Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure is an automation game about using small creatures called Sparks to fuel the production of your woodland factory. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Review Overview
What is Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure?
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure (Oddsparks) is a unique factory simulator and automation game set in the forested canopy of your own town. Beset by an ancient prophecy and a malfunctioning ancient monument, it will be up to your ingenuity and control over the Sparks to find the Spark Keys.
Various townspeople will guide you through your journey and provide you with the tools, facilities, and recipes you need to get an ancient monument working again. Build unbroken chains of production and use the Sparks to their full potential under the shade of the forest in Oddsparks.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure features:
⚫︎ Cozy art direction and amazing character design
⚫︎ Unique factory automation mechanics
⚫︎ Great character customization options
⚫︎ Satisfying factory automation and logistics
⚫︎ Includes online co-op multiplayer for up to 3 other players.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
$19.99 |
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Unique Take on Factory Automation Fun Cast of Characters |
Pacing is Off Not Much Quest Variety |
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Overall Score - 74/100
Oddsparks is a solid early-access game from a genre that doesn’t usually fare well at this stage of development. It has a novel Pikmin-esque approach to the basics of factory automation and a distinct cutesy vibe that fends off the futurist monotony often attributed to the genre. It’s not the most narratively complex factory game nor is it the best-paced, but there’s plenty of time for it to buff out those problems before its full release.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Story - 7/10
Oddsparks’ story is an effective vehicle for the game’s many mechanics and one that’s not disconnected from its universe either. Although it surely won’t be winning any awards for its world-building or narrative complexity, it’s already more than what most factory automation games get.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Gameplay - 8/10
A factory game lives or dies by the quality of its gameplay and Oddsparks is sitting pretty in life that isn’t so lavish. The Sparks themselves acting as the processing and logistical backbone of your woodland factory serve as a uniquely alluring mechanic that easily gives this game its claim to fame.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Visuals - 8/10
Oddsparks’ visuals are clean and cutesy with vibrant colors and detailed geometry. Together with the uniquely designed character models and characters (including the ones for your Sparks), the game evokes an industrious, yet completely innocent vibe that gives you all the satisfaction of a factory builder and none of the stress.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Audio - 6/10
Oddsparkss audio, while decent, isn’t worth noting. The background music is repetitive and samey, and there’s a complete lack of voice acting despite the game likely benefiting from one. However, I enjoy the SFX, particularly for the Sparks whenever they’re working.
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Value for Money - 8/10
$20 is an acceptable price range for a fun and cutesy woodland factory simulator like Oddsparks. It’s rough around the edges and could definitely do with a bit more varnish before being sent out, but as it is now, you won’t regret spending this little on a game making itself up to be the next cozy factory sim.
Oddsparks Review (Early Access): Odd-like Woodland Automation
Standing out among the crowd is a concept shared among most, if not all, forms of self-expression. While we often see people doing their utmost to be unique, flip the script, or stand out within conventional forms of media like song and dance, that principle also applies to game development. The factory sim genre in particular gains a double helping of this rule because factories are, by definition, made for mass production, but that doesn’t make distinction impossible.
Cue Oddsparks, an automation and exploration game that made itself known in a sea of futurist factory sims through its unique mechanics and cozy design. We’ll be going over the particulars of how this odd-like factory sim managed to stand out, starting with the largest slice of that proverbial pie: its gameplay.
Oddsparks is like almost every other factory sim out there with its scope and goals. You find resources, refine said resources, create logistical chains, and reinvest your newfound efficacy back into your factory to begin the cycle anew. You’re going to find loads of factory games with the same idea, just with the odd game mechanic here and there to make it stand apart from its peers.
The odd mechanic for Oddsparks isn’t the complexity of logistics, nor is it the unique properties of the materials you’re working with; it’s the small golem-like creatures following you around called Sparks.
I’ll go more in-depth on what the Sparks are and how they contribute to Oddsparks’ uniqueness later. For now, let’s talk about the basics of Spark management and how it fits into the game’s core gameplay loop. If you’ve played Pikmin before, then you already have a good idea of how these creatures work in your woodland factory.
They trail behind you in single or double file, waiting to be chucked into a pathway or machine to begin their work. I mean that in the most literal sense, as you throw these creatures overhand into their stations like they were footballs. Various kinds of Sparks accomplish different tasks, with a few being cut out for crafting while others are better at general menial labor.
They also act like conveyor belts, running along player-made pathways to act as the lifeblood of your factory’s beating heart. They’re cheap to make, but it never feels like you’ve made enough of them. This is the back-and-forth that gives Oddsparks its bread and butter because you’ll be handling these Sparks more than anything else in this game.
Speaking of other things to do in this game, let’s talk about its exploration. Having exploration in your factory sim isn’t the most unique thing, as Satisfactory and Factorio would attest. It is rare enough, however, that Oddsparks is still kind of ground-breaking with its heavy focus on using ancient ruins as the scaffold upon which the rest of your factory is built.
Unlike in other games where you can build where you choose, the placement of raw materials in the game’s randomly generated overworld will be important to your factory’s final look and how difficult logistics will be.
The overworld is also littered with other creatures to fight and harvest. These creatures are unique to the Oddsparks world and they all seem to be amalgamations of mammals and insects. The rudimentary bumping and scraping your Sparks do against these creatures make up the game’s basic combat system, which really doesn’t accomplish much for me to consider it a feature. It’s more of a consequence of how you collect Aether than anything else.
Combine these features together and you have Oddsparks’ uniquely woodland-chic vibe, complete with sawmills, roughly fashioned signs, and wood-crafted processing stations. This brings us to the game’s aesthetic, which is equal parts industrious and cozy.
Far from the hard edges, composite materials, and light colors of the industrial futurism that’s common among other factory games, Oddsparks looks and feels like a forest-side adventure where hand-made craftsmanship is far upfront than mass production.
Comparing it to games like Satisfactory, where numbers are everything and machines reign supreme, the wood paneling, cobblestone paths, and vibrant cloth give it a cozy feel that’s surprisingly welcome to the genre.
Unfortunately, that concludes Oddsparks’ accolades in terms of presentation. The game’s music and audio aren’t bad; they’re just nothing special. I think the game definitely could have benefitted from some voice acting, but it’s not a complete dealbreaker yet, especially since it has a long road ahead in its development.
Oddsparks also has a few pacing issues that eat into the experience somewhat. It’s nowhere near as sluggish as its demo version, mind you, but it’s still pretty darn slow for a factory sim. And the fact that everything is either a fetch quest or a "do this" quest makes its progression feel low-effort even though it’s pretty good.
Overall, this is an early access game suffering early access problems. Pacing issues and missed opportunities for voice acting aren’t that bad when you consider that development is still underway. I appreciate that the game went for a unique gameplay approach instead of doubling down on the genre’s staples and propagating the genre’s intense futurism further.
There’s much left to do and a couple of machines’ worth of refining left of Oddsparks, but hey, while it can’t be god-like right now, it’s easily one of the most awesome and odd-like early access factory sims I’ve played in a good while.
Pros of Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure
| Things Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Got Right |
|---|
|
Unique Take on Factory Automation Fun Cast of Characters |
Unique Take on Factory Automation
I’ve touched on this in the main review but here is where I go in-depth on the game’s unique approach to factory simulation. It all boils down to one word: Sparks. These little weirdos follow you around like your name is Olimar and are the main workers of your factory.
You’ll likely notice early on that conveyor belts don’t exist in this game and that your Sparks will serve as the conga line of material transport that every factory needs. With each individual Spark acting on its own, this novel logistical approach becomes unwieldy fast, at least it would be if the game didn’t have a simple but complex breakdown of Spark behavior on and off the pathways.
They always keep to the right and will turn whenever possible. This is the core mechanic of Sparks on pathways and it is the canvas by which uniquely complex overlaps of logistics chains are built. As you progress, new pathway add-ons like splitters and intersections let you manage these pathways better, allowing for alternating Spark passage and dedicated intersectional travel, respectively.
These Sparks also serve as the cogs in your machines, allowing processing areas to work autonomously and with varying degrees of efficiency depending on the type of Sparks assigned. This hands-on approach to task delegation really homes in the game’s themes of handcrafted industry, which I think benefits the game’s narrative in addition to its gameplay.
Fun Cast of Characters
In addition to your player character, there’s an entire town of unique NPCs to interact with in this game. Each one is addressed by their occupation rather than having an actual name but it's their designs and personalities that make them stand out. They’re glorified quest-givers at the moment, although each of their individual approaches to quest-giving speaks volumes about their personalities as characters.
The mayor tests your ability to contribute to the town through large orders and milestone-marking innovations in your setup. The Divine Researcher is your go-to guy for all things ruins and relics. They really didn’t have to do all that for people who just give quests, but I appreciate their contributions to the game’s narrative setting, aesthetics, and overall vibe.
Cons of Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure
| Things That Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Can Improve |
|---|
|
Pacing is Off Not Much Quest Variety |
Pacing is Off
This game’s pacing is a bit off and that might turn away players who were expecting something more dynamic or action-packed. Oddsparks is a slower factory sim than most, with the main agents to your factory’s continued progress being these plodding wooden golems.
I find myself playing the waiting game a lot of the time due to the sheer slowness of the Sparks and that much doesn’t make for good gameplay. The back-and-forth between the main forest and the townspeople’s quests also irks me so because they come off as tedious and do nothing to improve the game’s glacial pace.
Not Much Quest Variety
Everything quest-related in this game is either a fetch quest or a to-do list; there’s no in-between. And while that usually works for RPGs, factory games shouldn’t be constrained by these types of quests. I am much more of a fan of how Satisfactory and Factorio handled it, with the former creating quotas that could be filled at any time and the latter just giving you a grand, overarching goal.
This can easily be fixed as the game’s development chugs on forward, but as it stands, the only reason you’d want to finish a quest in this game is that it has the recipe you need as a quest reward.
Is Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Worth It?
Yes, and It’s Only Going to Get Better
The game is admittedly a bit rough right now, but I don’t think you’d regret spending $20 for it, especially with the promise of future improvements on the horizon. $20 is also right on the money for games in this genre, so at worst, you’re breaking even. Go ahead! Give this early access title a try.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
| Steam |
$19.99 |
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure FAQ
Does Oddsparks Have Multiplayer?
Yes. Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure does support online co-op multiplayer for up to four people at a time. There is currently no hard limit on how many players can play on the same world at any given time, although the developers did warn that surpassing the suggested 4-player limit might affect the game’s performance.
How Do You Pin Quests in Oddpsarks: An Automation Adventure
You can pin quests in Oddsparks: An Automation adventure by pressing the "L" key and accessing the Quest Menu. You can then pin the quest to your UI by pressing the "Pin Quest" button beside each quest’s name.
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Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Product Information
 |
|
| Title | ODDSPARKS: AN AUTOMATION ADVENTURE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | April 24, 2024 |
| Developer | Massive Miniteam |
| Publisher | HandyGames |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Strategy, Simulation |
| Number of Players | 1-4 (Online Co-op Multiplayer) |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure Website |
