#FACTORIO PLANNER HOW TO#
#FACTORIO PLANNER FULL#

To do that, you need to automate little parts of the factory. To achieve the end goal of the game you have to build a large factory so you can launch a rocket ship into space. A complex factory with hundreds of buildings with specific functions.

#FACTORIO PLANNER HOW TO#

It teaches you how to create systems which is something you need to do in many disciplines like software engineering, mechanical engineering, design, architecture, etc. It’s also a reason why Shopify pays for the game for their employees (link to the CEO of Shopify talking about it) You can always look up things and look into the best practices.īoth ways are viable and are about learning quickly and sticking with the thing you’re making when it gets hard.Ĭreating your factory is like any creative problem solving. It’s a deliberate practice of creating and building. This makes all the concepts we’ve been mentioning come alive. When you hit an obstacle, you have two basic ways to overcome it. In Factorio, you deal with obstacles all the time. People have this habit of quitting or escaping when stumbling upon an obstacle. You can only do it one assembler at a time. In Factorio, you can’t build a factory all at once. We often want to have the essay already written, the picture already drawn.

When creating, people often deal with feeling overwhelmed because they think that the work should have already been done, or they feel like they can’t ever complete it. We’re so used to consuming content all the time that it can be overwhelming to try making anything on our own. Factorio teaches you skills for creatingĬreating, making, and building can be daunting. This practice is the best way to deal with any open-ended problem, in game or in real life.Īnd in Factorio, you have to practice it all the time.

This process teaches you to break complex things down into smaller parts. Many times throughout the game, you need to sit and think through how you need to design your factory to make it function well. In order to launch a rocket, you need to figure out how to get advanced building materials from raw resources like stone ore or crude oil. You have a goal (launch a rocket into space) but there are infinite ways of achieving that (open-ended problem). A simple part of a factoryįactorio teaches you how to solve open-ended problems. It can be hard at times but that’s what makes it satisfying.

#FACTORIO PLANNER FULL#

After you start playing the full game, the difficulty is steeper but still manageable. However, their neatly built tutorial takes you by the hand and guides you through elements of the game step by step. If you threw a newbie into the game, he would be lost. Most games like this are usually difficult to learn, and in the beginning, they are simply overwhelming (grand strategies like Europa Universalis IV or MOBAs like DOTA 2).įactorio is even closer to open-ended problems on the spectrum. They’re getting closer to open-ended problems. We’re not used to dealing with a lot of uncertainty, the next steps being unclear, not having a clear objective, etc.īasically, imagine open-ended problems and close-ended problems as a spectrum.Ĭertain games are further away from close-ended problems on the spectrum. On the other hand, we usually struggle with solving open-ended problems. Gamers are amongst the best close-ended problem solvers. We talked about how gaming teaches us to solve close-ended problems, problems that have clear rules, clear instructions, and clear boundaries.

Factorio teaches you to solve open-ended problems Storytelling: there is not much in terms of a story.

Can be a really good way of bonding with friends. Socializing: can be played both in single-player or multi-player. Stress-reducing: can be stressful at times If you look at Factorio based on the rating we created in the last part: We’re not shills, we simply like the game and think that it can be valuable for developing grit, systems thinking, and focus.

Factorio planner