{"rewrite":{"id":"r_c0623342983c60bc740967d1","clusterId":"c_f0e1e6cbea8d7d0491106c3c","slug":"rat-game-sets-october-30-steam-release-for-chef-vs-rats-asymmetric-horror-comedy","model":"deepseek-v4-flash","headline":"Rat Game Sets October 30 Steam Release For Chef Vs Rats Asymmetric Horror Comedy","summary":"Sokpop Collective announced on September 10 that Rat Game will launch on October 30 for PC via Steam, with Japanese in-game text supported according to the store page. The game is an asymmetric horror comedy in which one chef faces two to eight rats in a restaurant. The rats run around the kitchen, office, bar, storage room, and restroom, using small bodies to move through space under furniture and holes in walls. They sabotage the restaurant by tampering with the breaker panel, clogging toilets, and hacking PCs, and they win by completing a set number of tasks. The chef catches rats and throws them into cages placed around the restaurant, can peek under furniture to search, and can use a gun. Trailer footage shows rats solving math problems at a PC and entering a safe combination, and captured rats being freed from cages by fellow rats. The developer describes a hidden cheese storage room somewhere on the map. Estimated play time is about two hours. Rat Game was officially announced in February. Sokpop Collective is based in the Netherlands.","whyItMatters":"Sokpop Collective built its catalog on solo-scale monthly experiments, and Rat Game is the studio's return to a project large enough to carry proximity voice chat, a human-versus-Robo-Chef mode split, and a two-hour session target.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eSokpop Collective is a four-person studio of Aran Koning, Tijmen Tio, Tom van den Boogaart, and Ruben Naus, who have worked together since 2017. In 2018 they began shipping a new game every month through Patreon, roughly 100 releases in about five years. They later dropped the monthly deadline and have said they want to make another 100 works.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKoning is developing Rat Game himself. He was lead designer and programmer on Stacklands, the village-management card game, and also made the tower-defense settlement builder clickyland. Other Sokpop titles include the gardening horror game Grunn.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe trailer shows the Robo-Chef, a mechanical opponent programmed to cook, clean, and kill rats. In the co-op mode, players take only the rat side against it. The chef tracks rats by the sound of movement and scratching claws, and can also use traps. Rats revive after dying, but the mechanism is being kept under wraps. The price is undecided.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Rat Game ships with a two-hour estimate and one map's worth of rooms. Sokpop is selling a kitchen the rats learn better than the chef does: sabotage routes, cage rescues, and a cheese room nobody is told about.","twitterPost":"Rat Game gives the rats a win condition and a rescue mechanic. The chef gets a gun and peek-under-furniture. Asymmetry built on information, not stats.","threadsPost":"Rat Game's rats free each other from cages and finish tasks, which means the chef's catches are temporary. Sokpop built the two-hour loop around that reversal: throw a rat in a cage, then watch its friends let it out while the breaker panel and toilets get hit somewhere else.","newsletterBlurb":"Sokpop Collective will release Rat Game on October 30 for PC via Steam, an asymmetric horror comedy pitting one chef against two to eight rats in a restaurant. Rats sabotage the kitchen, office, bar, storage room, and restroom while the chef hunts them with cages and a gun. Estimated play time is about two hours, and a co-op mode swaps the chef for a mechanical Robo-Chef.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Automaton\",\"url\":\"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20260911-466707/\",\"title\":\"\\\"1 vs 8\\\" - an overwhelmingly asymmetric battle: Rat Game launches October 30. Chef vs rats, a no-holds-barred interspecies game of hide-and-seek to exterminate pests\"},{\"source\":\"Denfaminicogamer\",\"url\":\"https://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/news/260911f\",\"title\":\"Game 'Rat Game,' Where 1 Chef Battles Up to 8 Rats, Set for Steam Release on October 30; Can You Stop the 'Pests' Wrecking the Restaurant?\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":9970,"outputTokens":1241,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1789100064,"createdAt":"2026-09-11T04:09:03.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-09-11T04:13:20.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-11T04:13:20.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_f0e1e6cbea8d7d0491106c3c","canonicalTitle":"「1人vs8匹」非対称すぎバトル『Rat Game』10月30日配信へ。シェフ対ネズミ、やりたい放題の害獣掃討異種かくれんぼ","representativeArticleId":"a_d57797719c02989817f3a05d","sourceCount":2,"writtenSourceCount":2,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":false,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Rat Game\"],\"studios\":[\"Sokpop Collective\"],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"release\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-09-11T00:56:26.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-09-11T01:06:51.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-11T04:13:20.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Denfaminicogamer","url":"https://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/news/260911f","title":"1人のシェフと最大8匹のネズミが対戦するゲーム『Rat Game』Steamで10月30日に発売決定。レストランを荒らす“害獣”を止められるか"},{"source":"Automaton","url":"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20260911-466707/","title":"「1人vs8匹」非対称すぎバトル『Rat Game』10月30日配信へ。シェフ対ネズミ、やりたい放題の害獣掃討異種かくれんぼ"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Rat Game"],"studios":["Sokpop Collective"],"people":[],"type":"release","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":["Sokpop Collective announced on September 10 that Rat Game will release on October 30 for PC via Steam.","Rat Game is an asymmetric horror comedy in which one chef faces two to eight rats in a restaurant.","The estimated play time for Rat Game is about two hours.","Rat Game is in development by Aran Koning, who was lead designer and programmer on Stacklands.","Rat Game was officially announced in February 2026."]}