I know you. You’re like me. You crave the simple satisfaction of laying out rows upon rows of machines and conveyor belts, then watching materials hum gently along them as they’re processed, refined, and turned into even more useful and powerful tools. One of the best to ever do it is Satisfactory, but as Coffee Stain prepares to take its sandbox building game deep underground, a rival has arrived that shifts us in the other direction. This is Main Sequence, a new automation sim that lives among the stars, and it’s just hit early access with a demo you can try today.
Developer Tumbling Dumpling Studio is predominantly just one man, Kaiden Ho, and Main Sequence is a brainchild that he’s been gradually fostering for the last three years. “I wanted to make a game I really wanted to play,” he explains of his thought process back in 2023. “I’ve always enjoyed space sims, but the feature that I always wanted was to be able to walk around your ship and really live in it.” The idea of building various modular ships and automating their production “actually came much later, but now it is certainly one of the best features of the game,” he says.
At the frontier of space, you set out with just a small mining ship, and the goal of establishing humanity’s footprint among the stars. Scan asteroids and planets to find good mining spots, gather valuable resources, and begin refining them. Then use those to start building a permanent base of operations – your very own space station. Here, the magic pieces begin to really click into place, as you set up factories filled with whirring machines and clanking conveyor belts, ensuring your production chains are at maximum efficiency.
It’s not just the factory layouts you design: the very ships and stations are custom-built by modular pieces, letting you decide exactly how they should look and behave. Research projects will unlock more modules and upgrades, letting you gradually expand your facility and then grow your operations to more parts of space. The further you explore, the more danger you might run into – whether that be hostile forces that require battleships to contest, or natural phenomena such as black holes and neutron stars.
Main Sequence supports both solo and co-op play, with each player starting out on a ship of their own, allowing you to quickly decide whether you want to coordinate your efforts or each tackle separate parts of the projects on your worksheet. Its early access launch includes an estimated 40 hours, with all the core mechanics and progression fully in place, though Tumbling Dumpling hopes “fans of automation will find these systems deep enough to offer many more hours than that.”
Launch is just the start, and the developer already has plenty of plans to expand on the building and customization of Main Sequence. You can see an early roadmap above, featuring everything from additional endgame automation options to expanded outposts, more (and more aggressive) enemies, and improved factory blueprints. It’s also planning extra star systems to explore, additional weapons, and decorative modules to enable richer cosmetic personalization for your ship and station.
Main Sequence is out now in early access, with a 20% launch discount through Thursday November 26. Expect to pay $19.99 / £17.59 while the sale lasts, or $24.99 / £21.99 afterwards. There’s also a free demo if you want to try it before you buy.
Tumbling Dumpling states that it currently plans the early access period to last for “one to two years,” but that the most important factor is ensuring Main Sequence “is a complete and well-rounded experience” by the time it slaps the 1.0 label on. It notes that the price will also increase once the game reaches that point to reflect its expanded state. There’s already a lot in here, though, so if you’re eager to get in on the ground level and help the space game reach its full potential, there are plenty of reasons to do so right now.