A dev made their own little Factorio about feeding a monster instead of growing a factory, and the name Snacktorio is just one clever part of its Steam Next Fest demo

A good game name, I've heard, is easy to say and memorable, and maybe even descriptive. Snacktorio is checking all three boxes: it's Factorio but with snacks. That is to say, it's an automation sim about perfecting robot kitchens rather than factories that must grow, propelled by a familiar and engrossing web of conveyor belts, harvesters, processors, sorters, and all manner of assembly line fun.

Snacktorio caught my eye in Steam Next Fest – partly because of its clever little name, but also because its pixel art reminded me very much of the original Risk of Rain. That cute, simple style hides a deep automation sim which is smartly divided into islands with their own unique challenges. It's a little less sandbox-y and a little more like a kitchen, fiercely judging you for punctuality, creativity, and consistency.

Your goal is to command an army of little imps to build and operate giant kitchens capable of producing enough food to satisfy and stave off world-consuming monsters. You aren't processing steel; you're boiling pasta. You aren't forging computer chips; you're frying chicken. But you are still very much filling furnaces with coal and wiring them to other machinery. It is, after all, Factorio but with snacks.

My time with the Snacktorio demo, and a scan of the complex processing teased on its Steam page, tells me that this is one of those games that scales almost exponentially. You start with simple transformations: power a line of machines that might pick up one ingredient and put it through one cooking method before combining it with other intake goods according to a recipe. But there's a huge range of ingredients, hazards, and factory layouts with level-specific limitations, plus each type of food has clever risks associated with it.

"Dairy curdles with heat, nuts spread allergens, meat carries food poisoning and dough rises over time," developer ellraiser says. "Learn the rules, exploit them, and build factories that won’t implode... probably."

As someone who can get sandbox fatigue but loves puzzles and cooking, Snacktorio feels right up my alley. It doesn't have a release date yet, but its developer says it found a new publisher, the core mechanics are done, and "the rest of the game development is pretty much just designing a fuck tonne of levels." So that sounds good.

I finally got to try the cyberpunk Metroidvania I've been following for years: its Steam Next Fest demo is a little bit of Mega Man, a little bit of Star Wars, and more of an RPG than I expected.