It is one of the most addictive games I’ve played, and yet, I have learned more from it than almost any other.

Programming has been a core part of my career for about 20 years, and I can’t think of any other time I’ve had such leaps forward as I did in the first few months playing factory.

It really is a great visual representation of large scale systems management.

That said, it can be one hell of a time suck.

Kerbal Space Program changed how I understand space flight.

Factorio changed how I approach programming

Modding original Doom and GTA vice city taught me 2d and 3d graphics as well as hacking and programming.

I did it for a few years, and blew through all my savings in the process.

Had to start an actual business, LLC, and deal with all the parts that as an engineer I absolutely hate.

Had done about 15 years in the industry with a small tech company, had all the skills, leads, etc, and wanted to do it on my own.

Way underestimated how much time and effort the running of a business part takes, and while I had projects, I didn’t have the time to do them right, payment was always late so my profit shrank, and I burned out in two years.

Hired an admin to help with managing the projects and clients, but it was too little too late.

I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m saying be sure to have all those other elements well in place, cause the actual time spent programming was pretty small.

In the end I took a role as the on site guy for a very large company, making decent money, and I’m back doing the parts I enjoy.

Best of luck to you.

Going to have to go with the three that had the biggest impact on me.

1: Doom / Doom 2. In addition to being two of the most influential and important FPS games of all time, they got me into modding, programming, the internet, 3D graphics, shaping my entire future career path.

2: Kerbal space program. No moment in all of gaming had me leap out of my chair and whoop the way landing in the Mun for the first time did. Now that I understand orbital mechanics, I get annoyed at almost all depictions of space flight in movies.

3: Factorio. Got to this one late, on Switch about 6 months ago. I can’t think of any game which has rewired my brain as much. As a programmer, I come away from each play through with entire new methods of solving problems at work. May be the single most in depth and addictive game I’ve ever played.

The resource I was talking about was you, not the JSON. Pulling your time away to fix it. That has to be coordinate a level above unless both teams have the same management.

If not you may your work impacted by it, as they say, cover your ass.

Can you put an ingest test on your systems?

Throw a flag when the JSON breaks etc and track those metrics.

If they are breaking production services, they sure wouldn’t last long on any of the teams I work with.

This 100% is a management issue, both their boss, and yours.

If resources are going from one team to another, and they have separate management, that damn well better be coordinated through your boss. At the very least C.C. at the start and end of the project.

I’m all for helping out another team, that’s what you do, but sounds more like constantly cleaning up their messes.