Welcome to Snacktorio, the automation game where you feed various food dishes to ravenous monsters to keep them at bay. The graphics are pixelated, giving Terraria vibes. The music is relaxing and the perfect backdrop for hours of gameplay. But it’s the factory building mechanics that truly set Snacktorio apart from its peers.
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Dangerous creatures are taking over the planet. The only way to keep them at bay is to feed them a steady supply of their favourite meals, and you are just the droid to organise the banquet.
Set in a 2d environment, you control your avatar with the WASD and a limited jump capability. Placing and removing objects uses the mouse and the scroll wheel to cycle through your hotbar. These controls work in tandem reasonably well, and you can easily undo any accidental placements, but I appreciate that avatars in automation games are somewhat of a deal-breaker for some gamers. Personally, I thought it was cute and built into the lore, while also being used for bonus gameplay features, such as finding hidden “Witchelin Star” in each level.
Equipped with a slowly expanding arsenal of processing and harvesting tools, it is your job to create an automated factory that perpetually delivers food to each monster. As long as you have the resources and power for your machines, and so long as the monster gets fed, how you build your factory is largely up to you. There’s a lot to wrap your head around, but there are guides and hints wherever you need them.
Processing The Power
Snacktorio is divided into different levels spread across six islands. The first island serves as a tutorial, walking you through each step as you learn to make soup. Starting with simple raw materials such as tomatoes and coal (although everything is often spelt differently in-game for added whimsy), you need to mine/harvest, process and transport the basic materials across the level to the hungry monster.
These early levels focus on the furnace, blender and mixer to create the final dishes. This then leads to dealing with fluids and using matter converters to create otherworldly items such as spider eggs and lich bones.
This system was equal parts impressive and overwhelming at times. Raw material deposits and spawns are placed all over the map, and you will need to get your avatar close to them to begin processing. You can then build and demolish the landscape to suit your needs, and create factory blocks, shelves and ladders to connect areas for easier platforming. There is no one way to ferry materials from one zone to another, nor one way to complete any level, but therein lies the true challenge of Snacktorio.
Snack-Packed
I found Snacktorio fully engaging yet challenging. My brain was working overtime, trying to strike a balance between aesthetics and automation while working within the limitations of a 2D landscape.
There are essentially four levels of depth in this landscape, which allows item pipes, water pipes, and electrical wires to pass behind one another and past decorations. This means pipes can intersect and overlap, making the “Sort” module perhaps the most useful tool in your arsenal. You can also split pipes or add directional markers to control where resources are allowed to flow in more complex systems.
Although you will be able to get by on reasonably simple factories for the first few objectives, the difficulty soon ramps up. Your factories will grow in size and complexity to the point where I was reminded of late-game Oxygen Not Included or Rimworld. This is not a bad thing in any regard, as the 55 levels offer players hours of core gameplay before hitting sandbox mode, but I did have to take regular breaks to avoid making mistakes.
The Proof Is In The Pudding
Snacktorio is utterly charming and sprinkled with more whimsy than Lich-bone cupcakes. The world is baked with silly misspellings and zany characters, but the dialogue trickles in a deeper lore that builds to a fun finale. I encountered no errors or glitches during my playthrough and enjoyed the challenge it posed.
Certainly, the automation genre is not for everyone, but Snacktorio offers a refreshing take with a smorgasbord of challenges for fans to sink their teeth into. It’s also worth noting the incredible mod support and community engagement from ellraiser.
Platforms: PC
Publishers: TNgineers, Rekoup
Developers: ellraiser, TNgineers
Played On: Steam
Key Provided By: TNgineers
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