Lifecraft

I want to like this game so much, it's unique, no doubt, but grabbing things is a masterful work of frustration. Dropping items on other things requires multiple clicks sometimes to get it to drop (no, it's not my mouse). And pathing problems continue to plague this game. It really is a cool, new take on basebuilding/automation games, but it's interface and controls are abysmal and make me want to stab myself with an IV.

This game sounds like a great idea. It seems like the gameplay mechanics are great, and the real-world science is connected. So why am I reviewing this negatively? Well, the UI in this game is simply unbearable. I spent 40 minutes struggling through the tutorial, where when I figured something out, it wasn't a satisfying feeling, but a "you actually mean I had to hit THAT button?" Other things like a lack of inventory for most items and having to spend a long time figuring out where the yellow subunits are contributed, but the big thing was the UI, making my experience with the tutorial much longer and unpleasant. I will continue to play this game since as I said, I think the mechanics and theme are good, but that UI is definitely going to take some effort. Edit: While I think this was slightly too negative of a review, something I want to point out after further play is that some items you need won't be in your starting area. The item I need to expand was not in the starting area across my 2 games.

This game is not recommended in its current state, though it likely will be much better later. The ideas in this game are brilliant, and it is the start of something great, but currently, it's just too slow and tedious. Ideally in a factory/automation game you'd want to do manual work (going around the map clicking on things) once, or at worst once per resource, but you will in fact be doing that hours into the game, especially to speed up research. I understand this pacing is likely an artifact of the lack of content, the shallowness of the tech tree so far, trying to extend what is there somewhere towards the length of a normal game, but it just makes it unfun; I'd rather be done with the current content in a few hours and put the game on a "check later" list, than sit through tedium.

This game has an astronomical amount of potential in the automation genre and I really hope it gets more traction and popularity. I am surprised I was able to find it on Steam with how niche it seems to be currently. The bowsers inside story esque art style is gorgeous, and the core is here. UX could use some more work, particularly if the game is going to get proper steam deck support (which it is a fantastic candidate for) Wishing the developers best of luck in bringing this game to the forefront of the genre. Even if not all the way there yet it certainly deserves more success than it is seeing currently

Dans le monde de l'automatisation qui apporte un gameplay innovant, je nomme Lifecraft. Vous retrouverez toutes les mécaniques de l'automatisation (récupération et transformation de matière première, expansion de l'usine, goulot d'étranglement, etc) mais les développeur ont décidé d'utiliser le fonctionnement cellulaire comme base. Vous retrouverez donc toutes les interactions cellulaires de la plus simple à la plus complexe dans ce jeu. Il est encore en développement avec des mises à jour très régulières et la roadmap promet une grande diversité à venir. Pour tout ceux qui aime l'automatisation, je recommande ce jeu sans restriction.

Great game! You should try this out if you like factory games and are a firm enjoyer of Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell.

I love the theme for this genre. I always wanted a game where you are just a cell trying to make things work and survive. Enter Lifecraft! I really enjoy the game, i've been following this game from alpha back in the itch.io times, then playtested! (first time!) The gameplay loop is tight. Build small only to build big throughout the progression. One big grip I had from before 0.1.0 was that once you get your basic cell stuff automated, starting with mitochondria and ATP generation felt like a steep spike in difficulty (think blue circuits in factorio). Not having my krebs cycle up to date didn't help and I stopped playing there because I didn't know what to do. Thankfully though, the devs added a guide for just that and other processes and now i feel confident to explore the rest of the game that I shut down for myself because I didn't know how to progress. The music and the graphics + the game go really together and for a team of two this is quite the accomplishment. I can only imagine what they have for us in the long run :) Buyer beware: if you feel lost, the tutorial really prepares you for the game, even if not directly, it teaches you the basics and that applies to pretty much every chain of production, you only need to learn/figure out the 'higher' processes, which has an infographic on how to tackle them.

Running perfectly on Linux. Massive potential, gorgeous pixel art. Some of the negatives may be correct as of now, but the devs seem devoted to continually listening to feedback and working towards their vision. I plan on buying this for a few friends once co-op is added. After early access I think this will be a factory builder required for anyone that likes factory builders.

Decided to give this another go after a recent update and have been having so much fun! Yes it's a bit clunky UI wise still, but there is so much potential here and I just love the theme of building your own living organism.

Really interesting game, it's early in development so at the moment it doesn't take much to reach an end-game like state, at least whatever you might consider such. I like the new and interesting approach to the automation/factory building genre, it's worth a try for sure; id say the game has a lot to offer in the early game, and there's a lot of interesting things to get into for the mid-to-late game, however I don't venture that far, as the current time and resource cost of expanding the organism is so high that it kills off my desire to keep playing once that becomes more necessary; I imagine that will be balanced far better in the future and give me the desire to expand so that I can invest the time to explore all of the interesting mechanics the game has to offer. Even then, i've gotten a good amount of enjoyment playing through the earlier game and will continue to watch it's development as time goes on.