FluxWerks

FluxWerks is a factory-building game set on a temperate, oxygen-rich world that was reported unoccupied by a long-range scan. You are a preparation unit sent ahead to build an industrial base, survey the planet and transmit your findings home. The scan does not reveal everything, and the closer you look, the less empty the world seems.

Shape the terrain

Every block can be mined, moved or built over. You can strip-mine mountains with excavators, carve bunkers into deep rock, build platforms across the ocean or dig tunnels beneath them. The terrain is part of the factory: you can remove a mountain and build into the space it leaves, but digging below a lake lets water pour in behind you.

You direct a nanobot swarm to clear terrain, harvest resources and print blueprints. Working sections of your factory can be copied as blueprints and placed elsewhere.

Fluids and heat

Water, oil, lava and acid flow and react when they meet. Water and lava produce obsidian, water on hot ground boils away, and volcanoes erupt, sending lava through whatever lies in its path.

Heat moves from block to block rather than disappearing. You can pipe waste heat away or convert it back into power, so the placement of machines and heat systems matters. The game simulates heat and fluids across the whole map, even as you fly freely around a running factory.

Build and automate

You assemble dense production lines with belts, inserters and pipes, and use cargo drones to move goods over long distances. Research progresses from your first furnace through industrial chemistry to advanced electronics. Each era requires a noticeably bigger factory than the last and unlocks machines that change how you build, not just how fast you build.

Advanced machines draw on a shared computing reserve supplied by computer clusters. If the reserve is insufficient, the factory slows down; computers also consume power and produce heat, making datacenter management part of the factory’s demands.

Explore the planet

Deserts, jungles, tundra, volcanic wastes and cave systems cover the world. You can scan for ore and investigate points of interest that contain story background. Rain, blizzards, sandstorms and lightning occur on their own schedule, and exposure wears down machines left out in the open.

There are no enemy factions, but your actions affect the planet. Heavy air pollution may awaken something dormant in the soil.