Ore Factory Squad from threeW is a new cooperative ore mining and automation simulator that has rapidly shot to the top of the Steam charts. It lets you and your friends build your own mining empire. Ore Factory Squad is a video game that is growing in popularity among fans of co-op games and management simulators.
With no major releases this month, cooperative games have experienced a real boom. It seems like a new indie game comes out every few weeks, giving you a reason to gather your friends, turn on voice chat and transform a simple task into total chaos in an instant. Games such as Meccha Chameleon demonstrate just how engaging small multiplayer games can be when they emphasize teamwork, character personality, and moments that remain funny even when everything goes haywire.
On 16 July 2026, threeW released a game that immediately attracted more than 8,700 concurrent users, according to SteamDB — a very solid start for an indie game on Valve’s platform.
In Ore Factory Squad, players begin with a small warehouse and an ordinary shovel. They gradually acquire new territories, ranging from cosy forest areas to vast, snow-covered mountain quarries. Each location has its own unique features and profit potential, so the team must carefully plan their business development and mineral extraction.
Progress in the game is tangible: you start with a pickaxe, progress to jackhammers and finally use dynamite to clear large deposits. A key feature of the game is the procedural generation of underground resources. This means that minerals do not have fixed locations and players can dig their own tunnels, discovering something new or rare each time. Additionally, the game will be supported with regular updates and new content.
Gameplay loop: Where to dig and the reason why.
The core gameplay loop is simple to grasp yet dangerously addictive. Players purchase mining plots and carve out paths through procedurally generated underground areas in search of increasingly valuable resources. They can dig their own tunnels using pickaxes and jackhammers, blast through harder sections with dynamite and explore deeper layers in search of valuable resources. The goal is simple: dig up everything you can and reuse it for maximum profit.
In the early stages of the game, players have access to simple tools that limit the scope of excavations. As players progress, they gain access to more advanced tools such as pickaxes, jackhammers and explosives, enabling them to tackle more challenging terrain and clear larger areas. This change feels much more significant than simply watching numbers increase. Better equipment alters the way players work in the mine.
Of course, mining is just the beginning. With “Ore Factory Squad”, you can transform raw materials into useful products using machines, conveyor belts and multi-stage production lines. You can transport cargo using forklifts, load trucks and fulfill company contracts, gradually automating the warehouse with a combination of employees and robots. There’s always another machine to unlock, another license to purchase or another production chain to upgrade.
As you expand your holdings, new opportunities will become available midway through the game. New plots offer various procedurally generated mining layouts and a larger surface area on which to construct production facilities. Before buying, check the contract bulletin boards at the city warehouse. If upcoming orders require gold or diamonds, prioritize plots known for deeper veins. Rather than hoarding your profits, reinvest them; idle money won’t unlock achievements or depth levels.
The game becomes especially engaging in co-op mode. While one player gathers resources, another can manage the factory, operate a forklift or prepare shipments. Although it sounds well organized, it will probably only be a matter of minutes before someone blocks the tunnel, wrecks a vehicle or sends the wrong goods to a customer. It’s this combination of teamwork and harmless production mishaps that gives Ore Factory Squad its unique charm.
With over 60 types of resources and products, vehicles, employees, contracts and factory customization options, not to mention a multitude of facilities, the game offers plenty to keep groups of people who love creating things together busy. It combines the thrilling mineral mining of Hydroneer with the production-line excitement typical of factory games, all the while remaining accessible and wonderfully chaotic.
It is here that the significance of mining within the context of the entire Ore Factory Squad game begins to take on greater importance. It’s not just about digging the biggest hole possible. The resources you extract need somewhere to go, and the value of an excavation depends on what you can do with those materials later on.
Progressing from a shovel to a jackhammer changes the scale of the work. More advanced equipment enables players to progress from simple excavations to serious mineral extraction.
Later on, gathering resources largely involves planning for a larger area and deciding how much equipment and resources to deploy in order to complete the task.
This progress is also directly linked to the factory. Additional resources are only useful if the production side is capable of processing them. A player who invests heavily in mining but fails to increase processing capacity may simply create a new problem by extracting more materials than can be utilised by production.
This creates useful interdependence in the process. For example, a mine can place a burden on a factory, which can then provide an incentive to improve the mine’s operations.
Owning plots gives the game a distinct sense of expansion.
The environment also helps to distinguish one location from another. Construction sites, for example, contain underground hazards such as gas pipes, creating different excavation conditions compared to more open mining sites. Meanwhile, standard or starting plots may contain electrical cables in unexpected places.
As a result, property ownership is closely tied to the rest of the game. Mines, factories and businesses must develop at a reasonable pace. Otherwise, players may simply end up with a lot of land and even more problems.
Machines and production lines also require a different approach to planning. Factory management is all about organising subsequent stages. This means that the focus of the game gradually shifts from what a player can produce to what they can do with it. A resource sitting in a warehouse is not necessarily useful. It only becomes useful when it passes through the production system and ultimately becomes part of a sale or contract. There are also special resources that can be sold to third parties, such as metals or lost artifacts.
Logistics play an integral part in the game, with conveyors, forklifts, trucks and warehouse robots all featuring.
In the game “Ore Factory Squad”, there are several ways to transport materials. Conveyor belts connect production equipment, pallets carry cargo, forklifts move items around the warehouse and trucks handle deliveries over longer distances. Warehouse robots add another level of automation to the workflow.
As a result, the logistics system feels more realistic than in games where resources are simply moved between menus. Materials must be processed, stored, transported and prepared for shipment.
This also highlights the importance of factory layout. Machinery must be connected to one another, storage areas must remain accessible, and there must be sufficient space for vehicles to maneuver around the facility. Even if a factory is equipped with all the necessary machinery, it can still operate inefficiently if everything is arranged too densely.
The optimal factory layout in Ore Factory Squad depends on what the player is producing and how production is organized. There is no single, tried-and-tested layout that works for every situation. The general idea is simple: prevent production and transportation from interfering with each other.
A larger factory requires players to keep track of where materials are going, what is being produced and what else needs to be moved.
A more expansive gameplay experience allows players to focus on what interests them.
The multiplayer mode in Ore Factory Squad supports online co-op for up to four players. This structure is ideal for a game in which several different tasks are carried out simultaneously. For example, one player could focus on mining ore, another could manage production, a third could handle transportation, and a fourth could work on contracts or deliveries.
These roles are created naturally by the production process, so the game doesn’t need to impose them. If a mine produces more resources than a factory can process, the problem lies in production. If finished goods are sitting idle, perhaps you should focus on transportation or contracts.
Consequently, the cooperative gameplay structure for four players in Ore Factory Squad is more meaningful than adding more players to the same activities. The game features enough distinct systems to allow players to divide up the work as their business grows.
Why a full release and a roadmap, rather than early access?
Although the game has decent potential, it was launched with a roadmap outlining various improvements and new areas of activity, as well as the option to purchase heavy machinery to assist with excavations.
Currently, however, the main issue is the lack of content. Only four sites are available to buy, the progression system is dull, and heavy machinery won’t be available until several updates later.
The construction system and the factory itself are not very user-friendly: when trying to save space, problems arise with the conveyor belts because they are hard to bend, and the machines can only be accessed from one side via a specific panel. Unlike in Satisfactory, you can’t interact with any machine from any angle.
Unfortunately, there’s no real storyline either — it’s just mundane progression for the sake of it. They could have added an element of mystery, such as a treasure hunt or a quest to find equipment, or a mission to clear a rubble pile in order to rescue someone. Alternatively, they could have included a mini-quest, such as assembling a dinosaur skeleton.
