Games like SpaceChem
If SpaceChem is your kind of game, the closest matches are Infinifactory, Opus Magnum and Charge! — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its challenging, contemplative and stressful. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →SpaceChem is a puzzle-focused indie simulation developed by Zachtronics in 2011 that tasks players with building chemical factories through visual programming. Set in a science fiction environment, players assume the role of a Reactor Engineer constructing elaborate production lines to transform raw materials into chemical products. The game emphasizes hard optimization challenges requiring players to master board-space efficiency and clock-cycle management, with solutions compared against global efficiency rankings. Players describe the experience as challenging, contemplative, stressful, and tense, with puzzles that demand creative problem-solving and make players feel like smarter programmers as they refine their designs. The title holds a 96% positive rating from over 1900 Steam reviews and is playable on Steam Deck.
About SpaceChem: Zachtronics is back with an ambitious new design-based puzzle game. Take on the role of a Reactor Engineer working for SpaceChem, the leading chemical synthesizer for frontier colonies. Construct elaborate factories to transform raw materials into valuable chemical products!
Players who liked SpaceChem also play
Steam players who put hours into SpaceChem also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Infinifactory
WHY THIS
Shares factory automation and a challenging mood with SpaceChem.
Top pick for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Infinifactory is a sandbox puzzle game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infiniminer. Build factories that assemble products for your alien overlords, and try not to die in the process.
Opus Magnum
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Second-strongest match for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Opus Magnum is the latest open-ended puzzle game from Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem, Infinifactory, and SHENZHEN I/O. Design and build machines that assemble potions, poisons, and more using the alchemical engineer’s most advanced tool: the transmutation engine!
Charge!
WHY THIS
Third-strongest match for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Charge is a level-based puzzle game where you control the flow of charge around a circuit board. Arrange pre-built components into wondrous machines that take advantage of available resources and design your own modules from scratch.
SysOps Simulator
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Simulation with SpaceChem.
SysOps Saga is a simulation game that puts you in the shoes of a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), managing the intricate web of software, security, and hardware to keep digital systems running. Developed by a FAANG veteran, this game offers an immersive and educational experience for IT enthusiasts.
Comet 64
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Ranked #5 for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Comet 64 is a programming puzzle game. The year is 1984. All you got is a Comet 64 home computer and the operator's manual it came with.
MOLEK-SYNTEZ
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Ranked #6 for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Use the MOLEK-SYNTEZ to create small molecules with various pharmacological effects from the comfort of your small Romanian apartment.
TIS-100
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with SpaceChem.
Ranked #7 for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
TIS-100 is an open-ended programming game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infinifactory, in which you rewrite corrupted code segments to repair the TIS-100 and unlock its secrets. It’s the assembly language programming game you never asked for!
Quantum Odyssey
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Ranked #8 for SpaceChem fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Master the most counter-intuitive logic in existence. Created by the researchers who defined Quantum Literacy, Quantum Odyssey is an open-ended puzzle game where you craft real quantum algorithms. Optimize 500+ challenges, hack other players, and gain insights textbooks can’t provide.
Reviewers mention these as similar to SpaceChem
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
Baba Is You
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Baba Is You is a puzzle game where the rules you have to follow are present as blocks you can interact with. By manipulating them, you can change how the game works, repurpose things you find in the levels and cause surprising interactions!
Factorio
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.
Satisfactory
WHY THIS
Shares factory automation and a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
Human Resource Machine
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Program little office workers to solve puzzles. Be a good employee! The machines are coming... for your job. From the creators of World of Goo and Little Inferno.
The Witness
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you.
FEZ
WHY THIS
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Gomez is a 2D creature living in a 2D world. Or is he? When the existence of a mysterious 3rd dimension is revealed to him, Gomez is sent out on a journey that will take him to the very end of time and space. Use your ability to navigate 3D structures from 4 distinct classic 2D perspectives.
Antichamber
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Reviewers of SpaceChem cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Antichamber is a mind-bending psychological exploration game where nothing can be taken for granted. Discover an Escher-like world where hallways wrap around upon each other, spaces reconfigure themselves, and accomplishing the impossible may just be the only way forward.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below SpaceChem at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Vampire Survivors
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.
WEBFISHING
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
WEBFISHING a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)
POSTAL 2
WHY THIS
Priced ~90% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Live a week in the life of "The POSTAL Dude"; a hapless everyman just trying to check off some chores. Buying milk, returning an overdue library book, getting Gary Coleman's autograph, what could possibly go wrong?
Buckshot Roulette
WHY THIS
Priced ~70% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Play Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun. Four enter. One leaves. Roll the dice with your life. Good luck!
Brotato
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Brotato is a top-down arena shooter roguelite where you play a potato wielding up to 6 weapons at a time to fight off hordes of aliens. Choose from a variety of traits and items to create unique builds and survive until help arrives.
Your Only Move Is HUSTLE
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under SpaceChem on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Master your technique, execute flashy combos, and outsmart opponents across the world, frame-by-frame. Slow down the clock to fine-tune your fighting style in this innovative, turn-based combat simulator. Pulverize your friends and choreograph spectacular fight scenes. No training mode required.
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
More from Zachtronics
Other recommendable Steam games by Zachtronics, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.
Opus Magnum
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Opus Magnum is the latest open-ended puzzle game from Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem, Infinifactory, and SHENZHEN I/O. Design and build machines that assemble potions, poisons, and more using the alchemical engineer’s most advanced tool: the transmutation engine!
SHENZHEN I/O
WHY THIS
Shares solution comparison and a stressful mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
BUILD CIRCUITS. WRITE CODE. RTFM.
TIS-100
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
TIS-100 is an open-ended programming game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infinifactory, in which you rewrite corrupted code segments to repair the TIS-100 and unlock its secrets. It’s the assembly language programming game you never asked for!
Infinifactory
WHY THIS
Shares factory automation and a challenging mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Infinifactory is a sandbox puzzle game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infiniminer. Build factories that assemble products for your alien overlords, and try not to die in the process.
EXAPUNKS
WHY THIS
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
The year is 1997. You used to be a hacker, but now you have the phage. You made a deal: one hack, one dose. There’s nothing left to lose… except your life.
Last Call BBS
WHY THIS
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie and Simulation with SpaceChem.
Boot up your Z5 Powerlance and dial into Last Call BBS, the last game from Zachtronics! The Barkeep’s loaded up his retro computer with a full set of puzzle games for you to download and play. No need to worry about copy protection, they’re all fully cracked and ready to enjoy!
Eliza
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
Eliza is a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it. Follow Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey as she reconnects with people from her past, gets to know the people of Seattle who use Eliza for counseling, and decides the course of her future.
The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with SpaceChem.
Another title from Zachtronics, the studio behind SpaceChem. Shares Indie with SpaceChem.
The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection is here! Inside you will find all seven Zachtronics solitaire games, updated with new 4K graphics, plus one brand new Tarot-themed solitaire variant only available here.
Frequently asked about SpaceChem
- Does SpaceChem run on Steam Deck?
- SpaceChem is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does SpaceChem cost?
- SpaceChem is listed on Steam at 9.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to SpaceChem?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside SpaceChem are Infinifactory, Opus Magnum, Charge!.
- Who developed SpaceChem?
- SpaceChem was developed by Zachtronics.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on SpaceChem.
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