Ruin and Rebirth ditches machines for magical creatures in this ambitious factory builder from the developers of Ghostlore. Instead of assembling conveyor belts, you breed Lemmules that march in formation carrying items on their backs. This playable creation myth takes the core automation loop that made Factorio addictive and reimagines it through a fantastical lens where biology replaces engineering.
What Makes Ruin and Rebirth Different
The premise alone sets this game apart from typical factory builders. You play as the last or perhaps the first human in a surreal post-apocalyptic world where the gods have died. Your mission is to harness remnants of divine power and forge a new beginning by nurturing an array of creatures that can be cultivated, captured, tamed, bred, and evolved to achieve your goals. Every mechanical component you would normally build in Factorio has an organic equivalent in Ruin and Rebirth.
Take the Lemmules for example. These small critters are a blend of lemmings and mules that serve as your transportation network. They march in unison carrying items on their backs, creating living conveyor belts that snake across your base. Their trails are free to establish, but each item needs one Lemmule to transport it. If you run out of them, you can remove idle Lemmules from trails and reassign them elsewhere. The developers put significant effort into making trail building as streamlined as possible, ensuring the creature-based logistics feel intuitive rather than frustrating.
Other creatures fill specialized roles in your growing ecosystem. Ore-toises are heavily armored reptiles with shells that naturally gather precious minerals over time. Their crystalline backs can be harvested carefully without harming them, and while they move slowly, they produce valuable resources just by existing. Jellofts are massive creatures that float through the air using gas-filled sacs within their soft bodies. These gentle giants can transport significant cargo over long distances, making them perfect for aerial delivery across challenging terrain.
Deep Automation Beneath the Fantasy Skin
Do not mistake the creature focus for simplicity. Beneath the taming layer lies a comprehensive factory-building experience featuring intricate multi-step recipes, genuine throughput and logistics challenges, and large-scale automation. The developers built the game from scratch with performance in mind, specifically optimizing it so players can build truly massive late-game bases that push the limits of modern CPUs. This is not a Factorio-lite experience. Everything was designed around the idea that complexity and scale matter as much as the fantasy aesthetic.
The game currently features three tiers of progression, with plans to add four more before full release. Research and upgrades are obtained by exploring the remains of fallen gods. The death of such immense beings leaves behind lingering fragments of their souls, which can be harvested and transformed into power. This ties the resource gathering directly into the lore, making progression feel thematically consistent with the post-divine apocalypse setting.
You will start with simple creatures and progressively develop farming, mining, and beast taming capabilities, eventually leading to the creation of powerful magical artifacts. Mountable creatures like Wyvercats help you explore the fractured landscape more efficiently. The world features customizable procedural generation, ensuring each playthrough presents different challenges and opportunities.
The Visual Identity Stands Out
Ruin and Rebirth draws visual inspiration from psychedelic progressive rock album covers and the iconic illustrations featured in Heavy Metal magazine. The setting is both primal and surreal, with dream-like environments that convey the essence of a post-divine apocalypse. This artistic direction helps the game carve out its own identity in a genre dominated by industrial aesthetics and clean geometric designs.
The developers are a two-person team working under the name AT-AT Games, though they operate as embark on some platforms. They previously collaborated on Ghostlore, a Diablo-style action RPG that infused Southeast Asian mythology and folklore into the genre. That game achieved moderate commercial success, allowing the team to dedicate themselves to Ruin and Rebirth full-time. Their approach remains consistent across both projects: take a well-established genre and inject it with striking artistic vision that distinguishes it from competitors.
Light Combat and Exploration Elements
While factory building and creature management form the core gameplay loop, Ruin and Rebirth includes light combat elements. You will need to defend your base and explore dangerous areas to gather rare resources and discover fragments of divine power. The combat is not meant to be the focus like it would be in a survival game, but rather a complementary system that adds variety to the automation gameplay.
Exploration plays a significant role as well. The world is fractured and mysterious, with secrets hidden in the ruins left by dead gods. Mountable creatures give you mobility options beyond walking, and the procedural generation ensures there is always something new to discover even on subsequent playthroughs. The balance between automation and exploration appears designed to give players objectives beyond simply optimizing production chains.
Early Development and Community Feedback
Ruin and Rebirth is currently in early development with a playable build available on Steam and itch.io. The developers are actively seeking feedback from the community to help guide development priorities. They acknowledge that some of the art in the current build is placeholder and not final, and several features like creature taming are functional but not fully fleshed out yet.
The Steam playtest launched in late October 2025, with peak concurrent player counts reaching modest numbers as word spreads through automation game communities. The developers maintain an active Discord server where players can provide feedback, report bugs, and discuss mechanics. This direct line of communication between developers and players is crucial for a small indie team working on an ambitious project.
The team aims to launch an Early Access version of Ruin and Rebirth sometime in 2026. They are transparent about the challenges ahead, acknowledging that while they aspire to be ambitious and ignite imagination, they are a small team of two and the workload is substantial. Many ideas are still in the initial development stage, and features will be added iteratively based on player feedback and development resources.
Standing Out in a Crowded Genre
The factory building and automation genre has exploded in popularity following Factorio’s success. Games like Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, and Shapez have each found their own niche by emphasizing different aspects of the core loop. Ruin and Rebirth faces stiff competition, but its creature-based approach and fantasy setting give it a unique angle that could attract players looking for something fresh.
The biological automation concept has been explored before in games like The Sapling and Equilinox, but never at the scale and complexity that Ruin and Rebirth is targeting. By combining Factorio-level depth with creature taming mechanics and a surreal artistic vision, the game occupies a space that no other title currently fills. Whether that niche is large enough to sustain the game commercially remains to be seen, but the concept is undeniably interesting.
FAQs About Ruin and Rebirth
When will Ruin and Rebirth be released?
The developers are targeting an Early Access launch sometime in 2026. No specific date has been announced. A playable demo is currently available through Steam and itch.io for players who want to try the game in its early state.
Who is developing Ruin and Rebirth?
Ruin and Rebirth is being developed by AT-AT Games, a two-person indie team that previously created Ghostlore, a Southeast Asian-inspired action RPG. The developers also operate under the name embark on some platforms.
What platforms will the game be available on?
Currently, Ruin and Rebirth is only confirmed for Windows PC through Steam. The developers have not announced plans for other platforms, though this could change as development progresses.
How does the creature system work?
Instead of building machines and conveyor belts, you tame, breed, and evolve creatures that perform various functions. Lemmules transport items like conveyor belts, Ore-toises generate minerals passively, and Jellofts provide aerial cargo transport. Each creature type serves a specific role in your automation network.
Is Ruin and Rebirth similar to Factorio?
Ruin and Rebirth takes inspiration from Factorio’s deep automation and logistics systems but replaces the industrial setting with a fantasy world where creatures perform the functions that machines would normally handle. The developers describe it as a Factorio-inspired game with its own unique identity, not a Factorio clone.
Does the game have multiplayer?
The developers have not announced multiplayer features. Given the small team size and early development stage, multiplayer is likely not a priority for the initial Early Access release, though this could be added later based on community demand.
What is the performance like?
The developers specifically built the game from the ground up with performance in mind, optimizing it to handle truly massive late-game bases that push modern CPUs to their limits. This focus on performance is crucial for factory building games where player creations can become incredibly complex.
Can you play the game right now?
Yes, a playable early build is available on both Steam and itch.io. The developers are seeking feedback from players to help guide development. Be aware that this is a very early version with placeholder art and incomplete features.
Conclusion
Ruin and Rebirth represents an ambitious attempt to merge two popular gaming concepts: Factorio-style automation and creature collecting. By replacing cold machinery with living organisms that can be tamed, bred, and evolved, the game offers a fresh take on factory building that feels thematically cohesive and mechanically interesting. The surreal post-apocalyptic setting where gods have died and their power must be harvested provides narrative context that most automation games lack. While the two-person development team faces significant challenges ahead, their track record with Ghostlore shows they can execute on unconventional ideas. If you are burned out on industrial factory builders and want to see what automation looks like through a fantasy lens, Ruin and Rebirth deserves a spot on your wishlist. The Steam playtest is live now, so there is no reason not to jump in and see if this peculiar blend of genres clicks for you.