Stardew Factory? Factory Valley? Whichever it is, Little Rocket Lab is a factory-builder about efficiently placing conveyors and robot arms, and is drawn in the warm, pixel art small-town of a Stardew-like. That sounds like a fitting combination, although it does mean you’re building a NASA-sized rocketship on the outskirts of your quaint hometown. That can’t be good for noise pollution. There’s an announcement trailer below.
As you build and manage resources, you’ll also inevitably be chatting to the townspeople, “who want to help… and sometimes hinder,” according to the press release. Also like Stardew, it seems like there are dungeons-of-a-sort to explore and resources to mine out of them.
I don’t mind this particular example of video game madlibs. I like factory builders and yet I’m picky enough to bounce off most of them, particularly when they make that process of slow automation feel contrived or arbitrary. Placing my construction work in the context of an overarching goal and the townspeople whose friendship I crave might be the kind of motivation I need.
I feel like we simultaneously have very little concrete information about Little Rocket Lab after its announcement at Wholesome Snack, and at the same time know every single thing about it. It’s due for release in 2025 and you’ll find it on Steam.