In addition to the similar games listed above, which have been linked to this game specifically in the database, you may find games with a similar theme to Satisfactory in the following lists:
Video games and work don’t usually go together. Not, that is, unless you work in the video game industry. The
Safe In Our World charity addresses this world of work and video games to foster positive mental health wellbeing and deliver support for players, developers, publishers and retailers.
“The worlds we create are a refuge for many,” they say about video games, to highlight the importance of also looking after those people who make these amazing spaces. They have some excellent resources available for free and global helplines for a range of emotions and stresses people might be feeling, not to mention some great training resources for companies. Most recent is their
Level Up campaign that challenges businesses within the video games industry to unite and commit to change.
The games in this list offer space to reflect and escape work for a while. But not only to get some distance, but to play something that shines a light on why we do what we do. Some address the world of work directly, while others enable us to consider our choices about how we spend our working hours.
Whether it’s escaping for a lunchtime walk with A Short Hike. Trying to manage crunch time with Going Under, or not succumbing to Tom Nook’s invitation for ever bigger mortgages in Animal Crossing, there are lots of games that can help us find some balance.
Other games, like Coffee Talk and Neo Cab help us consider the people we serve at work. This might be conversations with customers, but also the other people we work with in the office or workplace we find ourselves in. Like the game Good Job encourages us to do.
Then there are games that make us aware of our co-workers. Whether it’s collaborating to identify and store stock in Wilmot’s Warehouse or getting the furniture into the van neatly in Moving Out, how we work together and treat the people around us is important.
The games in this section have been selected because they get players doing absurd activities and chuckling together. It’s tongue-in-cheek entertainment with challenges that don’t take themselves too seriously – not seriously at all, in fact. Video games have their roots in fun and play. This makes them an excellent way to forget the worries of the day and dive into some silly fun together.
Whether it's the crazy puzzles in
Baba is You or Twister-like contorsions of
Fru or stomach churningly difficulty of walking in
Octodad Deadliest Catch, these are games that will make you shreek and laugh together. Then there are silly multiplayer games like
Super Pole Riders,
Heave Ho or
Wii Party where parents, carers and children take on bizarre or precarious challenges. The play often descends into giggling and laughter.
These are games that involve actual Lego bricks or offer an experience that has the same plug and play building and creating as the classic toy.
Video games are exciting for children. Like anything popular for youngsters, many dream of being able to work in the video game industry when they get older. However, as a relatively new media it can be hard to know how to help a child inspired to move from hobby to career.
We’ve worked with
Into Games, a non-profit organisation that supports people in finding rewarding careers in the games industry. They run programmes that provide inspiration and educational pathways for anyone wanting to make video games their job.
This isn’t just about being a programmer. Whether your child is great at being organised, designing things, drawing, performing, telling Stories or working in a team there are loads of roles that might fit them: Animator, Campaign Manager, Narrative Designer, Esports Events Manager, Playtester and Voiceover Artist are just the start.
The games in this list offer the chance to not only play, but to build these skills and experience as you have fun. They are a great way to dip a toe in multifaceted roles and experience of making video games.
Some of the games, like FanCade, Mario Maker or Dreams, are a great way to start making your own games. Other games, Roblox and LittleBigPlanet, are a chance to see what other amateur game makers are creating. Then there are games, like Going Under, Satisfactory, Good Pizza Great Pizza and Stormworks: Build and Rescue that give you a taste of other roles in the industry.
Automation is hailed as the future of work and industry is set for economic rebound. As a result, growing, managing and relating to machines are and will be important skills for children to develop.
The good news is that the process of transferring work tasks to computers and automated mechanisms is something they can try their hand at in the games in this list. Organising tasks and distributing work in the name of efficiency and effectiveness is also a common feature of many games.
We've worked with
Game Academy on this list of games that help prepare players for an era where organisations are being rewritten daily, business processes reimagined and the labour market is driven by fusion skills - humans and machines coming together to form new kinds of jobs and work experiences. Game Academy is a tech venture that helps game players make the most of their in-game talent out of game. Using new game analytics, online courses and bootcamps, they help players identify their game and life skills, develop them and link game players to new work and educational opportunities.
Some games like
Factorio and
Satisfactory look like crafting sandboxes but soon become much more than that. You discover that it will take a very long time to extract and craft the necessary resources manually, and the surrounding monsters are not ready to wait. Automated extraction/production lines come to the rescue and their creation is the main mechanic of the game. Learning Factory is a more peaceful version of factory building. You just need to repair the Martian factory to make goods for cute cats. It also provides some links to machine learning.
Other games provide you with tools to minimise your manual labour. In a game like
Stardew Valley, players spend a lot of time watering plants. A lot! But automatic sprinklers save on the grind, greatly simplifying the whole game.
At the other end of the life - and emotional scale - is Graveyard Keeper where you manage a medieval graveyard to get your character to open a portal back to his old world.You have a dozen different activities: gathering resources, brewing drinks, farming and carrying out autopsies - hilarious rather than gruesome tasks, we can assure you. But this is all hard, hard work. Fortunately, there’s a moment when you get the opportunity to create zombies and give them the hard labour. It changes the gameplay dramatically, as well as your fortune and fate.
