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Asema
There are no conveyor belts in space, only massive railguns
I appreciate a factory simulation that wholeheartedly leans into the fundamental malevolence of factory sims—these titles about wrapping a smoky, clanking straightjacket around a realm of organic hues and unsuspecting resource deposits. Or in the case of Asema, around the marvels of the interstellar void, and whatever life exists there. "You are old, one of many," says the blurb. "There may be an infinite number of your kind in the cosmos, older than stellar dust. But for you, the only space that matters is the one you can silence."
My word, that's quite a sentence, isn't it? Right up there with "Sins of a Solar Empire" in terms of sweeping nihilism. What else do you have to offer, Asema? You say you're swapping out our cherished conveyor belts for enormous railguns, to fire resource packages between factory nodes suspended in a 2D gravity simulation? Yes, I believe the grasping space barons who read Rock Paper Shotgun would be keen to learn about this.
In Asema, you gradually construct a relatively flexible logistical network that stretches across moons and asteroids. You begin with a single drone in the rich shallows of the inner solar system, then expand your reach through unlockable technologies into the outer void.
The main challenge is gravity, a "unique environmental puzzle" for any Kuiper Belt tycoon trying to refine their loading bay setup. "Your heavy machines will naturally drift toward the nearest gravity wells, such as moons," explains the Steam page. Moreover, "anything can become a gravity well when it has enough mass - even one of your own machines."
If this sounds intimidating, there are training wheels of sorts for those who can't perform slingshot maneuver calculations in their heads. "You don't need to calculate orbital math or plot trajectories," the developers continue. "You just need to manage your economy. Build and power dedicated Focus arrays (computational anti-gravity) to keep your grid stable, counter the pull of the moons and gravity wells and keep your factories perfectly positioned."
Admittedly, this might ultimately strip the idea of its complexity, but there is the implied mid-to-late game risk of power failures sending your entire factory network spiraling into the nearest black hole. Yes, Asema has those too.
There's a demo available on that Steam page. The full game is scheduled for release later this year. If you'd rather fire explosive shells from those railguns, maybe check out In The Black instead—it's a space combat game from former X-Wing and Mechwarrior developers that also features a Newtonian physics simulation.