Shapez - Factory Game

Didn’t find out that this isn’t the same game as the full game on desktop. Levels 1-20 are fun, but the game gets slow around level 18, and there’s been quite a few bugs.

Shapez is fun on mobile but even better on pc

The game play itself is challenging, addictive, and fun. But it is extremely, and fatally, buggy. Bad enough that you have to destroy and then rebuild tunnels to restore flow after random process flow failures; worse that you have to close and reopen the game frequently to continue play; worst is having saved file corrupted (happens during Edit mode), so even after a full app restart the corruption reappears and makes continuation impossible. I’ve given up waiting for an update to resolve this … don’t waste your money unless you’re seeking intense frustration. If it ever were to work reliably I would give it 5 stars, but as it is now 2 stars is generous.

These Unity games are not optimized for iOS, every time I use the controls I just wish I was playing on a pc for which this was clearly optimized. The refresh rate feels like it’s either capped or forced by low frame rate to 20 hz. I know it’s easy to develop with Unity, but it’s not just plug and play, the developers need to work on real optimization before it delivers a similar experience. While this is exactly the type of game I would sink some good time into, it’s pretty out of the question buying the full version for me, knowing that I would just be disappointed in the choppiness that occurs even without any significant load.

I loved the pc version, and I’m having a lot of fun playing through again on mobile. It’s a really good fit for a phone game, you can always kill time by expanding/optimizing some process and it’s pretty easy to parse what’s going on when you put it down in the middle of something and come back later. My one complaint is that the ui is a little fiddly. It’s really effortless to do complex tasks on the pc version, and just a bit fussy to do on the touchscreen- especially running long conveyors. I don’t know if I can really fault the game for it though, it’s naturally a more limiting interface and it’s certain perfectly usable. All in all, I’m happy to see this game on mobile and it’s definitely worth the asking price.

When I downloaded this game I instantly realized that it was very laggy, about 20fps, on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. I somewhat got used to it. Second, it is terribly annoying when I am panning in build mode, as it automatically pans to my first built node after only like a second, making it pretty difficult to move around for me. Third, I had no option to review how to mix colors when I got to stage 9. I accidentally instantly exited out of the tutorial screen when reaching stage 9. It would be nice if I could go back and see it. Finally, and most annoyingly, I can’t load back into my game. The menu screen only has two options: Continue, and tutorial. When I tap continue, it does nothing. There are no saved games under these two buttons. I would have, frustratingly, started a new game, but I see no option to. I’m not sure if some of these problems are only native to me because there are so many positive reviews and ratings. For a $7 mobile game I shouldn’t be having this many complications. $7 wasted unless this is fixed

UPDATE: Happy to report that two subsequent updates have fixed the problem of corrupt saves for this excellently-designed mobile port! 🤗👏👍. New players should have no problem. If you suffered save corruption from the initial release, be sure to delete all game saves to start on a fresh path. The thought that went into the touch interface is excellent. This is especially true for the efficient laying out of long conveyor belts. Gone is the Shift-drag mechanic of the mouse-keyboard desktop version. For mobile, the devs provide an “assumption of intent” to continue straight in the last-laid segment design. This way you can zoom in and out while maintaining in belt-laying mode. Any touch in one of the four orthogonal directions lays the belt in that direction without wiggling a wobbly diagonal route. Other thoughtful touch mechanics make this port a pleasure to play. 🙏TY devs for doggedly pursuing these improvements. Shapez Mobile should be the top factory builder on mobile devices now that its initial launch hiccups have been fixed. I happily update my review to five stars and encourage folks to play this brain-exercising game. 😎 ——- Original review comments, now moot —— The touch controls are awesome once you get used to them. The design of the original game is awesome. Despite game-breaking save/continue bug, I have played significant hours enjoying this game… up to the point that I feel I am kidding myself that “This run it will be different.” Then I load up to continue my progress and all my progress is gone! Will gladly update to a 5-star review when this game-breaking bug is fixed. I have tried to overcome the autosave/continue bug by painstakingly manually naming a game file, being sure to explicitly exit to the main menu, then immediately reloading the named save to ensure it is there before leaving a lengthy session only to return the next day to load the named game to find all my progress is gone. I give up. Will keep an eye out for an update but am done for now. 😥

Had to revise down to 3 stars due to losing a save and the saves taking 5+ minutes to load

I want to play this game at home on my iPad and on my iPhone when I'm on the move. Plz support iCloud sync savegames.

Super fun and relaxing. But sometimes it doesn’t save.