "Create: Above &
| Beyond", "Project Ozone", "Nomifactory" and so on.
| vvoid wrote:
| Missing from Open-World Survival Sandboxes: Astroneer.
|
| Incidentally some of the best sound design and music I have ever
| heard in a video game.
| edg-l wrote:
| This list lacks most of Zachtronics games, which are all related
| to engineering, and my favorite game dev.
|
| I really think Exapunks, Shenzhen I/O, SpaceChem and TIS-100
| should be there, in fact, Zachtronics created his own puzzle
| genre, "zachs-like"
|
| https://www.zachtronics.com/
| Galxeagle wrote:
| Kerbal Space Program gets high marks for giving me a great
| intuitive sense of orbital mechanics, aeronautical design, and
| space mission architectures ('to get to space you need to go
| sideways, not up'), even if the actual rocket building is
| simplified to Lego-like to keep it fun
|
| My light bulb moment was when I looked at the Apollo 13 orbital
| paths and mentally considered a few alternatives they could have
| done too.
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/Kerbal_Space_Progr...
| mkoubaa wrote:
| There are two trends I'm tracking:
|
| 1. AI agents getting better and better at increasingly complex
| games
|
| 2. Simulations and games get increasingly closer to real
| engineering
|
| It'll be an interesting when these lines intersect. It'll be
| possible to cast real engineering challenges as games to enable
| AI agents to play them
|
| With AIs consistently beating humans at games, it's only a matter
| of time before games become a valid UX for real engineering.
| dang wrote:
| Lists can't be Show HNs. Please see
| https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.
|
| I've taken "Show HN" out of the title now.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Under the category of "Rube Goldberg Machines", I'd add this
| classic retro game for the kids:
|
| The Even More Incredible Machine:
| https://playclassic.games/games/puzzle-solving-dos-games-onl...
| DizzyDoo wrote:
| I enjoyed The Incredible Machine as a kid, the modern
| equivalent (though still 10 years old) is 'Contraption Maker' -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/ -
| which was designed by the same person. Glad to see he's still
| going all these years later!
| naet wrote:
| My original favorite engineering "game" was Garrys mod, which is
| basically just a playground using the Half Life 2 physics and
| game engine. I had great fun slapping wheels on something like a
| bathtub and making a makeshift car, or making silly Rube Goldberg
| style machines using levers, ropes, thrusters, etc. Not a typical
| game since it didn't offer any typical goals or levels outside of
| have fun and be creative, but that IMO only heightened the
| inspiration to engineer stuff to play with.
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