SpaceChem
Programming-style puzzle game about designing factories for chemical production
Zachtronics · Released Mar 2, 2011
- Reviews
- Very Positive
- 92% of 5,090
- Recent reviews
- Not enough recent
- Playing now
- 3
- peak 24h 7
- Steam Deck
- Playable
- Last update
- 2 months ago
- Jul 19, 2026
Metacritic: 84/100 (critic reviews)
What is SpaceChem?
SpaceChem is a single-player, 2D logic puzzle game. As a reactor engineer for a company that supplies frontier colonies, you design factories to turn raw materials into chemical products and revise them to meet production quotas across a series of puzzles.
For you if...
- +you enjoy puzzles built around programming-style logic
- +you like working through structured puzzles on your own
Not for you if...
- −you want quick progress without lengthy trial and error
What players say
92% of 5,090 reviews are positive
Players praise the satisfaction of making their own designs work and finding more efficient solutions. Many describe later puzzles as extremely difficult, and some criticize the interface and tutorial as clunky.
Screenshots and trailer
SpaceChem system requirements
As published by the developer.
Minimum
- OS
- Windows XP SP3 / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
- Processor
- 2.0 GHz Processor
- Graphics
- frame buffer support recommended
- Memory
- 1GB RAM
- Storage
- 300MB
PC version details
DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.
- DRM
- None declared on Steam
- Controller
- Keyboard and mouse
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- Achievements
- 20
- Steam features
- Cloud saves, Family Sharing, Trading cards
Steam Deck: Playable
- Default controller config not fully functional
- Sometimes shows mouse, keyboard or non-Deck controller icons
- Some text entry requires manually opening the on-screen keyboard
- Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
- The native resolution is not the default one
- Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
Multiplayer and co-op
Languages
Text only: English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Latin America.
Tags
- Puzzle
- Difficult
- Programming
- Indie
- Logic
- Singleplayer
- Automation
- Sci-fi
- Great Soundtrack
- Science
- 2D
- Space
- Simulation
- Casual
- Education
- Addictive
Recent updates
- Jul 19, 2026 · UPDATE: Windowing improvements
- Aug 31, 2020 · UPDATE: Minor bug fixes
- Jul 15, 2020 · UPDATE: 64-bit Mac Support (v1016)
- Feb 28, 2020 · UPDATE: More bug fixes (v1015)
- May 17, 2019 · UPDATE: Bug fixes (v1014)
1 DLC available.
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