Tycoon game Rise of Industry has been a sleeper hit on itch.io and has recently become available as Early Access title on Steam and GOG. This industrial simulation throws you into a giant sandbox and has you figuring out supply chains for several industrial sectors. You'll control every aspect from gathering, refining, production, and logistics - and it lets you play any way you want.

I've put a few hours into the game now and barely scratched the surface of all the possible things to do. During that time, I restarted quite a bit to try out different approaches. Advanced technologies need to be unlocked with accumulated "experience" and the production lines are very deep.

For instance, you cannot just build a car factory and hope that cars magically appear out of nowhere. Each of their components need to be built in other factories, which in turn need other resources to function. That car factory would need around 30 different kind of buildings before the first car can roll from the production line.
The game is wonderfully ambitious and it is a true joy to figure out how things work. Lots of little eureka moments here. You could probably argue that some things aren't always explained that well - "What do those flashing signs mean" What is happening" What am I doing wrong"" - but when you finally figure them out after a bit of tinkering, it's rather lovely.

In other words: there's a bit of a learning curve, but the UI is a...