
However, Little Big Workshop does a great job of giving milestones, especially in the early going, that keeps you moving forward at a steady pace. In management simulators, major milestones tend to be self-appointed with perhaps an “endgoal” given by the game. There’s a handy counter under your available cash that gives a simple indicator of the expected profits per hour, leaving little mystery to the success of your product choices and assembly lines.

The completed products still ship out, and the others can be sold to the market after you finish the order, so profits still come from failures. You do pick up contracts from your business friends, but missed deadlines generally only punish the player by taking away the reputation you would have earned. So long as your factory stays afloat, everything continues to progress. But where Factorio went for a more ruthless, unforgiving logistical hellscape, Little Big Workshop looks to nudge you in the right direction without punishing the little mistakes that come with learning. Indie title Factorio, which went into Early Access back in 2014, shared a similar goal, requiring the player to build out complex, efficient assembly lines to create products of increasing difficulty.
#Games like little big workshop simulator
Playing through Little Big Workshop quickly reminded me of another game that made a splash in the construction simulator scene. It’s a nice change from other games that put emphasis on deadlines and leaderboards. For someone who gets stressed at the sight of competition, this game had me taking it slow and steady to build up profits. Everything points to a feeling of relaxation while you operate your small business. The music is comprised of simple acoustic tracks that give off a quiet, breezy vibe. Newly hired operators and haulers fall in as toy figures that come to life and get working, while machines and decorations come in as simple boxes that spring to life once constructed. Props around the table lay just out of sight for your workers, and the blueprint lines are just outside the walls. The factory life is presented in cartoonish colors, with the factory itself depicted as a blueprint in someone’s office. After moving past the simple gnome, you might find your factory building plastic food toys, bicycles, robots or even some cabinetry. The game does a good job of giving simple milestones that, upon completion, open up further tools to craft and assemble more efficiently.



After a few simple odd jobs, you find new companies to befriend, giving you bigger orders to fill with more complex components.īetween major jobs, you can also choose different items from a market to keep afloat while waiting for the next request. You buy your first woodworking station, and so begins your time in Little Big Workshop. Upon getting a call from the newly opened Crazy Steve Enterprises, he requests you make some garden gnomes to support his and your new businesses. And though factory logistics are no simple matter, Little Big Workshop handles it in such a way that it’s easy to learn and friendly enough to engage even the most haphazard gamers.Īs a brand new factory owner, you’ve been placed in charge of a simple building with a pair of newly hired operators. I’d work to take in shipments of particleboard, laminate large pieces of wood before moving them down the assembly line, and clean up the assembled cabinets before moving them to the shipping department.Īt the time, everything worked because that’s how I imagined all businesses worked, but after playing Little Big Workshop, the new product from developer Mirage Game Studios, factory layouts are far more complex than my tiny 16-year-old mind could fathom. As a teenager, my first job ever was working in a cabinet shop as a simple craftsman.
