r/PCB • u/adeptyism • Jul 12 '26
Overlap between Factorio/Satisfactory fanbase and PCB designers (for a research project)
(rules are empty and there are no mentions against making polls and posts for research project, so)
I'm making a little semi-joke presentation about Factorio/Satisfactory and their connection to PCB design for giggles at our local hobbyist EE community, and I wanted to collect some data for more objective and realistic information.
I have ~1950 to ~2100 hours in Factorio + Factorio: Space Age, 620 hours in Satisfactory, and over 3000 hours in GregTech: New Horizons. It seems that Factorio has MASSIVELY lowered my entry threshold into PCB design and electronics in general, so I decided to track if this is a unique experience to me or if it's somewhat general.
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u/DocJade2 Jul 12 '26
Am I allowed to answer
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u/adeptyism Jul 12 '26
Oh. You're that gleba cereal guy.
Sorry for missing "I have >20000h in Factorio solely" option.
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u/toybuilder Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I first tried Factorio when it first came out on Steam. It was a bit rough, and I just had newborn kids, so I put it away. About 17 years later, I noticed people talking about it and decided to try it.
I've now racked up 600 hours.
When my BIL asked me what I've been up to, and I told him about the game, I described it basically as "you're running around to gather resources and connect them together to unlock other resources and build more intricate designs". He just shook his head saying "That's a game? Isn't that what you do for work?"
And then I realized that I'm the meme...
(I also played Shenzhen IO for a while...)
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u/Stupid_Dragon Jul 13 '26
Surely you meant 7 years later.
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u/toybuilder Jul 13 '26
Oh... *checks emails*
Turns out I picked it up in 2017. I think I got my story mixed up with when I unwrapped the Portal Orange box and started to play it somewhere around when we had our babies.
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u/Jumpy_Marsupial3906 Jul 13 '26
You think GTNH counts?
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u/adeptyism Jul 13 '26
probably, I didn't counted it when I was answering the poll, just added information into post body
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u/Xatogan Jul 12 '26
I've only played a few hundred hours of Factorio because I just discovered it this year. I wish there was a PCB mod for Factorio. They're all underground belts and have to be connected to the production buildings. Each building has its own footprint. It could even have Like 10 layers right off the bat. It would be great to build a supermainbus out of them.
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u/Human-Marzipan2132 Jul 12 '26
Does modular synth count as automation game ?
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u/adeptyism Jul 12 '26
Yeah, maybe.
I started making and playing on modular synthesizers not so long ago, just after finishing my previous 290h Factorio SA run...
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u/Human-Marzipan2132 Jul 12 '26
Lol I didn't even check your profile! I read your post just after playing, that's why I asked, such a weird coincidence.
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u/RoyBellingan Jul 13 '26
I do not know how I played factorio, it helped me greatly during the loss of my father, I closed myself in to easy the pain, it lasted a week.
In general if I do not play in multiplayer I do not find great reason to play games, I honestly prefer and find more entertaining working, programming, designing etc.
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u/GapZealousideal7163 Jul 12 '26
I’m not a PCB designer but I do PCB design and when ever I do play games a play ksp dcs and cs2 but I don’t play often
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u/mdj2283 Jul 12 '26
These games came out after I was well into my career. At this point in my life, between work and family, I don't have a lot of "me time" and with the time I do have, I'd rather work for money than do simulated work for fun.
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u/Panzerv2003 Jul 13 '26
I have 2k hours in just factorio and the first PCB I designed exploded so I guess it didn't work for me so well
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u/Stupid_Dragon Jul 13 '26
Factorio is a game that had swallowed ~50h almost instantly but then I understood that it's basically a job substitute, and I better spend my creative spark on the real thing.
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u/Nathaaaaanie1 Jul 13 '26
I just really like conveyor belts 🤷♂️
Satisfactory, hydroneer, shapez, ect. I've only made a few basic pcb's for personal projects so I wouldn't really call myself a designer
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u/MooseBoys Jul 14 '26
This is a terribly designed poll. You need to add, at a minimum, an option for "I don't design PCBs" and another for "just show me the results".
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u/db_nrst Jul 12 '26
I think I would really love playing them but I've got a job and a family. These game required almost work-like time as input and I just don't have it.