February 18, 2026
Vanilla wars, extra sprinkles
Automatia and the Case for Vanilla
Homemade block-world goes “vanilla” — fans split on Minecraft vibes, money quests, and that light-through-pipes trick
TLDR: Automatia is a new from-scratch block game pushing a “vanilla-first” foundation, complete with multiplayer, story worlds, and even light-through-pipes experiments. The community is split: some praise the clean slate, while others see a Minecraft lookalike and fear grindy mod-style endgames — even with promised mod support
Automatia’s creator says forget the flavor shots — start with “vanilla.” Translation: build the core game from scratch and make the basics rock-solid. Cue the community fireworks. Some readers cheered the bold, homemade approach, arguing a fresh foundation can dodge the limits of games like Minecraft, even when modded. Others side-eyed the screenshots and said, “Looks familiar,” while wondering if a playable release without a full story or loop is courage… or chaos.
The spiciest spark came from a modder who’s lived the grind, roasting modded Minecraft endgames for turning fun into spreadsheets. That rant became Exhibit A in the “vanilla-first” case: if your base rules are wobbly, mods just stack the pain. Meanwhile, Automatia’s quirks — a money-chasing “get big number, fund your vanity projects” goal and literal pipes that beam light into rooms — sparked equal parts awe and memes. One running joke cast it as “Capitalism: The Block Game,” another crowned the light gadget “solar tubes with main-character energy.”
And then the twist: this “vanilla” vision still ships with full modding. Fans called it chaotic good — or just chaotic. Bottom line: the crowd’s torn between rooting for a new backbone and teasing a familiar blocky face, but everyone’s watching for the next drop
Key Points
- •Automatia is a custom, voxel-based game and engine started in 2011, now playable with public releases despite lacking a full game loop and story.
- •Current systems include multiple worlds, weather, story/dialogue, NPC schedules, full-screen effects, editable worlds, and full multiplayer.
- •Multiplayer uses an authoritative server architecture, allowing cooperative or solo play across shared and story worlds.
- •Planned gameplay emphasizes buying and selling across multiple and story-driven worlds with puzzles and platforming; completing story quests may grant a personal instance of that world.
- •The engine supports modding via a C++20 API running in an emulator with host-function access; experiments include pipes that forward light through blocks.