Infinifactory

Infinifactory is a puzzle game, structured as several sets of puzzles based on various tasks. The player takes the role of a human that is abducted by an alien race and is put to work to help the aliens construct equipment; the character does not appear to be the first one that has been taken for this purpose as throughout the levels are the corpses of other abducted humans, which the player can find and listen to their last audio log. The game is divided into six worlds with several puzzles per world. Completing a specified quota of puzzles on a world lets the player advance to the next one, as well as advancing the story.

By successfully completing all the puzzles, the player's character is rescued from the alien race by other abductees to a hidden base on the alien homeworld, and begins to work with the other abductees to find a way to escape the planet and return home. Additional chapters have since been added during the game's time in Early Access, adding in new block types and furthering the story of the abductees' escape attempts.

Infinifactory is considered by Zachtronic's lead developer Zach Barth as a reworking of his first game, Manufactoid, in three dimensions. Though Barth did not feel this game was very good, it would help set up the mechanics of other games he developed, including the popular SpaceChem, which has the player developing manipulators to create chemical molecules. Barth wanted to develop a game that has the same flavor of mechanics of SpaceChem without making a direct sequel, and turned back to the original idea of Manufactoid to build on. Further, the game is based on the block mechanic approach that Barth had developed for his title Infiniminer, itself a basis for many other block-building games like Minecraft.

The success of Minecraft led Barth to realize that basing a puzzle game on the block construction mechanics would make the game's fundamentals easy to grasp. Barth was also given suggestions by fans of his titles to return to the puzzle game genre after the release of his Ironclad Tactics.

Infinifactory was well-received during its early access period. Commentators positively compared the game to SpaceChem, citing that the nature of Infinifactory being in three dimensions and the intuitive building approach that mimics games like Minecraft help to make the game more accessible. These commentators also noted the quality of the title even at its early access stage. Barth's approach for Infinifactory was stated to be a strong example of how to use early access effectively.

Infinifactory was nominated for the Excellence in Design award for the 2016 Independent Games Festival.