Snacktorio

This game is an excellent translation of factory game verbs into a level-based puzzle game. I reached credits at time of writing, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. You can tell the devs know what they're doing and really poured their heart into it. I would say how much you enjoy it depends mainly on how much you're willing to meet the game on its own terms. Here are some examples of how this game differs from other factory game staples: [olist] [*]You're not building one big factory - you're building ~50 small factories. Some factories you build from scratch, others you expand upon partially complete factories that the devs provide. [b] Pros: [/b] (1) I really enjoyed that most levels took between 2-3 hours, which helped each play session have a bite-sized beginning, middle, and end. (2) The devs do an excellent job of adding a "twist" to every level so no one levels feels like the last. I never felt that the game was too repetitive in terms of level design, which would have been a very easy game design trap to fall into in less skilled hands. [b] Cons: [/b] (1) Setting up basic things every time like power generation every level did feel tedious after a while. The game does give you the tools in the mid-game to streamline this process, but I found myself wishing I could make a blueprint for power setup specifically. (2) Each level introduces one new idea at a time, which can make the game feel a bit handholdy at the start. By the time I got midway through the second zone, the pace felt right, and continued feeling right until the end. [*] The main challenge comes not from figuring out the production chains (they're literally given to you in the form of a recipe), but in routing and space management. You might know [i] how [/i] to make bread, but you need to figure out [i] where [/i] to make bread and how you're going to get that bread, how and where it's going to meet up with other ingredients to make a sandwich, and how to best get that sandwich to the monster that you need to feed it to. [b] Pros: [/b] (1) While routing and space management seem simple at first, the game gradually ramps up the difficulty to the point that I had to really stretch my brain to make everything work correctly. For example, you eventually get access to dairy ingredients and spicy ingredients, which curdle and clog your pipes if they touch each other, so you have to be careful about keeping their routing systems separate. In midgame, you have to build factories in very confined spaces while still respecting all the routing constraints you learned up to that point, which felt genuinely fulfilling to figure out and see it all work correctly. (2) The game's routing toolkit is very robust, including sorters for precise directional control and splitters that allow you to set the exact ratios that go in each direction. [b] Cons: [/b] (1) If you find puzzling out production chains to be the most fun part of factory games and routing to be tedious, this probably isn't the game for you. (2) Routing can sometimes be tedious in tight spaces, as machines always try to interact with a pipe/belt if they are able - even if you don't want them to. You can manually tell each machine not to interact with a pipe/belt, but that process is tedious. At the very least, I wish the game recognized that if I specifically place a directional pipe to PAST a machine, the machine shouldn't try to eat it. [*] Part of the puzzle is retrofitting your existing work. The monsters place their orders one dish at a time, so you rarely know what all your factory needs to include. You instead have to consider how you will build upon (or rebuild) existing parts of your factory to make each new dish once it's introduced. [b] Pros: [/b] (1) Once you get used to it, you can make pretty good educated guesses about what your factory will need to include by examining the number of unique dishes you need to create, the kinds of resources available to you on the map, and the kinds of build space the game provides. It feels rewarding when you guess right and have already built your factory to accommodate the next dish when it's revealed. [i] Always [/i] leave room for expansion. (2) The game usually does a good job of telegraphing things. If the level is introduced to you as needing a lot of rice, take that to heart and make sure you start processing your rice an open space with room for expansion. (3) There are a handful of levels the [i] do [/i] give you full information about what you need to make, and success in those levels depends heavily on careful factory planning, making for a nice change of pace. [b] Cons: [/b] This doesn't feel good at first if you're a veteran factory player - you don't get the satisfaction of planning out something big from square one, and are instead asked to adapt and retrofit. I understand why a lot of people who don't recommend the game cite this design choice as a big reason why. I promise it works well if you're willing to accept this big difference from other factory games. [*] There is a bigger focus on narrative and writing. [b] Pros: [/b] The game is well-written and genuinely funny in a corny way. The premise is excellent - placating eldritch horrors by feeding them gross versions of real-world dishes. [b] Cons: [/b] None. I really enjoyed the story and writing, and they never got in the way of the gameplay! [/olist] Overall, this is a great automation game build with a ton of care by skilled devs. If you are ready to accept its quirks and let go of your attachment to a few factory game norms that this game subverts, you'll have a good time! Best played in short play sessions (2-3 hours), one level at a time. P.S., although this game is playable on controller / steam deck, it plays vastly better on keyboard and mouse. With KBM, you can move and build simultaneously. With controller, you have to swap between a move mode and build mode, which really slows things down. Still, I applaud the devs for implementing controller compatibility, and I can't think of a way they could have done it better. Most devs wouldn't even have tried.