Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Steam Charts & Stats

I want to like this game but I can only play for 30 minutes at a time before I get annoyed at it, usually I come up for air every 3-4 hours. I can lose 50 sparks in a single combat, and I get that's on me but, I play these types of games because I am crap at any combat more complicated than click on something until it dies. I am always running out of materials for building and having to refill my inventory. Way points are excellent but the majority of my trains are to keep them running. Having multiple of a factory with more than 1 input is crazy messy.

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.

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.

LOVE it!!! Quests keep you going, automation is done well and there is some fighting... Not a fan of the end part...

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!

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure is a refreshingly original take on the automation genre, blending whimsical aesthetics with cleverly designed systems that offer depth without overwhelming complexity. Developed by Massive Miniteam, the game puts players in charge of small wooden golems called Sparks—adorable worker units that build, haul, and defend under your guidance. Unlike traditional factory sims reliant on conveyor belts and rigid structures, Oddsparks lets players design logistics systems around natural paths, using Sparks to physically carry materials across handcrafted terrain. The result is a charming and highly tactile experience that emphasizes creativity, exploration, and low-stress planning over high-pressure efficiency. Set in a procedurally generated world filled with lush biomes, the game encourages players to explore, gather resources, and set up mobile workshops and crafting stations. Progression comes through expanding your automation network, managing Spark behavior, and unlocking increasingly complex tools—such as splitters, switches, and train systems—that allow for more sophisticated supply chains. Sparks are versatile: they don't just move items, they also construct buildings, gather materials, and engage in light combat when needed. There's a pleasant balance between freedom and structure, as the game guides you with quests and objectives while giving you the tools to solve problems your own way. Visually, Oddsparks is vibrant and endearing. Its soft color palette, painterly textures, and expressive animations give it a cozy yet distinct identity. The soundtrack complements the atmosphere perfectly, alternating between mellow melodies and more dynamic themes when danger arises. The user interface is clean and accessible, which is especially helpful given the number of systems at play. On platforms like Steam Deck, the game performs admirably, even with a large number of Sparks operating at once, which speaks to the polish already present in its Early Access form. While the game’s relaxing pace is a major draw, some elements still feel undercooked. Gathering certain resources remains a manual chore deep into the game, which can interrupt the automation flow that fans of the genre crave. The combat system, while functional, lacks the fluidity and depth to be a central feature and sometimes detracts from the otherwise serene gameplay. Additionally, certain buildings have fixed placement rules that limit creative layouts, a constraint that feels at odds with the game’s otherwise open-ended approach. Despite these early rough edges, the development team has shown a strong commitment to community feedback, regularly releasing updates that introduce new biomes, systems like botany and temperature management, and improved logistics tools such as trains and automation logic. These updates not only expand the gameplay but also suggest a long-term vision where player creativity is increasingly rewarded and the world grows more interactive and dynamic. In the end, Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure succeeds in carving out a unique space in the automation genre. Its fusion of Pikmin-style management, cozy visuals, and cleverly simplified factory-building mechanics makes it approachable for newcomers yet satisfying for veterans looking for something different. As it continues to evolve, Oddsparks has all the ingredients to become a standout title in the genre—one that transforms the usually cold and mechanical world of automation into something warm, whimsical, and full of life. Rating: 8/10

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.

After 100+ hours, I found this game created a real love/hate relationship with my Automation itch. If you're searching for another Satisfactory/Dyson Sphere/Factorio experience, you are in the wrong place. The Love The overall whimsical theme is designed well and blends well together. I found the graphics, sounds, and animations all cute and entertaining. The combination of semi-automation (will get more into that later) and hunting local wildlife is a bit of a twist I was not expecting. The concept of Sparks comes off very entertaining as well. It presents a unique challenge implementing the right Sparks for the right task(s). The use of temperature as a way to challenge the player into organizing factories was a clever means to force some outside-the-box thinking. I enjoyed that. The Hate There are great many design considerations that simply do not make sense. Tasks are offered with goal requirements that don't even exist yet. This is because you haven't unlocked that item yet. So you wind up with 4 un-finishable tasks until one other task is completed. Why give the task, if there is zero ability to complete it? Each tier of progression felt like an effort to coerce you into automating to a certain point, and then tasking you entirely different requirements that offer zero overlap. All the previous factory work simply sits ideal with no meaningful purpose ever again. The concept of re-using an existing factory for future goals simply isn't feasible in most phases of the game progression. The design of the train system is the weakest area. Awkward load/unload design limitations necessitate dozens of train stations with little ability to re-use excess output from other parts of an existing factory. You wind up with 4 different factory areas producing the exact same sub-component because spacing in a (yet another) train station forces too much re-design of Spark pathways. Overall I found the use of (true) automation quite limited, and the connectivity between automation areas too tedious at best, downright obnoxious at worst. The game map itself is used to force you to traverse huge swaths of empty usable space with multiple rail lines back and forth to an extent it's nigh impossible to understand even the simplest flaw in your supply routes. Conclusion For a game with the word "Automation" literally in the title, this game falls far short until you have reached nearly the end. Only the last 2-3 tiers offer any meaningful sort of automation. I spent vastly more time teleporting mats around the map to resolve goals. The effort to automate those goals was simply too tedious for the trivial amounts involved in most of the task requirements. This left me substantially disappointed by the time I reached the end-game scenario. I was expecting an expansive network of production factories all working towards a set of common goals. Poor task requirement design made sure there was no chance of that happening. This game should be more aptly named "OddSparks: The Teleporting Wizard"

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!