Machine Eater

Prospectus

Create blocks using the resources you collect, expand your ship, and strategically place structures with different features on the blocks you create before selecting your enemy on the radar. Use your strategy skills to eliminate the enemies you detect on the radar. The structures you collect from enemies will add depth to your strategy.

How it plays

Controls Use WASD / arrow keys / mouse to move the character.

Opening an account with this game takes one press: Open the holding, above, and it loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first decision. It is drawn for a flexible screen and takes its instructions from mouse, keyboard or touch, as the game prefers. It adjusts itself to upright and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all present it properly. If a fullscreen control is offered, take it — a growing enterprise deserves the whole desk.

Analyst's notes for management holdings

• Fix the queue before the product. In management games the line out the door is rarely a quality problem; it is a staffing and layout problem wearing a quality costume.
• Hire for the hour you cannot cover. Your own attention is the scarcest employee in any management sim — spend money wherever it buys your attention back.
• Read the complaint, not the rating. Averages hide the one broken station that is quietly taxing every customer; the written grumble names it for free.

Machine Eater — questions from the readership

What does it cost to open Machine Eater?

Nothing, at any point. The holding is free from the first click to the last upgrade — no account to open, no download to wait for, no paywall filed anywhere in its pages. The advertising around this page is what pays the bookkeeping.

What kind of game is Machine Eater, exactly?

We file it on the Management shelf of the ledger. It is a browser game through and through — the prospectus above is the publisher's own summary of what the game asks of you and what it gives back.

Can I play Machine Eater on a phone or tablet?

Yes — it runs in the browser on phones and tablets just as it does on a computer. It adjusts itself to upright and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all present it properly.

Is there anything to download or install first?

Nothing at all. Machine Eater is an HTML5 game: press the open button and it loads on this very page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind on your device.

Closing entry

Finished the audit, or still mid-season? The full Management shelf is one click away — One hundred and eighty-one exercises in being in charge: rotas, stock, queues, budgets and the eternal discovery that the bottleneck was you. Management games for people who enjoy a tidy operation.