5 stars, great game. Recommend as a game. It's not an incremental.

• NGU: Yes. The factory must grow. Bigger numbers of production. End game players look at Science Packs Per Minute. x NGU is not exponential. Throughput and growth is pretty linear throughout the game. x "Resource or progress is made while afk": If the game is left running, sure. I consider this requirement to only be counted if the afk time counts while offline. x There isn't a simple interaction that will make Factorio give progress. I consider this to need something basically mindless. A button press. A simple minigame. Poking a bottle neck in the wrong way can destroy progress. x Unfolding: No. Factorio is a factory production builder with some defense mechanics. Even space flight is on a flying factory with some defense mechanics.
• Upgrades can improve progress. x "Playing 'wrong' can't cause a game over or significant loss of progress.". Factorio has game over on death. Also, it is trivial to destroy progress. x "Doesn't have lengthy active game sections" HAHAHAHA. x "Reset mechanic that provides permanent upgrades that significantly improve resource or progress gains". No. Unless you consider restarting the game with new gained knowledge and a book of blueprints. No. x "Has down time" No. There is always something you can do to make progress. Your downtime is a break. It isn't the game's downtime. It's yours.