Games Like Upload Labs: 7 Automation, Logic and Idle Games
What should I play after Upload Labs?
Play while True: learn() if the part you liked was the node graph itself, the dragging and wiring of boxes that pass data along. Play shapez 2 if it was tuning the flow until nothing backs up. Play Factory Town Idle or NGU INDUSTRIES if it was the idle side, the numbers climbing while you watch. All seven picks below are on Steam, and all seven run on a Mac, which Upload Labs does not.
The list leans toward building over idling: five of the seven ask you to build or fix something before anything moves. If the climbing numbers were the whole draw, games like Cookie Clicker and games like AdVenture Capitalist go much deeper into idle games.
Updated October 2026.
What kind of game is Upload Labs?
An incremental game is a game built around numbers that grow faster than you can spend them: you buy something that makes more of the resource, which buys more of that thing, until the scale changes and new systems appear. (The longer version is in what is an incremental game.)
Upload Labs puts that loop inside a computer. Its nodes are window-like panels for components and processes, and you connect them output to input so files get downloaded, processed and uploaded. Scanning files feeds a research tree, breaching organizations brings in resources, committing code wins contributors, and an AI you feed with downloaded files grows toward AGI, all in the name of saving the universe from heat death. Players tag it Automation, Idler, Incremental and Programming on its store page. It is free to play, came out on 3 October 2025 from EnigmaDev Studios, and sits at 92.3% positive across 8,661 reviews (as of October 2026).
So a game belongs on this list if you build the machine that does the work: you wire outputs to inputs, the throughput is the score, and the machine keeps going once it is built. That is a narrower test than the “similar games” grids use. Steam’s own list for Upload Labs mixes in scratch-ticket games, a platformer and tower defense.
Which games are most like Upload Labs?
The closest match is while True: learn(): boxes on a board, wired together, with data flowing through them. The best game on the list is shapez 2, even though it is further from Upload Labs, because no other pick makes fixing a flow feel as good, and 97.0% of its 15,411 Steam reviews agree (as of October 2026). Data Center is the weakest-reviewed pick.
| Game | What you automate | How hands-off it gets | Released | Regular price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| shapez 2 | Belts and machines that cut, stack and paint shapes, across three layers | Lines run by themselves once built; each new shape needs a new line | 23 April 2026 | $29.99 | 15,411 at 97.0% positive |
| shapez | The same shape factory in 2D, with optional wiring and logic | Same as shapez 2; the store page says it is not an idle game | 7 June 2020 | $9.99 | 15,983 at 95.9% positive |
| while True: learn() | Flowcharts of machine learning blocks that sort data | Not idle: you build each puzzle, press Release, watch the data run | 17 January 2019 | $12.99 | 8,250 at 91.3% positive |
| Learning Factory | Production lines, plus routing cat customers to the right stores | Belts, underground lines and air transport carry it once laid | 27 January 2025 | $14.99 | 523 at 86.0% positive |
| Data Center | Racks, servers, switches and the cables between them | Never fully: hardware ages and breaks, so you keep swapping parts | 31 March 2026 | $8.99 | 958 at 77.1% positive |
| Factory Town Idle | A whole town economy, run from menus | The most idle here: time away earns Time Tokens to fast-forward | 8 January 2024 | $4.99 | 1,265 at 90.8% positive |
| NGU INDUSTRIES | A factory of buildings, beacons and labs laid out to min-max output | A mix of active and idle play, by its own description | 5 April 2021 | Free | 1,573 at 77.3% positive |
Prices are regular prices; several of these were discounted when I checked. All seven have Windows and macOS builds on Steam, and the four above Data Center also run on Linux (as of October 2026). Two sit at “Mostly Positive” on Steam, Data Center and NGU INDUSTRIES, and every other row is “Very Positive” or better (as of October 2026).
Which picks keep the node graph and the data?
while True: learn()
I put while True: learn() first in this group because its screen is the nearest thing to Upload Labs: boxes on a board, wired together, with data flowing through them. Each puzzle asks you to sort incoming data by shape and colour using ready-made blocks, from expert systems and decision trees to perceptrons and neural networks, within limits on accuracy, speed and cost. The Steam page sums up the loop in one line: “Drag blocks onto the board, wire them up, press Release and watch the data flow.” Between puzzles you take freelance jobs and spend the pay on better hardware, a small version of Upload Labs’ upgrade loop. No code is written in the game.
Data Center
Data Center is the most literal neighbour: you buy racks, servers and switches, run Ethernet between ports by hand, and earn money from the customer data you process. On Steam, each customer’s traffic shows up as coloured packet-balls rolling along the cables, so a bottleneck is something you can see rather than a number you infer. Hardware has an end of life and can break, so the network never fully runs itself. I kept it despite the weakest reviews on the list, 77.1% positive across 958 (as of October 2026), because nothing else here is this close to the subject; read a few reviews before you buy.
Learning Factory
Learning Factory is the cosy middle ground between a factory game and a data game. You restore a factory on Mars, build production lines for cat customers, and route the cats themselves to the stores that sell what they want. The developer describes real machine learning models that analyse your store sales data and a “fail-safe environment” with no enemies (store page). It comes from Luden.io, the studio behind while True: learn(). Learning Factory is also a pick in games like Cell to Singularity, the list for incrementals that leave you knowing something.
Which picks are pure automation?
shapez 2
shapez 2 is the best pick on this page for anyone who liked making the flow work more than watching the number grow. You extract shapes, cut, stack and paint them, and deliver them to unlock new buildings, across three building layers and eventually space trains. Its Steam listing treats what is missing as a feature: all buildings are free, resources never run out, and there are no enemies or time limits. At $29.99 it is the most expensive game here.
shapez
shapez is the cheaper, flatter version, and I would play it first if $29.99 is a lot for a genre test. Same idea in 2D: miners, cutters, stackers and painters, an infinite map, and optional wiring and logic if you want to build a machine that can make every shape. The developer says it outright on the store page: “After all, it’s not an idle game!” Take that seriously if the idle part is what kept you in Upload Labs.
Which picks are closest to the idle side?
Factory Town Idle
Factory Town Idle is the most idle game here and the right pick if the numbers mattered more to you than the wiring. Its store page calls it “an entire town builder experience packed into a living spreadsheet”: you harvest, house workers, craft items, choose what to sell and what to refine, then unlock tools that run the town for you. Time away earns Time Tokens that fast-forward the simulation when you come back. There is no node graph, so it is the furthest from Upload Labs in look. If the money side is what you want more of, games like AdVenture Capitalist is the list for business idlers.
NGU INDUSTRIES
NGU INDUSTRIES is the free one, like Upload Labs, and the only idle game here built around laying out a factory. You place buildings, beacons and labs in whatever layout min-maxes what the factory turns out, and labs, crops and fights open up as you progress (Steam). The developer pitches it as “a great mix of active and Idle gameplay” and says the premium currency can be earned in play without paying. The humour is deliberately crude and full of puns, which will suit some players and not others, and the reviews sit at 77.3% positive (as of October 2026).
What did I leave off, and why?
- Bitburner is free (as of October 2026), and you write real JavaScript to automate a hacking RPG. It is the best free answer to Upload Labs if you want to type code, and it has its own page: games like Bitburner.
- Nodebuster is the other node-themed hit, but it is an aim-and-fire incremental: you steer a reticule that fires at red squares in short sessions, and it has a real ending. It is covered in games like Nodebuster.
- The Farmer Was Replaced turns up in Steam’s similar-games list for Upload Labs, and you program a drone to run a farm. You type that program in a simple Python-like language, and nothing in the table above asks you to type code, so it belongs with the programming games.
- Idle Factory has the right name and the wrong numbers: 48 reviews at 56% positive, rated Mixed (as of October 2026).
- Factorio is the genre’s anchor and the obvious next step for anyone who finishes shapez 2. It is also much heavier, and by default creatures attack the factory and you build defences, which neither shapez game asks of you.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Sam, We Talked About This, sits next to this list rather than on it. It is an idle incremental game: you scrape whatever the internet has, train text, image and video models on it, let the models pull in subscribers, and turn them into cash for more disks, bigger machines and a bigger crew. Data moving through machines is the whole premise, and AGI is waiting at the end, the same goal Upload Labs sets for its AI. The difference is that Sam scales its own models instead of handing you a node graph to wire. It is unreleased, due on Steam in Q1 2027, so there is nothing to point at yet beyond its Steam page.
Quick answers
Is Upload Labs free? Yes. Upload Labs is free to play on Steam. It sells five optional DLC packs, among them Time Generator and Permanent Boosts, priced from $3.99 to $9.99 (as of October 2026), plus a soundtrack.
Can I play Upload Labs on a Mac or a phone? No Mac build: the Steam page lists Windows and Linux only (as of October 2026). I did not check phone stores, so this list sticks to PC: all seven picks above are on Steam with Windows and macOS builds.
Is there a free game like Upload Labs? Yes, two. NGU INDUSTRIES is a free idle factory game, and Bitburner costs nothing on Steam either (as of October 2026); there you write JavaScript to automate a hacker’s work, so it leans harder on real code than Upload Labs does.
Does any game like Upload Labs play itself? Yes, Factory Town Idle comes closest. Its automation tools take over the town, and time away earns Time Tokens to fast-forward. NGU INDUSTRIES idles too but asks for active play, and every other pick needs you to build or fix something to move on.
