Automation games have become a thriving genre in recent years and one of the more unique takes on the concept was Autonauts. Starting off in an undeveloped map there was far too much for a lone worker to get done but that was just a temporary problem, because they were only alone until that first robot was created. The thing about these robots, though, is that they’re fairly simple, no AI and only able to do as programmed, but a giant complicated task like setting up a fully-functioning colony to serve its residents hand and foot is really only a few thousand very simple tasks rather than one huge overwhelming one. A set of robots might cut trees while others bring the logs to the cutter, boards go to various other workstations all crewed by other robots, and with a bit of organization there’s an industrious crew of bots harvesting, building, and maintaining all of the colony’s necessary parts. The challenge was to turn a peaceful world into a new home, but what if that peace was broken by pirates?
Originally planned as a survival mode for the original game, Autonauts vs Piratebots grew into a full-fledged sequel/spinoff (one of those two, or maybe both?) and is now ready to show off a tiny little bit. The teaser trailer dropped today and it shows off a hint of what’s ahead, whilethe Steampage goes into more concrete details. The new gameplay wrinkle is that the settlement is under attack from pirates and needs to not only grow and thrive but also mount a strong defense, building, expanding, and automating until the colony is powerful enough to take out the enemy bases. The existence of attackers requires a whole new range of warrior-bots, and programming a squadron of them well enough to take out enemy strongholds earns new tech to build bigger and better units. Creating a functioning settlement was already a fairly large task in the first Autonauts, though, so it will be interesting to see how the new gameplay elements fit in with the original ones. For now, though the teaser trailer below shows off the pirates, fortifications, and a peek at the Dread Pirate Robot. No game that sinks to a naming pun like that can go wrong.
