Hooded Horse and Lantto Games announce Sandustry, a side-scrolling strategy/automation game "coming soon" to PC. This is coming to Steam, where there's a playable demo to check out right now. This post discusses the game's new publishing deal, which prompts the news, serving the Announcement Trailer which shows Factorio x Terraria-influenced gameplay. Here's a description of this game that brings the sand to the sandbox:

You’ve arrived on a vast unexplored planet filled with diverse biomes and beautiful landscapes – time to bring the fires of industry! From humble beginnings sifting gold from sand, you will quickly build a growing factory, unlocking powerful new technologies and production chains. Countless options lie before you – will you focus on developing more advanced processing and logistical capabilities across your rapidly-expanding factory? Will you prioritize arming yourself with a powerful arsenal of weapons to overcome potential threats that await deep beneath the planet’s surface? And hey, there’s no faster way to mine than with the help of a rocket launcher, right? Build a beacon of industry and automation starting with nothing more than the trusty conveyor belt, incorporating filters, drones, pipes, pumps, and a myriad of other parts as you harness nature itself to do your bidding.