Plenty of previous discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32422522 (Mindustry – Open-Source Game, 135 comments)
Great game, though a bit addictive.
Plenty of previous discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32422522 (Mindustry – Open-Source Game, 135 comments)
Great game, though a bit addictive.
I find the new trend interesting, to sell the game on Steam, but have a link to Github with the actual source. So free for developers and people who care to find out. Thats fair, I think, but I would prefer if the direct donation model would be more established among the masses.
But this link points to the general site, with lots of options and also directly the free version. Kudos. Will try it out later.
That is actually fair idea. I am going to try it with an Android app - paid in G Play Store, free in FDroid.
DAVx⁵ operates under the same principle and they seem to have success with it.
Buying on steam is a donation basically? Why is it not?
It might have been free on Play Store a few years ago when I tried it, maybe just very cheap. I was looking for a fun game on my Amazon tablet after installing Play Store, and Mindustry delivered.
That's not because you didn't know about it that it is a "new trend"
https://github.com/Poussinou/FLOSS-Games-on-Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38475471-Libre-Open-S...
It's nothing new, and also exist in the tooling side of things
https://store.steampowered.com/app/431730/Aseprite/ - https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite
It’s because it’s sold on Steam mostly for the features that directly integrate with Steam (like joining friend’s games). If you don’t care about that, the game is free :)
If someone has played both this and Factorio, could you possibly compare the 2 games? Thank you!
After a combined 1000 hours between the two, I find Factorio easier and much more satisfying. Factorio's base building is very explicit, while Mindustry's is very limiting. The main reason for me saying this is that in Mindustry all production buildings output their goods in all directions which makes it really annoying to design efficient layouts. It's also harder to play co-op in Mindustry because the maps are so small. Maybe my preference would be swapped if I had played Mindustry first rather than Factorio, but whenever I play Mindustry I think "wow I'd rather just play Factorio".
Mindustry is still awesome though, especially considering that it's open source.
Mindustry encourages compact designs due to limited space in levels where factorio has infinite space that encourages sprawling designs. In that context, the all-side output is critical for Mindustry's compact layouts.
I find Mindustry layouts a lot less tedious compared to inserters everywhere and I greatly prefer the Mindustry conveyor flow controls.
I do wish Mindustry added another transportation layer where physical transport between sectors was required rather than generic space launches. It would give a much more cohesive feeling to the various levels.
In mindustry you build smaller factories, mostly to power turrets/build units to attack an AI. Focus is on tower defense. Logistics is cute but minimalistic. Each level takes 30-60 min on a casual play though.
Factorio is much more in depth on logistics and is a single "level". Takes 30-60 hours on a casual first playthrough.
Mindustry is great on mobile. The resource aspect is quite simple compared to Factorio - drills never run out of a resource, for example. But you can make some fairly complex bases - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/02/mindustry-scrap-to-everythi...
Mindustry is more "Tower Defence" focused. Waves of enemies attack and you have to build turrets to stop them. As the game progresses, you can build units which can attack the enemy's base - so it become a bit of an RTS game.
So there is a superficial similarity to Factorio - discover and unlock new things, build a base - but it is much more focused on the attack/defend paradigm.
The difference is what the primary focus of the game is, I think.
Mindustry is a tower defense game that uses factory style base building as added spice.
Factorio is a base building game that adds some tower defense elements as added spice.
Mindustry is more arcade and tower defense, with scenarios instead of an infinite map and a meta progression between scenarios where you unlock tech.
Mindustry is such a great game. I sunk tons of hours in both campaigns with a friend of mine.
For those who come from a Factorio background, Mindustry has less automation and more combat. Also a Mindustry map does not take 50 hours to complete; rather it will take a few hours and may sometimes take several tries as some maps can be fairly hard. Space is limited as compared to Factorio, so space-efficient designs do matter, especially for defense (you want to pack towers tightly, with the constraint that towers must be fed by a conveyor of ammo or a pipe of liquid, or both). You also need to consider that you often need different combinations of towers in order to defeat different types of enemies.
Overall, a very well-made game and very addictive.
Sounds like something I might try. Factorio has a tower defense element that never really works because the attacks are too small, my base is too large, and I always just wipe out the biter camps. That's an aspect of the game that clearly needs a lot more challenge, but lots of players just ignore it and build.
For my first half-dozen tries, I always built may bases far too compact. I really had to learn to use the space available to me. A game that rewards compact building might be just for me.
You have the difficulty sliders and the death world preset and an entire enemies tag on https://mods.factorio.com. What more do you want?
Mods are great, but they generally lack cohesion. I agree with OP. I wish that instead of passive upgrades and only a couple tower/ammo variants, the game had a deeper tower defense aspect.
It'd be nice to have more enemy and tower variants, with certain types of towers working better against certain types of enemies - or towers that debuff enemies instead of hurting them. Maybe there could be structures that attract nearby enemies so it'd be easier to direct where attacks hit.
I think stuff like that would keep the tower defense stuff from loosing relevancy in the late game while staying fun.
I should suggest warptorio here: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/warptorio2
It makes you optimize for different things which is why I prefer it to Factorio even if the tech and crafting tree is less developed.
Mindustry is fantastic. Played the Erekir campaign twice. I didn’t like the Serpulo campaign. It’s almost like two different games.
Erekir is automation plus RTS. Serpulo is automation plus tower defense.
I'm the opposite. Longtime Serpulo fan who really enjoyed the game and just can't stand the Erekir RTS style game at all. I don't want to build or direct troops in a Factorio game. That's literally the opposite of what I want.
Bummed at the direction of the game and how they abandoned Serpulo as they pivoted. Serpulo never got finished/balanced and likely never will now.
I don't want to build or direct troops in a Factorio game.
You won't like upcoming Industrial Annihilation then probably.
I enjoyed Planetary Annhilation and this game claims you can let the AI do all of the RTS and just base build, so I would enjoy it.
"Build impressively productive bases as your primary focus and delegate advanced artificial intelligences to do the fighting for you. Or, roll up your sleeves, and get hands-on by leading the real-time strategy action yourself."
If in Mindustry the AI completely controlled the units, I would be fine with that.
I am just long past my 200 action per minute starcraft RTS clicking days. Hyper-controlling individual units is not a fun meta.
Me too - I've almost finished my second play through Serpulo, but Erekir didn't click with me at all.
--
My one observation/criticism is that as you progress through the game, it shifts through different stages, making the game very different to play:
Early - essentially start from nothing (or very little) on each map, balance mining and infrastructure development while simultaneously protecting yourself
Mid - usually not feasible to start from nothing, but taking resources with you to a new map often makes winning very easy
Late - you absolutely have to rely on massive external resources to stand a chance, meaning you have to spend a lot of time developing the infrastructure to ship resources to wherever you're playing next. (Also, the code that 'ships' resources between sectors seems unreliable and maybe buggy.)
I really enjoy the challenge of balancing within 'early'; mid is a lot duller, as is the infrastructure development.
I think it’s nice that you can do both. There’s also ways you can turn Serpulo into RTS if you gather enough guys :)
Does it make sense to publish Deb packages for this game?
Also this commit: https://github.com/Anuken/Mindustry/commit/5548e727501793479...
While I agree that commit message could benefit from punctuation for readability, the change diff itself seems quite reasonable.
It’s 6 words long, there’s no point in punctuation.
why punctuate your nine word post
Mirrors exactly my feelings on Android development.
I would love to see a video of the game, perhaps that would be a good idea for the home page.
YouTube has thousands of Mindustry gameplay videos.
I for one would rather not have to click through heaps of grimace-faced thumbnails, "heeeyyy guuuys" and the other .. idiosyncrasies of the content-creator industrial complex just to get a frickin' glimpse of the gameplay.
So a short official clip would make a nice amendment to the homepage.
I just think it's a good idea for a game's website to have a video of the gameplay.
You may have missed it since it's midway down the page but it has a Steam offering and those almost always come with video (as is the case here, too): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127400/Mindustry/
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have any resources / tips on how to build your own tower defense game with multiplayer? Been deving for a very long time, but game dev feels like a completely different beast.
I feel like mindustry is a great example of just trying something.
If you were to ask this question in a game dev forum, people probably wouldn't recommend you to look at Java and yet mindustry uses Java and made it work.
I guess something along the lines of JavaScript with Websockets would also work really well and you wouldn't have to worry about building for different platforms. Research some options for JS game engines and get cracking (possibly with copilot, it's not too bad at getting one started).
I think it's entirely feasible for you to have a working prototype before the new year rolls around.
And mindustry does it really well in Java. The game doesn't use much cpu, even on large maps and runs on windows, mac (including apple silicon). Graphics looks good too
This is funny to me and maybe worth mentioning. In prison they charge inmates for this game on the tablets, is that legal? It's AccessCorrections or Access something, I know for a fact, I played it for years and now hate it because of the associations it draws for my uneuphoric recall of doing time. They also charge for Andors Trail, another open source project.
Just curious, but was it an US prison ? I have trouble seeing them allowing the prisoners to play game. Also, how are the prisoners supposed to make money to pay for the game ?
Thanks in advance.
There are paid jobs in the prison for the inmates. They are not very good, but it's a thing. You can also send funds to an inmate's commissary account, if somebody you care about is in there.
Its PvP mode is also excellent. You can complete both defense and offense by laying supply lines. It's possible to ambush the opponent's supply lines as well, gaining a significant advantage on the front lines before the enemy detects the disruption in the power facility and logistics system. This is what I consider one of the most important characteristics of a real-time strategy (RTS) game.
It would be better if one could steal expensive components from the opponent's conveyor belt (like processors in Factorio)
Had no idea it was OSS! Regardless, I have 0 regrets paying for the game, absolutely amazing one.
It's one of the only games I play! I have it on Android and one thing I like is that it's fast to open up and play a bit, save, and then quit. No ads or a bunch of intros to try to skip, etc.
Looks quite nice, and brownie points for Java.
I bought this game after playing the open source variant for some time. It was just what I wanted, because Factorio isn't focused so much on defence, but this is. The game underwent a huge overhaul and is much more fleshed out. I need to get back to it and try and complete the campaign.
Mindustry was a great game prior to the campaign rework, which in my opinion made things harder to progress and really enjoy. But if you've never played it, I still really recommend it as it's a cross between lighter factorio and a tower defense game.
Also on Flathub: https://flathub.org/en-GB/apps/com.github.Anuken.Mindustry
Thanks for the warning, I suppose it is - and that's why I stick to my guns and won't play it. Since playing Age of Empires II online around 2000 took such a heavy toll on my study habits to achieve a 2000+ rating at the time, my mantra goes by the saying: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". ;)
And here I am, a new player of Factorio and wishing I stuck to my prevention. On another note my factory is growing!
Do not install Space Exploration mode! Save yourself 400 hours.
Hmm, I had to google this mod [1]. Seems really cool, but it also does sound a whole lot like the factorio expansion [2], so what is going on here?
(I been eagerly awaiting the factorio expansion for a while now!)
1: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-exploration
2: https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/factorio-expansion-space-...
The factorio team hired the person behind the space exploration mod to integrate it into factorio.
Earendel was employed by Wube in February 5, 2021
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-365
They hired the mod creator (as an artist) and, from the Factorio Friday Facts blog posts[1], the expansion has some inspiration from the space mod but is not the same.
[1] https://www.factorio.com/blog/
Oh, that is amazing! Thanks for pointing me to the blog!
The mod is older, and they hired the modder to work on the expansion. From the blog posts the expansion is a lot closer to vanilla then the complex mods.
Wait for the official Space DLC and all the 2.0 QoL improvements next year instead!
Don't look at Dyson Sphere Program.
It’s funny how saying a game is addictive makes many people want to try it, but people like you and me take it as a warning. For me it’s because I succumb to addictions more easily than most.
A very long time ago, my dad prepared me for this risk by buying Civilization just before my high school final exam. I graduated with 268% on Emperor.