I remember enjoying The Incredible Machine games as a kid. Those games are pretty old now but their creator made a game called Contraption Maker[1] which might be worthwhile. It has good reviews on steam.
Those games are obviously quite dissimilar to Factorio but I feel like they tickle my brain in the same way.
Autonauts[2] is also pretty good, although it requires scratch like programming and might be a little difficult for that age range, not sure.
There are some other games in the genre but these are the ones I've tried and remember.
Those games are obviously quite dissimilar to Factorio but I feel like they tickle my brain in the same way.
Autonauts[2] is also pretty good, although it requires scratch like programming and might be a little difficult for that age range, not sure.
There are some other games in the genre but these are the ones I've tried and remember.
[1]: https://www.gog.com/en/game/contraption_maker
[2]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/979120/Autonauts/