What's in the game, and what's coming
What's in the game, what's coming next, and the ideas for later. Each new build ticks things off. It's the same list as the Roadmap on the game's title screen.
In the game now 43
A website for the game
sheetmetaltycoon.com has its own front page now, with pictures of each level, a How to play guide, this roadmap and the live high score boards, and the game's a click away at sheetmetaltycoon.com/play. Saves carry on as before.
More hands than work
Each worker's card says how much of last week they stood about with nothing to do. On a Monday when the floor stood about and nothing was holding it up, Col says so and who stood about most. When another machine would clear a backed-up section but its bay is full, he tells you to mark out more floor. And the crew come in early on a Monday and finish the pallet they're on, rather than spending half the day walking the big shed.
What each job made
When a job's out the door the office says what it made or lost, and why: late, sent back, a trade that took twice as long, or priced under cost. Finances lists the last dozen with where the money went, and the hours last week nobody was on a job, so you can tell work that's priced too low from a shop with more hands or gear than work.
Tube: the cold saw and the tube laser
RHS tube on the rack at the works, and two ways to cut it: a cheap cold saw whose work still goes to the drill, or a tube laser, leased or bought, that cuts every hole and slot as it goes but needs the drafter for each job. It opens balustrade posts, farm gate frames, and pallet racking uprights that only the tube laser can make.
Bigger gear for the works
A CNC punch press that flies through holes but changes its tools over for every new job, a fibre laser twice the CO2's speed that cuts copper and plate, and a quick little 50T and a big 4 m 320T press brake. The dear ones can be leased instead of bought. They open perforated screens, stainless bench tops and chute liners in 6 mm plate, and new customers ring the day you can make them.
The PA and the crew's yarns
Priya's on the PA in the factory and the works, with a bing-bong: smoko and lunch, Monday mornings and Friday arvos, the truck, a breakdown, WorkSafe or a builder on the floor, and the odd announcement nobody asked for. At the garage someone yells out from the house instead. The crew have a yarn over smoko and lunch, in little speech bubbles over their heads, and mutter to themselves at the machines.
Emergencies and big moments
Every few weeks something big happens, and it's your call. A mine rings on Friday afternoon needing conveyor guards by Monday at triple the price: take it, bring the crew in on Saturday, or say no. A builder walks your floor before handing out a year's work, and guards off, a messy floor or people stood about lose it. A whole job comes back with the holes in the wrong spot, and a customer changes the drawing halfway through.
A proper welcome
The website opens on the game's own loading screen instead of the Godot logo: the title over the garage with the crew at work, a progress bar, and Col's tips while it loads. It fades straight into the title screen, and the game has its own icon in the browser tab.
Seeing the bottleneck
Work waiting for a section piles up on painted squares in its bay, a backed-up section gets a red tag with how many pallets and days of work are waiting, Col says who's holding everyone up and what'd fix it, and Where's the work (top left, or B) colours every section green, amber or red.
Quote the job
Customers ring wanting a price, not a yes or no. You start from the going rate in the garage, and from Priya's price and date once she's in the office. Go dearer or cheaper, sooner or later, and the card shows your chance of winning it and what it'd make. Each customer buys their own way, from the cheapest to the date to a shop they know, and big jobs go out to tender against named rival shops. A good name lets you charge more and still win.
Your own powder coating line
A walk-in blast room, a powder booth and a gas-fired batch oven on an overhead rail, in a finishing bay of their own at the works. Painted work goes round it after welding instead of out to the powder coater: no days on the truck, and the powder and gas cost a fraction of the coater's bill. Powder coaters turn up among the job seekers to run it.
Powder coating, sent out
Painted work at the works: litter bin housings, bollard covers and switchboard cabinets. Once they're made the truck takes them to the powder coater, and they come back painted a few days later, straight to the customer on the truck's way out.
The drafting office and the laser
A second-hand CO2 laser for the works. It cuts the holes as it cuts the outline, so its parts skip drilling, but only once the drafter has drawn the part up in CAD and nested the job, at the CAD desk in the drafting office.
A factory that pays
Factory work pays what a real shop charges for it, so a full floor makes money and the factory can be finished. Customers give you extra time for the move and for remaking work they sent back, and the days-to-finish estimate allows for a bigger crew getting in each other's way.
Level 3: the works
When the factory's goals are met, move up to the big shed at the end of the estate: 64 by 30 metres, empty again, room for 20 crew and bigger jobs. Everything comes on the truck and waits in the yard while you lay it out.
The town map
The whole town as a little model, like the map between levels: your garage, the factory unit, the places you could go next and the levels still to come. Click a pin for its card.
End-of-year awards
Every 1 July the Metal Trades Awards judge your year: Safest shop, Best on time and Top earner, won outright or highly commended, and Shop of the year for all three. Prize money, a lift for your name, trophies on Priya's desk, a trophy cabinet under Customers and a Most trophies high score board.
WorkSafe inspections
Deb from WorkSafe turns up unannounced and walks the floor: guards, PPE, welding fumes, extinguishers, a first aider and a tidy floor. A guard caught off is an on-the-spot fine, the rest are notices to fix. The crew pull guards off to go quicker, people get hurt now and then, and Build has a Safety tab with the gear.
High scores
Fastest garage, fastest factory, biggest first year and most jobs on time: top 10 boards for signed-in players, under your shop's name.
Online saves
Sign in with your email (a 6-digit code, no password) and every morning's save also goes online, so your game follows you to any computer or browser and clearing the browser won't wipe it.
Material types
Galv, mild steel, aluminium, stainless and copper, each with its own sheet price and its own lot on the rack. Customers say what they want it made in. Stainless, aluminium and copper need a TIG welder, and the treadle shear won't cut stainless.
Maintenance fitter
Hire a fitter in the factory. Between breakdowns they go round doing maintenance on the most worn machine, and when one lets go they fix it on the spot with no call-out. Tell them which machine to do next from its card.
The old hospital-game look
Riveted steel windows with their titles on dark plates, chunky buttons that sink in when they're on, black readouts for the money, date and news, and a console along the bottom with pictures of the real kit on its buttons.
A tidier screen
One look for every panel and button. Panels have a title and a close button, open one at a time, and light up their button. The order book lines its jobs up with progress bars and folds away, cards show energy, mood and condition as bars, greyed-out buttons say why, the news line keeps the last few messages, and Space pauses.
Research and training
Send the crew on courses (TAFE blocks, trade tickets, a leading hand course), and research jigs, templates and new products: planter boxes, rainwater heads and switchboard enclosures.
Simple and complex jobs
Every product is basic, standard or complex. An apprentice on complex work makes a lot more mistakes, so first and second years are kept off it unless you let them on.
Apprentice to senior
Everyone's somewhere from first-year apprentice to senior tradesperson. Apprentices are cheaper but slower and make more mistakes; the hours on the tools move them up.
Make the shed nicer
Hot summers and cold winter mornings in a tin shed. Fans, heaters, a water bubbler, and a smoko room with a kitchen, coffee, a couch and the footy. Offcuts pile up round the machines till they're swept up or binned; hire a cleaner, and the scrap man pays for the offcuts.
Customers and reputation
Named customers who remember you. Good work on time builds your name around town; late or bad work comes back.
Build your own factory
Move into an empty shed and mark out where everything goes.
Level 2: the factory unit
Guillotine, press brake, forklifts, pallet racking, and yellow job travellers released by Priya.
Six products
Packer plates, cover plates, kick plates, angle brackets, weld-on brackets and letterboxes.
Crew as people
Smoko and lunch, getting tired, moods, sick days, asking for a pay rise, handing in notice, and getting faster with practice.
Things go wrong
Machines wear and break down, Dave the repairer, late sheet trucks, sheet price changes, rush jobs.
Sound and radio
Machines, the street, payday and a radio for the shed.
Title screen and How to play
Col walks you through your first day. The game saves every morning.
Weekends off
The crew go home Saturday and come back Monday. The Boss can still work weekends.
Sheet orders
Order sheet yourself or keep it topped up. Real sheet sizes and real yield per sheet.
Click to inspect
Click anyone or any machine to see what they're doing, how they're going and what's next.
Buy and place machines
Shear, drill, pan brake and MIG in the garage. Move them or swap them round any time.
Hire your crew
Pick from the job seekers each Monday, and let people go when you have to.
Real jobs, real money
Take orders, make them, ship them and get paid. Rent, wages, super and bills come out every Friday.
Start in the garage
Day one of the company: the Boss, a double garage and $20,000 in the bank.
Coming next 3
Machining
A machining section at the works with a lathe and a mill, and a machinist to run them. Bosses, spacers, shafts and tapped brackets, and assemblies that need sheet and machined parts together.
QA and certified welding
A QA bench with a measuring arm and an inspector who catches faults before they ship, and welding tickets. Together they open rail, food and pharma, and marine work.
Murphy's and the highway
The other two places on the town map become real choices for Level 3: buy out old Murphy's down on the river, or the big new build on the highway.
Ideas for later 11
QA section
Checks work before it ships, and catches mistakes before the customer does.
HR manager
Looks after staff training and sends people on courses.
More garage gear
Grinder and bench, compressor and rivet gun, linisher, notcher and corner notcher, box and pan folder, slip rolls and a pallet jack.
More garage products
Trailer mudguards, once there's slip rolls to roll them.
Factory products
Roof flashings and cappings, ute toolboxes, fire pits, BBQ hoods, aircon duct, bins and bollards, bike racks and machine guards, with a long folder, sheet roller, spot welder, ironworker and a powder coat booth.
More thicknesses
Each material in a few gauges, from 0.9 mm to 3 mm plate, with heavier work needing the bigger shear and press brake.
More for the works
A plasma table, a laser welder and a wet spray booth.
Certified work
Welding tickets and QA sign-off open up the best-paying customers: rail and transport, food and pharma in stainless, architectural screens, marine and defence.
Level 4: the automated plant
Cobot welders beside the crew, robotic bending and lasers fed from a sheet tower that run overnight. Fewer hands for each job.
Level 5: lights-out (the end)
Robots everywhere: robot weld cells, driverless pallet carts instead of forklifts and a robot coat line, all watched from a control room. Huge repeat contracts.
Phone and tablet
Play with touch controls.
Updated with every build. Build 81 · 9 Oct 2026.