Gaming

I love Shipbreaker, so I'm interested in others' replies as well. It's the only game I might actually consider breaking my 'no paid DLC' rule for if they ever put out more ships.

Some 'immersive sim' games have a similar impression of segmented, defined processing tasks:

• Mech Mechanic Simulator (more relaxed)
• Space Mechanic Simulator (more detailed)
• Ship Graveyard Sim (a bit silly)
• Mess Sim (2D Viscera Cleanup)
• Train Station Renovation (not so puzzle-y)
• Leaf It Alone (more linear, not so puzzle-y)

But there are also other games that can have the same 'little puzzles' impression.

• Mars First Logistics (build modular bots to deliver stuff over rough martian terrain)
• maybe Quarantine Zone, Contraband Police, and other Papers-Please-likes (non-horror anomaly spotting)
• Tunnet (build a simplified computer network in underground tunnels with just a hint of Lovecraftian horror)
• abstract programming games like Autonauts, Molek Syntez, or Infinite Turtles (You get As. Cut them into /s, \s, and -s, and then make Ws.)

Kinda left field, but Teardown is an incredible game. You have leeway to destroy the environment however you want for as long as you want, but the second you touch one of the objectives a timer starts and you have to get the rest of the objectives and leave before time runs out. Essentially, you meticulously plan your route and make shortcuts for yourself using every tool at your disposal in a fully destructible voxel environment. Its so good

Keep in mind that these mostly aren't direct analogues, and not all in the space genre, but I can think of:

• Unpacking +
• Power Wash Simulator 1 and 2 +
• Papers, Please ++
• Space Engineers +
• Ostranauts +
• Besiege ++
• Terra Nil +
• Sunken Engine +
• No Place Like Home +

Cleaning games: +

Detail-driven puzzle or deduction games: ++

Hey there, cutter.

If you’re really after the deconstruction aspect, then I’m not sure there’s a whole lot out there. But if you zoom out to the level of “methodically tinkering with a system that requires careful attention”, there’s a lot of those.

Hardship Breakspacer is part of a (pseudo-)genre known as “dad games”.

• Powerwash Sim
• Viscera Cleanup Detail
• Goblin Cleanup
• Pacific Drive
• Papers Please
• Quarantine Zone
• House Flipper 2
• Star Trucker
• Dredge

On the “hardcore nerd” end of the spectrum, there’s even:

• Satisfactory
• Factorio
• Scrap Mechanic
• Any Zachtronics game

A little more chill:

• Unpacking
• Potion Craft
• Please Fix The Road

Edit: Or for the “scraping my way through out in space” vibe, but less tinkering:

• Endless Sky (free and open source!)
• FTL

I'm gonna make an argument for Viscera Cleanup Detail. You asked for cleanup games that scratch a particular itch. This is a sci-fi setting that puts you in charge of cleaning up after some horrific space disaster. Each map tells its own story through the evidence you're tasked with incinerating.

If we can put Powerwash Simulator up there, we have to acknowledge the violent, gory, and hilariously janky physics older cousin that is VCD. It's even got a sense of humor to it, which is another link to Shipbreaker.

If you don't mind carrying a bin of severed arms, grab VCD.

There's Ship Graveyard Simulator 1 and 2 in which you are dismanteling rusty ships. But on earth. I think it is less sarcastic, but if you like the disassamble part especially, this could be for you. I played a free to play "prologue"/demo version of SGS2 on steam once. People write that multiplayer has lots of errors, however you seem to be playing singleplayer so that wouldn't bother you, I assume.