Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure

EDIT: I have played the game up until Tier 6 and I have added some more points in this review. Unfortunately, I still find the game disappointing in several important aspects. ======================================================================= It's a cozy and good-looking game with lots of flair and charm to it. However, if you are like me, looking for a game to play with efficiency and good layout, you will find this game to be disappointing and quite frustrating at times because of the inherent limitations in the mechanics as I will list them below: - Rather than conveyor belts, the game instead uses Sparks (Pikmin-esque creatures) as the main mode of logistics and moving things around. Additionally, you also use 2-way dirt paths as the conveyor belt path for your Sparks. In theory, this is really nice and original. In practice, this leaves a lot to be desired. Feeding items into machines require you to always feed from the right side of a path which isn't a big deal at first but it adds an added layer of complexity in the middle to later stages of the game that borders more on being frustrating rather than being challenging. Sparks also have collision with one another and this causes a great deal of traffic jams on splitters and junctions in between your dirt paths. This also means that in order to maximize the resource node output, you have to invest dozens of Sparks to carry the items around for you, and this scales to how far the dirt paths are as well, so one can only imagine how much investment is really needed to maximize the resource output. - Because of the issues with Sparks & Dirt Roads, you cannot get 100% efficiency in output no matter how hard you try. Splitters and Junctions on the road are unavoidable at the later stages of the game and it causes so much jams and issues that you'd rather use several resource output buildings (like loggers) at excess rather than use one to its full 100% efficiency. - The recipe progressions do not make sense. More often than not, you are forced to start from a new resource output location rather than build on your existing layout because the recipes do not have a good flow to them. Add to the fact that laying out your existing paths is very tedious, progressing feels daunting and frustrating rather than it is rewarding. - Automation is greatly limited by how Sparks and Paths work. In games like Factorio, Satisfactory, or Shapez 2, you can have a setup where several different resources nodes from across the map would converge into a centralized manufactoring/assembly hub. This doesn't work here in Oddsparks because of how Sparks and Paths work. You are forced to make specialized locations that produce a specific item then you have to travel around teleporters to collect these items and manually feed them into your other machines. The alternative would be to spend 100s of Sparks to go accross the map and carry the items for you which is completely out of the question. - The "Pikmin mechanic" quickly wears off its charm. In the beginning, when not a lot is going on, the Sparks are really quirky and fun to command around. When you come to the point where you want to produce in scale, controlling Sparks become a nightmare to manage, especially on controller. - The map is very constraining with so many cliffs and early-game unbreakable objects. You want to make the dirt paths as close to the resource nodes as possible (to minimize Sparks to assign) but you also want to give yourself as much space to work with for your production buildings. Building around such constraining terrain is very frustrating. It doesn't help that ramps and elevators only get unlocked at Tier 4 so you are stuck having to navigate through terrain inefficiently in the early to middle stages of the game. Currently, I am about to unlock Tier 5 tech but at Tier 4 I feel like I've already hit a point where it already feels frustrating rather than fun. I dread unlocking new tech because I don't want to set up another Logger-to-Workbenches setup all over again in another area of the map. Hopefully, I am still missing a couple of important tech that would actually make the game much more manageable but currently I am no longer having fun with the logistics part of the game. ================= ADDED THOUGHTS AFTER SEVERAL MORE HOURS INTO THE GAME =============================================================== So I've played around a few hours more as I'm willing to give the game another chance and I've come to the point where I've unlocked trains, haulers, and stone paths now. I've picked up a few techniques like interspacing paths with crates and boxes to help with the pathing issues and other small but useful techniques (after having read the user guides here on steam) and have applied them to my layouts and builds. These have helped tremendously. Unfortunately, I still think that the fundamental flaws are present even after having unlocked these. In the beginning, I kept thinking why there's something about this game that makes it much less appealing than other games like Factorio and Satisfactory. I kept thinking what that is but I just can't put my finger on it, for some reason. Having played a few more hours, I believe I have found exactly why this is so. I think its the flow of progression that is really weird with Oddsparks, most specifically with unlocking new resources. In Factorio and Satisfactory, once you've unlocked a new tech (Oil for example), you already have at your disposable everything you need to build off of an existing resource node. You will most likely unlock a resource collector, a resource processor, and a final product processor within the same tech tier. In Oddsparks, it works very, very differently. When you unlock new tech, the game wants you to go out of your way and MANUALLY collect the new resources first. With the new resources, only then can you craft the necessary parts to craft the actual resource collectors from the nodes and only then can you start automating the process. This is especially apparent with new Spark unlocks because when you unlock a new spark shrine, you have to go through the initial trouble of manually feeding that shrine to create a bunch of sparks because you won't have unlocked the tech to the new resource collectors prior to that. It became really apparent to me when I had to complete a quest by delivering a bunch of new sparks in order to unlock the tech for a resource collector. I think fundamentally, this was an intended design by the devs in order to make the Pikmin-esque gameplay of running around and collecting items still relevant even in the later stages of the game. Back in Satisfactory, when I've unlocked Oil tech, I immediately have access to an automatic Oil refinery and I can start the automation process as soon as I locate an Oil well. Here in Oddsparks, I unlock Tier 4 which requires 100 Limestones but I don't have any means of automatically collecting Corals (requirement for limestone and need around 130) so I have to manually go around the map and farm these manually first, only to find out that automated Limestone harvesting is unlocked at Tier 5. At that point, I mentally checked-out and I am on the verge of just giving up on the game now. I honestly think that if the game was simply named "ODDSPARKS" rather than "ODDSPARKS: AN AUTOMATION GAME" I would have not been as disappointed as I am now. Maybe the game just isn't for me or maybe I was expecting something else entirely and my expectations are too high. But I have played Factorio, Satisfactory, Shapez 2, Dyson Sphere Project, and many other games like this and all I can say is I never felt the feeling of "Oh no, I'm about to unlock a new tech now" playing those games than when I played Oddsparks. For now, I'll see if I can still give this game a chance but as of the moment I am simply reinstalling Factorio again because I want to get that automation fix properly.

A really charming and fun fusion of Factorio and Pikmin that gladly wears its inspirations on its sleeves. I think if you're approaching this game as a 1-to-1 to other factory builders, you're going to be disappointed; it's difficult-to-impossible to achieve 100% efficiency due to your factory lines being manned by creatures that need to go from point A to point B to transport materials, rather than conveyor lines. If you're cool with taking it casually and operating more on "vibes-based" factory building, though, I think Oddsparks will appeal to you a lot.

Oddsparks: an automation nightmare is a combination of pikmin and automation games yet both aspects are poorly implemented. Pikmins in this game are called "sparks" and there are many of them with different stats. Some are good at carrying stuff, some are good at crafting. Some can cut trees, some can break boulders. Some are good at fighting, some are good at supporting. Concept is cool but it gets stale pretty quick. Most of the time you'll be using them to clear obstructions for your production facilities. There are no puzzle aspects. Some of them have niche uses that you will use once or twice and never again probably. Combat is dull, mostly rushing to enemies all at once and calling them back before they die. Some enemies require strategizing and getting right combinations of sparks but after the first few fights it becomes repetitive. Automation part starts poorly as you will spend quite a bit of time trying to understand spark behavior, pathing and trying to optimize factory layouts by experimenting, finally realizing it is impossible to make a max performance production line with what you've given at the start. Too much sparks on paths? You get traffic jams. Too few of them? System barely works. Splitters, bridges? More the messier as they slow sparks down and get congested. Also some buildings can only be placed on certain locations, thus further preventing pathway optimization.  Item production amounts per minute is also extremely awkward and often causes confusion. For example one workstation produces item "x" at a rate of... 5.6 per minute? Why pick such a weird number? Another station requires item "x" at 3.8 per minute... It feels like they want me to make a 2:3 set up here but if the numbers are correct then i can't supply 3 of these (11.4) with 2 stations (11.2). Even if production was slightly higher you couldn't build such a setup because there will be efficiency loss during conveying without getting some later tier sparks like haulers. So you give up trying to maximize outputs and build "barely efficient" work stations until the game gives you the right tools in later tiers. This feels completely unsatisfactory. Resource distribution at the beginning is pretty rich so you may forgive inefficient builds for some time, 'til you progress through quests, reach higher tiers, use all nodes in starting area and realize that most resource nodes are clustered together in different parts of the map. Imagine satisfactory but all iron mines are in the west and all copper mines are in the east. You want to create a product that requires wood, stone and a few ancient bases? Well good fucking luck finding a place all three are close by. Even if you do, you will get more complex recipes that will require more resources. Only sensible solution to this is to make huge railway networks, and if you don't want to spend hours trying to figure out signalization to avoid your trains crashing into each other, you will be building lots of ugly loops of railroads. Don't forget to make fueling stations for each one too! Automation at later stages of the game is not getting nicer either. It becomes so frustrating and tedious that i can barely keep up with it without taking breaks. Unlike other factory games where "one more production line" mentality makes hours fly, every time i unlock a new stuff to mass produce i feel burned out and mentally prepare for the next abomination of a production line. Currently at tier 8, i can't stomach to make nonsensical regurgitation of garden/plant extractor chains and feedback loops game wants me to put together. I'm done. If you like pikmin solely for combat aspect, don't care about efficiency in your factories, love traffic jams and endless network of railroads then you would like this game. Otherwise, there are much better automation games to sink your hours into.

As someone who both loves automation games and always leans towards "summoner" type playstyles in any game that supports it, this game is an amazing experience that lets me scratch both itches at once! Best described as an automation game where you use an army of magic little dudes to move items from place to place or solve various other problems, it has a good difficulty curve for something on the "cozier" end of the automation genre, and the crafting trees are never too annoyingly "complex for the sake of being complex" like you see in other automation games like Captain of Industry. It definitely feels different to use "creatures on a path" instead of conveyor belts like in other games, but it's easy to get the hang of and feels nice to use and is a good change of pace once you master the paths and different path addons. The combat in the game is a rather simple pikmin style combat, where most enemies have a unique gimmick that you have to engage with. There is also an endgame tower defence style section that has a similar vibe to factorio's base defence, while still working well with its own combat system. I would say, however, that up until then, combat is definitely not the "main" focus of the game unless you like to make a lot of mob farms. With the world settings released in 1.0, each playthrough is also highly customizable, allowing you to change things like how fast buildings make stuff, enemy respawn rate, combat difficulty, weather you start with the ability to place certain "unique" buildings anywhere, or even weather you can modify the terrain. The game also has a very nicely done and consistent art style that fits very well with the vibe of the game, and also a nice variety of character customization options! All in all, if you like automation games and you'd like a game where you can command little minions, I would very much recommend this game! Edit: Unfortunately this game suffers from some serious performance issues late game. After some investigating on the game's community discord, it appears that the game doesn't use more than 1 CPU core. For a factory game I don't understand this decision, and it means that even with my CPU that can handle late game satisfactory and factorio, Oddsparks is a challenge, and I get some very stuttery gameplay in the late game. This doesn't bother me too much to change from recommended, but keep this in mind if you don't have the CPU of a NASA supercomputer. Lastly, I see a lot of bad reviews for this game that complain about things that were either fixed in 1.0, can be customized with world settings (Such as one of the main resources, aether, not being automatable. Buddy, just read the quest logs and use a spark thrower. You can also automate this resource the traditional way later on. Combat too grindy? There's a world setting for that. Terrain annoying you? There's a world setting for that. Don't like running around to complete quests? Supply chests early world setting.) or are just plain silly. I get if the game is not their type, but this game has a disproportionate amount of reviews about stuff where their issue is either fixable with the click of a button, or isn't an issue at all. Another bad review I see a lot (which is very on the edge of not following steam's community guidelines, I might add) is people complaining about "raaawr LGBT+ in your face!" See, there's a set of LGBT flag cape styles that you have to unlock at the completely optional cosmetics NPC. If you don't unlock it, it doesn't appear in your customization menu. Quite literally as far out of your face as possible. The only way it can be "in their faces" is if they're running around wearing the cosmetics they complain about. The bad reviewers also comment a lot about "unrealistic diversity" when it's been mentioned by the devs that the NPCs were based on/inspired by the dev team themselves. What are the devs supposed to do, change their genetics? But hey, maybe the army of magic sentient logs in this game can listen to their complaints about "realism". If one is still on the fence about this game after seeing bad reviews, it has a very active discord server and a helpful community that can help and answer questions!

Looks good, but lategame is a nightmare to play. WTF is this digging mechanic? And the poor Aether automation really feels after 20h, that i am still in the tutorial. This makes all builds feel "temporary". May be because of the other automation games, Oddsparks feels off. May be its not a bad system, but i can't shake the sense of wrongness. Imagine Factorio, but you can't automate enough power AND belts... Get it on sale and try to approach it with an open mind.

Just not a very engaging automation game. A bit too clunky and grindy in quite a boring way due to poor control schemes and a tiny player inventory/spark capacity.

This is a refreshing take on the automation genre. I in particular like that each zone comes with its own challenges rather than just more and more automation. I find the different sparks quite imaginative in gameplay application, and while some are an upgrade of the other, none of the them feel like they're losing their purpose. The quest system is quite novel for these type of games and it's a little different from the usual 'make 1000 antbutts before advancing to the next stage' All in all I quite enjoyed it!

Interesting concept bringing the storyline of a game like Stardew Valley and combining it with a factory builder game. However the gameplay and control scheme is a bit clunky.

It's an original concept but it misses the mark, unfortunately. It's nice and has charm, but you really can't automate at scale due to how its mechanics are designed. It's more frustrating than stimulating, and it gets worse as you progress. Just read the negative review from a guy called Taxman, posted on 1 June. It sums up the issues perfectly.

At first, the game is fun and cute. The pikmin style sparks and the unique path system (instead of conveyor belts) is refreshing at first because it makes you think a little differently than a lot of other automation style games. The problem though, is the pacing. The game forces you to stop working on your factory and to go explore. Then you get access to something new -- but you won't have access to all the stuff you need to start using it. The progress feels unrewarding, the pacing is very disjointed. Just let me automate!!

tl;dr- the game is too grindy and not enough fun. It's a Pikmin clone, and honestly there's reasons why Pikmin-Like is not a genre of game. The combat is terribly clunky and unresponsive as a result, and combat is key to progression, so everytime you need to progress, it's a chore. This was Early Access, of course, and while I give props to the devs for actually launching into 1.0 with a feature complete game, they fell prey to the other problem with Early Access- they had an echo chamber of niche player feedback they catered to that has made the tech tree overly complicated and the game mechanics utterly tedious and cumbersome. Full Automation is difficult to achieve until late in the game, so it's very grindy, and the quotas for progress are far too high for this restriction, and once you can automate things, the production tree is too many steps to just get your hands on a regular source of the single most common needed resource in the game- Aether. Even then, a single respawn of a random mob off the edge of the screen can destroy your entire supply chain because of the dumb mechanics cascading to wipe out all of your supply chain sparks. And you never get to quality of life automation or solutions to simple, persistent problems that you encounter from the very start. Defenses consist entirely of a scarecrow. It's cute, it works, but it's designed poorly and for masochists, and they completely missed the mark for fun. Combat is bad, plain and simple, just like in Pikmin. Early Access ruined another game. These devs won't get a second chance with me, but hey, I sure hope that handful of EA backers you catered to keep your lights on for you.

pretty simple, laidback automation game. not too many products, and progression basically revolves around make enough X to show you automated it, unlocking Y. Repeat. Just the gimmick of the game is that your conveyor belts are minions/pikmin. Unfortunately the pikmin-y part is downplayed to the point of nonexistence, mostly just simple combat.

A true hidden gem. Genuinely unbelievable how high quality and polished this game is. Fluid intuitive controls with both mouse/keyboard as well as controller. Little to no bugs. Art style and sound design is beautifully congruent. The gameplay is complex but simple, in all the best ways. Really glad I found this one!

I love this game! If you like factory type games with adventure then try this. I never give perfect 10's so I will give this game a 9.99999999999/10 because it is so addictive.

Fantastic game that felt like I was playing pikmin in a really nice version of factorio. It was a bit more fuzzy towards the edges of optimization so it felt far more chill than other factory builders but just as deep with very satisfying progression. Got to the end once all unorganized, said eff it and just restarted the whole game again. So 2 runs later and im still praising it. Well worth the buy

This is honestly one of the best automation/strategy’ish game I’ve ever played. The pacing and variety of tools is fantastic… and I know there is stuff I haven’t found yet. Controller support is great too, I actually prefer plugging in a controller on PC. Very well done quality of life controls.

This is a cozy variant of Factorio, with Pikmin-like unique-purpose creatures (Sparks). As a result, instead of having treadmills you have routes where Sparks need to walk along to transport items. This creates all sorts of interesting little problems: how do you commission/decommission Sparks on paths, how do you automate "farming monsters". All of this is led by quests that force you to engage with all the main systems, and optional quests that invite you to engage with cool systems like logical programming of automation. This is apparently never on the main quest path, for people who dislike logic. It's just a great game to unwind to while still engaging your brain a little.

Pretty fun. Cute take on factory sim game. I don't see myself putting in more than a few dozen hours, but a decent game at its price point. Some things I like: - Cute art style. Made this easy for my SO, who doesn't play factory games, to get into - Interesting biomes - Using creatures instead of conveyors, as well as operators of machines is cool. Reminds me a little of Palworld. - Relatively simply logistics system. Requires some thinking, but you probably won't need an Excel spreadsheet - Progression always felt engaging, and new tasks haven't felt daunting. Some things I think need some work: - Logistics is clunky early and splitters don't work great. Devs had said this is part of the puzzle, but this isn't a fun puzzle to solve. Mostly frustrating. I think this could be solved by simply adding overpasses or tunnels. - Controls are a bloody mess. 1, 2, t, and g get mixed up all the time. Not intuitive whatsoever. - Buildings are very samey. From a quick glace, all wood buildings look identical. I think it's really important to be able to quickly distinguish buildings at a glace based on art style. I know we can sort of fix this ourselves using paint, but we shouldn't have to. Designs should be entirely unique. - Camera can't zoom out far enough, and you have a forced perspective in which you cannot change the pitch of the camera. Due to needing a lot of space because of clunky logistics pathing, I can usually only see about 10-12 buildings on screen at any time. - This last point is really minor, and I'm not even sure it's possible, but when fast travelling, the loading screen kinda sucks. I wish it would simply blink you somewhere else and and your camera would rapidly pan to the new location. I'm not really sure what is even being loaded, as a part of the map is already rendered on the host machine when playing multiplayer, so I'm not sure why this is. Likely something with game design I simply don't understand. After 20 odd hours into the game, I feel like I'm progressing, but spending a little too much time fighting with clunky/poorly implemented systems and controls. I got this game for about $25 CAD, but I don't think I'd pay $40 for this. Factorio is $45, Satisfactory is $50. If you're looking for a factory sim as the main selling factor, I'd recommend the other 2 games. If you're looking for something easy, low stakes, low barrier to entry, this might be it. 7/10.

This game exceeded my expectations. It manages to be unique and compelling beyond the elevator pitch of "cute factory game but with walking paths and pikmin whistling." I enjoyed my beat-the-game playthrough and completing the quests and setting up a giant realm-spanding one direction rail line. I don't think this game competes with the extended playthroughs and tweaking and tinkering that a certain factory game with almost 10 years of QoL and usability features provides. However, co-op performance needs to be addressed. While working on tier 8 or 9 as the non-host my typical framerate went all the way down to 15 FPS on an i7-12700. In-game graphics settings had virtually no effect. Going around and removing old production lines and all spark activators brought me back to a playable 30 FPS, which isn't great but at least it's not nauseating. By the time we beat the game my FPS was back down to 15 FPS, even though we only added the slime farms and final challenge. Loading the same post-game save file solo brings me to 30 FPS, so something isn't right.

After few hours of gaming, I think i won't continue for now The concept is fun but the game is really too restrictive You have to fill the quest, one or two at a time The controls are really annoying when you try to build something It could be a lot easier Inventory is too small But the game have potential, I will come back probably later, hoping for some "quality of gaming" update

Great automation fun, after an hour im starting to see the potential. The prologue and beginning quests are kind of long but a great intro to all the mechanics. After about an hour im getting some refiners and belts / roads so now im starting to see it come together. - Review continues (Read On)... Other enjoyable aspects are the procedural generation, world settings, graphics, character customization, achievements, and combat. Also has built-in mod support and multiplayer! Furthermore it really teaches complex mechanics well with all the in game journals and such. Im sure ill put 50+ hours into this or so i already like it alot and im barely scratching the surface. This game has so much potential to be huge. Id highly recommend it. Also you can play with friends! - Areas of improvement... Music gets repetitive please add more. Dialogue boxes when talking to NPC are way too big for the amount of text in them. Increase the pace in the beginning intro sections. It felt like a long drag a bit just to get the essentials. Other than that ive enjoyed everything so far i think this is a must play with huge potential!

The automations are somewhat different to those in Factorio or Satisfactory thanks to the Pikmin-like mechanics and the lack of conveyors, but are very satisfying either way, and provide their own unique challenges. I just set up automatic creation of all the creatures available within the first biome, and am really looking forward to the next challenges! Oh and yeah, there are some flags in the (completely ignorable) cosmetics. Along with many other cosmetics that aren't flags. It's so ridiculous to review-bomb the game because of it.

My first several hours I was convinced it was a 7/10 game. But slowly as I started to understand a few tricks and tips I really started to get into it. It's much deeper than it'd first appear, and much more a 9/10. It's a very good game worth your time if you like automation games. (The majority of negative reviews seem to be from people mad you can wear rainbow colors in the game. Never once heard anyone complain about the main character from Factorio.)

[h1]What I liked[/h1] - [b]Cute artstyle and noises:[/b] I like how the game looks. The sparks look cute and make some funny noises. The animations when they are working at a station are also funny. They are just facerolling a button. - [b]Clear automation:[/b] The UI for the buildings and making production pipelines is pretty clear and straightforward. [h1]What I didn’t like[/h1] [b]Starting grind[/b]: The start of these automation games is usually a bit of a grind. It’s not different in this game. I’m not sure how to solve it. Maybe the requirements for quests should just be lower. [b]Beelephant fight[/b]: I didn't feel like I had a lot of control over fighting the Beelephant. I was just throwing sparks at him and waking up my stunned sparks. Thankfully later on you unlock more commands to make the fight easier. [b]City Monument[/b]: I completly missed that I could complete objectives at the monument in the city and was looking around what to do to progress. [h1]Why others should try it[/h1] It’s a cute little automation game with a unique twist. Kind of like Pikmin + an automation game. I’m curious to check it out more. I have not checked the multiplayer yet but that could add some more fun.

Cute game. Conceptually it's fine. But I find it to be sloppy in terms of what it wants to achieve as a factory game. The transportation of materials is very frustrating with items needing to be delivered on the right side of the path. The creatures you use for transportation are painfully slow when carrying items on paths so you would need a ton of them to fully saturate a production line. It's labeled as a full release, but I ran into several UI bugs and movement bugs that shouldn't have been a problem for a complete game. The nail in the coffin is when the game completely bugged out on me and didn't register any inputs. I couldn't even access the menu to exit the game. Had to alt+f4 to shut it down. 45 minutes and I decided to refund it.

Pikmin + Satisfactory. It's adorable, it's enjoyable, it's worth your money! Only complaint so far is that the build menu button isn't quite intuitive, I find myself pressing the wrong button to get out of the menu quite often, and it gets pretty annoying. This would be a 10/10 game without that annoyance.

[h2]TL;DR[/h2] [b]Score:[/b] ★★★★☆ A visually intuitive and charming automation-puzzle hybrid with surprising complexity and fun exploration. Best for players who enjoy logistics with a creative twist and don't mind some manual combat along the way. [h2]Details[/h2] The main difference to other automation games is that you let little creatures called sparks gather resources and transport them instead of using belts. [b]Core Automation Mechanics[/b] • Core systems feel puzzle-like due to tight building constraints and location-based placement rules. • Production chains are interdependent and often circular, requiring careful planning. • Automation is visually represented through Spark movement - clear, satisfying, and easy to follow. [i]The core building and logictics loop is really fun. The circular chains make it a bit hard to plan, but it is very rewarding once it all works together, especially with train networks. In general, it is very fun to build a small scale factory of everything, but less fun to build huge factories (see modularity)[/i] [b]Modularity & Scalability[/b] • Lacks blueprinting tools, which limits modular design and reuse of production blocks. • Building placement restrictions prevent full creative freedom until late-game. • Scale is achievable, but it is less fun due to contraints of paths and building space • Due to lack of blueprints a lot of elements need to be micro-managed even in late game, very different from a game like Shapez 2 [i]Great for puzzle fans, but less suited to megabase-style planners.[/i] [b]World Design & Exploration & Combat[/b] • Exploration is essential - some buildings can only be placed in specific regions and you want to find the best spots for your factories, too. • Story exists, but it’s minimal and not the primary reason to play. • Pikmin-style combat is fun and requires you to learn the attack patters - especially later enemies can kill many sparks at once, moreover you have incentives to build and automate better sparks for easier combat • Waypoints exist to make it easy to move across large distances, but they need to supplied with resources so it is linked to your supply chains [i]You’re actively encouraged to eventually explore the whole map and think about a good waypoint network[/i] [b]Learning Curve & Onboarding[/b] • Quest system guides players smoothly through mechanics. • Tooltips and UI provide support for understanding systems. [i]A great entry point for players newer to the genre, without dumbing things down.[/i] [b]Progression & Pacing[/b] • Progression is decently paced, unlocking complexity steadily, however it can feel a bit slow at times, especially because it is not so much fun to build large scale factories so you sometimes rather want to build and wait (or do something else like combat or exploration in the meantime) [i]Engaging pace, though some bottlenecks come up.[/i] [b]UI/UX & Controls[/b] • Controls are intuitive and adapted well for both mouse/keyboard and controllers, including Steam Deck. • Good UI for tracking production stats [i]Factory planning feels good and approachable thanks to responsive controls and strong visual feedback. However, in the late game like for most automation games a separate spreadsheet is helpful in my opinion to keep a better overview of all the production rates etc.[/i] [b]Visuals & Clarity[/b] • Charming, colorful art style that’s also highly functional. • Nice and diverse set of NPCs and flexible character creator • Spark movement makes logistics extremely easy to parse at a glance. • Some decorative elements exist for factory beautification, but customization is limited compared to games like Satisfactory. [i]One of the most legible automation games out there, with a cute style that doesn't sacrifice clarity.[/i] [b]Performance & Stability[/b] • Runs well even on the Steam Deck. • No major bugs or stability issues encountered. • Some little visual glitches around edges and ledges [i]Stable gameplay also on the Steam deck without major issues.[/i] [b]Replayability & Endgame[/b] • Replay value mostly comes from trying new layout solutions within constraints. • In the endgame you are required you to defend your base which adds a completely new element to it - it was fun and nicely linked to production chains to have enough sparks to defend • Pikmin-style combat becomes a bit repetitive later on. • I had a great time during Early Access and again with 1.0 - almost 200 hours in total - but it’s not an endless-play kind of game. [i]Best experienced once or twice with real depth, but not an infinite sandbox.[/i] [b]Multiplayer / Co-op[/b] • Co-op multiplayer is available, but I haven't tested it personally, but I can imagine it being fun [h2]Verdict[/h2] [b]Recommended for:[/b] Fans of automation with puzzle elements and players who look for an automation on the go (like for the Steam deck) [b]Avoid if:[/b] You rely heavily on blueprinting, large-scale modular builds, or dislike manual combat. [i]Oddsparks is a unique and charming take on factory-building that rewards visual thinking and exploration over raw scale. A fresh perspective for the genre, especially good on the go.[/i]

There's enough design decisions that irk me that my levels of annoyance eclipsed my enjoyment of the game. - inventory management is a pain - the random map generation seemed to put everything in awkward places - the solution to most logistic problems seems to just be throw more spark bodies at the problem which feels bad - automating aether is not intuitive. There's a quest for it, but using stumpy sparks is a trap, and you have to make sure not to aim the launcher at the enemy spawner lest your choppy sparks destroy it. Both points being very important to know, but aren't explained in game. - mountain teleporters don't have a good fuel source which is annoying for what amounts to just a QOL kind of thing. - it seems like the best way to play is to set up a production line, afk for 10 minutes, then set up the next part. The fact that containers do not have limits means that if you want any buffer than some machines will get starved at the start till things fill up These are just the issues I recall right now. This is more optimizer in me being annoyed which isn't a problem if you just want a cozy automation game, but that is not what I want. So I can't recommend this as an automation game.

Incredible game - truly boundless! This game has hundreds of hours of gameplay to offer, and while I'm only at the 3 hour mark, I cannot wait to sink my teeth into the countless cosy nights that will be spent playing Oddsparks. The sparks themselves are what make the game, they are too cute! If you are brand new to automation games (like me!), then there is no better place to start. The quests are structured using a tier system, allowing for easy onboarding and great guidance throughout your first few hours of gameplay. Overall Rating: 9/10 *PS: The negative reviews discussing the inclusion of LGBT cosmetic items baffles me. If you don’t particularly associate with the certain groups, then don’t use those items… you’re not being forced to, they are there as options for those who do want to use them, and I am sure the team will update with plenty more cosmetic options (if you are so worried about them in the first place).

the base game and concept is good, and quite enjoyable. my only issue is the limitations to maximising the efficiency of the production lines - mainly the splitter you unlock unable to keep up with a steady line of traffic, making it bottleneck and making it impossible for it to be maximised. however, if you aren't so focused on that aspect of the game, definitely buy it.

Adorable and cozy mix of satisfactory and pikmin. Easy to get into but with lots of depth for those who want to maximize efficiency.

A casually angled automation game that uses a quest/town system as to not overwhelm you. The style and feel of the game are great. Coop is seamless.

Controls are awful. I am constantly getting frustrated pressing b to press 1 to click to select to delete to ESC to press b to press 2 to click to put down a road. hold shift and the keys lock up so smash all the keys to stop whatever is locking it up. Sometimes 1,2 shortcuts dont work. so frustrating for a game supposedly out of early access

Cute af co-op automation game, lots of content, feels more approachable than some of the others. Also has more exploration than usual + cute pikmin style bois that follow you around. Also the trains are amazing. Love them. Highly recommended!

I've just completed the first biome in this game and I can already tell I'm going to be sinking some serious hours into this game. It's cute on the surface but there's so much to it once you start to build larger and more complex structures. Very much hoping other friends start playing it so I can start talking to them about it! Would absolutely recommend for anyone who likes automation, resource allocation, optimisation games or cozy games.

Oddsparks is a charming automation-driven strategy game where cute little creatures do the heavy lifting — a bit like Pikmin, but you probably already knew that. With 6 hours of playtime under my belt, I figured it’s time to share my impressions. So far, I’m having a great time. The game is engaging, and its mechanics feel fresh and unique. What I like: 1. The Sparks do the grinding and automation for you, which is both fun and efficient. 2. A distinctive fantasy art style and creature design that give the game a unique vibe. 3. Great exploration and inventive gameplay mechanics. I’ve read some of the negative reviews and want to address a few common points: 1. This game is not Satisfactory or Factorio — and it’s not trying to be. I’ve finished both, and I really appreciate that Oddsparks offers something different. It’s not a clone; it’s a new experience. 2. “You can’t build neatly”? Actually, you can — you just need to build modularly. 3. “Sparks get stuck”? Only if your planning is poor. With thoughtful design, that issue vanishes. What I don’t like: 1. The camera controls are a bit limited, similar to isometric RPGs. It can be frustrating. That’s honestly the only drawback I’ve encountered in six hours of fun. So, what’s the verdict? If you’ve enjoyed Factorio, Satisfactory, or Dyson Sphere Program, you’ll find Oddsparks delivers a fresh and creative take on automation. Highly recommended — now back to playing! :)

Most of the performance issues are completely resolved with the 1.0 version. This game has to be one of my favorite factory builders, with features I've enjoyed from satisfactory, factorio, and more. Don't let the simple start fool you... the complexity and puzzles emerge as the content deepens, and I'm already looking forward to replaying this since the world is randomly generated. Please note, I did not evaluate multiplayer yet. I have reasons to believe that autosave may make multiplayer a bit trickier, as I can see the lag spike when playing locally with a large world. That said, the game has been rock-solid so I doubt crashes will be an issue.

This game is an excellent combination of familiar mechanics and themes from Pikmin and Factorio coupled with adorable graphics and sounds. It blends to make a very addicting factory-grower game that leaves you with the classic "Just one more production line before I go to bed..." and then boom, it's 3 am.

The game is quirky and fun, though a bit too grindy at times. It takes a while to fully automate everything, mostly because you need to carefully plan the railway system, dismantle outdated tier logistics, and rebuild most setups to suit the terrain. I managed to fit several production sites onto a single mountain peak using the game’s mechanics and logic gates, and the result is incredibly satisfying. The worst part, though, is the final stage of the tower defense. The Spark AI basically "Nope, I'm not doing this" and stops everything amidst the hoard of enemies because of the sheer number of items and enemies on the floor. It’s not quite on the level of Satisfactory complexity since there’s no verticality. It’s more similar to Factorio in that sense. But a snap tool would be nice. Make the rails system look good is another kind of nightmare.

It's a factory game with some aspects of Pikmin. You do everything with little golems called Sparks. Spark tasks come in 3 broad categories: Fighting, operating machines, and carrying stuff. Fighting is where the game feels like Pikmin, you have a horde of combat-focused Sparks following you around, and you fling them at enemies. Most of the more advanced enemies require that you call for your Sparks to retreat to avoid a large attack with a big wind-up, or a temporary cloud of poison gas. When the danger's past, you fling them into combat again, usually to the rear of your target. Operating machines is straightforward. Most machines require 1 or 2 Sparks to operate. Some Sparks get a bonus for operations, doubling or tripling machine output. Things that you'd do in another factory game with conveyor belts, you do by laying out paths and assigning Sparks to carry stuff. This leads to some frustration that isn't present in other factory games. Sparks always attempt to turn right at any intersection, which leads to a large number of situations where layouts have a "handed" aspect. For example, if you want to put in an overflow storage container, it has to be on the left, since the Sparks visit that after doing everything on the right. Many layouts that look like that ought to work, don't because of the right-turn rule. The game includes logic gates, including NOT, AND, OR, XOR, SET / RESET, and Flip-Flops. There's a *lot* of things you can do with the logic. I used it extensively to control my train network, including things like remote stations requesting items from a central source. The game has trains. They're primitive compared to most factory games. The trains themselves have no intelligence or routing. Rather, they follow the rail, and do whatever the rails tell them do to. It's *possible* to create complex train networks with this limit, but much more work. You can mark trains with up to 4 objects, and track junctions can switch trains based on that identifier. You can also create logic circuits to operate track switches, which can be essential for telling a train to bypass a station that's full. Unfortunately the logic can't sense trains or their contents, only conditions on the surface. "Must use actual objects to identify things" is a painful limit when you're trying to route coal trains. What object do you use to distinguish the trains going to different branches? Once you're doing anything more complex than "Coal means this train carries coal," the identifiers are arbitrary and hard to remember. The production chain aspects of the game are generally pretty good, though a couple of the bigger more complex items are marginal once you've completed the related quests. The giant Copper Sapling greenhouse, for example, essentially converts fertilizer into copper, but at a rate that's so painfully slow that it's of no value compared to ordinary copper mines. The user interface is painfully bad in places. In particular, the build menu is rather awful. There are only 5 slots in the quick-select menu, which is too few for most tasks. You can switch between 4 sets of quick-select options, which, combined with the 5 slot limit, is just not enough for everything you'll need to do. For example, I typically was building paths, exploring, building railways, or building logic circuits. Which is 4 modes, except that I needed at least 8 items on a regular basis when building paths. The biggest problem with the build menu, though, is that it has 3 modes, and it's unpredictable which mode you'll be enter. Worse, pressing the B hotkey is not the same as clicking Build with the mouse. Despite 145 hours into the game, I *frequently* found myself in a build mode I wasn't expecting. In short, it's a good factory game, if a painfully flawed one. It's not a top-tier factory game like Factorio or Satisfactory, but if you enjoy the genre, it's well worth your time.

First things first, this is a light yes for me. At this point, I'd recommend to wait for the game to be on sale to buy it, like I did. Note: I'll try to avoid any spoiler but you may find some technical aspects of the game described below. I do like this game's gameplay overall. It's fun, and the route system for those pets named "sparks" is cool. Now there's still a few downsides: - too much farming. When the quantities gets in the hundreds if not close to thousands, it becomes an afk game, which is a bit saddening. And concerting, as it doesn't match with what's made out of it. - lack of story - there's a village, but you just go there for missions, you spend your life outside. From a conceptual standpoint, why the heck are you doing all of that for pretty much no personal benefits? I believe the character should have like a mansion or something, which he can grow and get benefits from using his sparks. That would make sense. - exploration isn't rewarding. This is the biggest downside for me. You can roam around, but you won't be able to activate shrines you visit, as their activation is blocked by some linear progression within the village. - the game gets quite repetitive over time. Now the good parts: - Your pets do the fighting, which is scarce. You can chill out most of the time. They kinda do everything actually, even pick stuff on the floor. - The pet system is fun to play with - Things are globally well though. You can automatize most stuff, and bring most things back wherever you want - the road system is quite cool. There's lots of possibilities, you can even handle traffic congestion, it's really well thought - [spoiler]those blowers on top of the mountains are so fun to travel with, I just love it [/spoiler] Thanks for reading

Game is pretty decent overhead automation style experience. The art style doesn't really do it for me but I'm probably not the target audience anyway. The tech tree is pretty well done and overall its a fairly mellow and positive experience.

I am new to automation games and thought this was a great intro to the genre for me. It's relatively simple to pick up, but as someone new to automation games I thought there is still a lot I could do to optimize my sparks and factories. I am nowhere near the level of automation that some people are looking for in this game, so I think it's perfect for me. In addition, it's really well polished and optimized, and I think the price point is good on sale (~$20). This game feels like a stepping stone into more complex automation games like Satisfactory and Factorio. I highly recommend if you are new to this genre. EDIT: I got up to tier 6-7 and wow does it get more complex. There's a lot of customizability and tools they provide for automation. It's awesome how simple and yet in depth it can get.

I recommend this to people who enjoy building things iteratively. This is not going to be fun if you think you're going to build something for a resource and be done with it on the first try. This will be fun if you enjoy seeing how the new tools you unlock and the different milestones you reach change how you would like things built. The game does a pretty good job of introducing fixes to (at least my) factory issues at different points throughout the progression. The key is to realize what you're missing and understand it will probably come soon enough. Come into this with the right mindset and you'll be able to sink hundreds of hours into the game.

- good = automation - bad = end level gameplay is not very exciting

Had a good time playing co-op with a friend. My one issue is that the problems changed from logistics puzzles to solving throughput issues in the latter stages, which makes it feel imbalanced.

Cute fun game, really enjoyed the process. The end gets a little grind but it is worth it. Highly recommend!

The concept of having an adventure along the way to automation is pretty neat, and the sparks are an interesting alternative to automation, with different ones specializing in combat, transporting resources, or crafting components. Like most automation games, later game can be a bit daunting, because it is designed to be automated, not done manually. If you do it manually until that point, then it feels insane; if you set up automation along the way, it isn't bad. Ultimately, setting up a large train loop with junctions allows for pretty easy movement of resources (sans cave area) and balances out the higher levels pretty well.

Very cute automation game, but don't let the simplicity of it fool you, it can get quite advanced. Biggest con would be you need to get to Haulers, Trains and magic storage for it to really open, which will take a few hours, up til then it feels quite limited in scope. Having played quite a while and almost finished the mountains, was surprised to see there were two more zones to go through, so a surprising amount of content in it.

It's a factory automation game where the logistics is done by cute golems made out of the remains of even cuter bunnies. What's not to love?