Hero image: a diorama of 3D printed Factorio models. Image: Wube Software
I have to admit this week’s Friday Facts from Wube Software is not what I expected to be reading about Factorio, because instead of a patch or a peek at something in development it is a set of 3D printable models. There are 15 model sets containing 65 individual models across 247 STL files, and they are free for anyone to download and print at home. The idea goes back, according to Wube, to a playtesting event for Space Age in 2024, where Prusa Research joined in and somebody quickly modelled a Wriggler from Gleba to print on the spot – and from there it turned into a side project that the team kept poking at in their spare time. It took a while to find a shape, and in the end that shape turned out to be transport belts, the one thing every factory you have ever built runs on.
What I like most is the reasoning, and I think it is worth quoting, because Wube writes that “Physical releases of games are now almost a relic of the past” and that “Creating some expensive (limited) collector’s items didn’t sit right with us”, so rather than sell you a boxed statue it has handed over the files as a thank-you and, as the post puts it, a chance to “iterate on things we created and give them your own spin”. There is a real craft story in there too (and it is a good read if you have ever fought with supports), since Factorio’s isometric view hides a lot. The post admits that some machines are “merely a collection of free-floating objects that just happen to look like a machine” from the right angle, and so the team had to design models that look like Factorio looks rather than how the in-game models are actually built.
The honest caveat is that this is a printer owner’s gift first, because Wube says most of the machines were split into parts that print without supports, and that nearly every model comes in two versions. One has tight tolerances for push-fit assembly and the other has more clearance for people who would rather glue or whose printers struggle. The enemies and the engineer are a different matter, and some poses, like the running one, simply cannot print without support. If you do not own a printer this is, as far as I can tell, a nice thing to look at rather than something to hold. If you do, the whole set is on Wube’s Printables profile, and I would say the belt system is where I would start, since it is the part the whole range is built around. Factorio itself is A$50.00 on Steam in Australia, and so is the Space Age expansion.
Source: Wube Software – Friday Facts #447: Factorio that you can touch, Wube Software – Printables, Steam – Factorio