I don't believe I've ever before played a game that made it so apparent how much care and effort the developers poured into their work. Not only is this game coded in C++ (one of the less forgiving languages, but it runs super clean and fast, assuming it's written correctly), it was built on a custom game engine, it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux (thanks! -One of The Three Linux Gamers), *and* it's only ~1.5GB. And that's just the back-end of it---the gameplay itself is deceptively fun and downright addicting, and I've yet to encounter a bug. Even disregarding the design of the game itself, this is a fantastic technological achievement on the developers' parts. All developers, even outside of game development, could learn a lot from this team's work. However, I would generally advise against buying this game on Steam. Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales revenue, so if you would like to support the developers a little more, you could buy straight from their website instead. Plus, when you buy from their website, they also give you a Steam key to get it for free on Steam as well, so there's not much reason *not* to buy from their website. As far as the price goes, I initially thought it was too expensive at $30, but now I would argue that it's significantly cheaper than it could be. Honestly, I would've been just as happy to pay the standard $60 for this experience.Solid 10/10; I love "civilizing" my barbarian alien neighbors---the factory must grow!

2023-10-19 Update After ~150 More Hours: Original review still holds true, and I'm looking forward to the expansion! These devs could break into my house while I'm away and put dog poop in my pillow case and I'd still worship them because of this masterpiece of a game.

I don't believe I've ever before played a game that made it so apparent how much care and effort the developers poured into their work. Not only is this game coded in C++ (one of the less forgiving languages, but it runs super clean and fast, assuming it's written correctly), it was built on a custom game engine, it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux (thanks! -One of The Three Linux Gamers), *and* it's only ~1.5GB. And that's just the back-end of it---the gameplay itself is deceptively fun and downright addicting, and I've yet to encounter a bug. Even disregarding the design of the game itself, this is a fantastic technological achievement on the developers' parts. All developers, even outside of game development, could learn a lot from this team's work. However, I would generally advise against buying this game on Steam. Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales revenue, so if you would like to support the developers a little more, you could buy straight from their website instead. Plus, when you buy from their website, they also give you a Steam key to get it for free on Steam as well, so there's not much reason *not* to buy from their website. As far as the price goes, I initially thought it was too expensive at $30, but now I would argue that it's significantly cheaper than it could be. Honestly, I would've been just as happy to pay the standard $60 for this experience.Solid 10/10; I love "civilizing" my barbarian alien neighbors---the factory must grow! 2023-10-19 Update After ~150 More Hours: Original review still holds true, and I'm looking forward to the expansion! These devs could break into my house while I'm away and put dog poop in my pillow case and I'd still worship them because of this masterpiece of a game.