Digital foundry

Goat Simulator’s creators get real with a dazzlingly dynamic factory builder

Coffee Stain Studios gets real with dazzling factory sim Satisfactory

This time, Coffee Stain is playing by the rules. While its previous project Goat Simulator revelled in going off the rails, Satisfactory is about the pleasure of creating a perfectly interlocking set of your own to ride. Vibrantly coloured, lavishly detailed machinery gleams in the sun in this firstperson open-world building sim. Its art style is a combination of various factors including life studies, art found online and game-engine limitations. “We’ve always had a conflict in mind between machine and nature, hard surface versus organic,” art director Joakim Sjöö says. “I think this will become visible to players as their factories grow bigger and the landscape transforms into industry.”

The aim is to “explore and exploit”, drilling, digging and chainsawing your way through lush alien planets to build the ultimate factory. “We wanted the player to be the factory constructor,” Sjöö says. “Playing the game from ground level, seeing buildings tower above you and exploring the wild in firstperson made so much sense to us.”

Satisfactory is still under construction, though a closed alpha launches on PC this year.