Icaria

What sets this game aside from other automation games with more content is the possibility to code the behaviour of ... everything (drones, buildings...). There are two distincts ways to code in the game: block-based and text-based. It gives this game the potential to be a fantastic tool to learn coding while playing. The block-based scripting is quite intuitive and can be used as-is, but the text-based scripting (much more useful skill to learn) sorely lacks documentation. That creates a tall learning cliff that, personally, I have not been able to climb, and the game does not reach its potential at present. I like the game, but the developper needs to address this (to be fair, he has been adding more documentation since release). It is however not there yet. As an alternative to documentation, the developper could give the possibility to convert a block-based script to a text-based script so that players can figure out the syntax. That would at least provide the first few rungs to the ladder needed to climb the learning cliff. Do this, and I will change my review to Positive.

Spent around 10 hours in the demo before playing the full game. It is sad that this game did not attract more attention, and developers suddenly pulled the plug on further development, polishing, and more features. But it is what it is — the game is really special in gameplay and feel, it is addictive and chill. World generation and terraforming are some of the best features, plus interesting and not overcomplicated logistics. The programming part is fun, like puzzle solving. I really like this even if it is limited in a lot of ways, but it adds to the puzzle-solving part. I want to thank the developers for this incredible special experience and beautiful vision in their game. And I hope for more updates and bug fixes, better in-game documentation, and then maybe we'll see some more sales and popularity for Icaria. Good luck to you, Blindsight Games!

I liked the idea. But the 'programming' of the drones is so confusing and things that seem like they should work just don't. After ten minutes in the game a drone just stopped assembling buildings I put down. It should just assemble when I hit the assemble button or 6 on my keyboard but just wouldn't. I could fly it around but it had no roles, no programming, nothing to block it. Just decided not to work. Hopefully these things can get fixed. I looked online for some help on this but there's barely any info except a video on how to do the text programming which I don't need from the devs. Do not buy for now.

This game seems to be in alpha state currently. It's playable, but it's quirky and wonky. There seems to be a lot of potential on it, though. If you do not mind playing a game that could have used another year of polish before being released, and follow its evolution, you can try it. Right now, recipe efficiency is what holds the game back the most, factory-wise. Everything is a huge net negative, and that in a world with "limited" resources. Players will feel pressured to hold back on rare resources to not to run out of those and get progress locked. The second worst offense is how everything is slow. Drones can carry only one item at a time, and you need hundreds of items to make anything. You can micromanage to try to circumvent this, but you're most likely going to just hit the 4x speed button and wait. The script language advertised is still quite simple. It's just a little flow control and half a dozen pre-made commands. You have 2 memory slots, and that's it. You can do stuff with it, just don't come into the game expecting to run a LUA or Python script on it.

Pretty neat game. It combines elements of factory building, terrain manipulation, and programming (think autonauts or The Farmer Was Replaced). I think the UI is just okay and there's some QoL features required to make playing crisp but worth the buy!

When you play the tutorial for 2 hours because you forget it's a tutorial...and a demo...you throw your money and thank the creators for a good time.

Only getting into to, but it checks so many boxes: * program entities, both moving drones and buildings * automation * resources that eventually will run out so one need to move on * blueprints * an interesting system of requests meaning that belts can share item types ... and I have still to start fooling around with liquids.

I've enjoyed the game so far. It feels more advanced than a game like AutoNauts in terms of visual scripting, and it's more about linking processes together than raw scale in say modded Factorio.

Great little game, but frustrating. The documentation is severely lacking. In some ways this is fun, as lots of experimentation is required to figure out how everything works. In other ways this is extremely frustrating, as lots of experimentation is required to figure out how ANYTHING works. The husk mechanics and the endgame are not described anywhere in-game, and explanations on the web are also very scarce at this point, so be prepared to spend a fair amount of time banging your head against a wall if you want to complete this game. Some in-game help is all that's needed to make this a much less frustrating experience. I also think some of the recipes could be better balanced. Power in particular feels overly expensive and makes the game feel grindier than it should. But overall, great fun.

This is kind of cool except when the ui has weird glitches