[spjwebster]

I recently lost more of my life than I care to admit to Zachtronics' more graphically pleasing follow-up Shenzhen I/O [1] that I think I first heard about from HN [2].

The backstory that unfolds through your fake inbox actually gives the devilishly tricky game some direction, and the post-solution histograms showing just how many people solved the same puzzle cheaper, with fewer instructions and with lower power consumption than you tug at your ego and keep you obsessing over the same puzzle long after you've solved it. There's even a fun Solitaire variation buried in there for good measure, which was evidently so popular they also released it as a standalone game [3].

1: http://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/

2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12660253

3: http://store.steampowered.com/app/570490/SHENZHEN_SOLITAIRE/

[psyc]

The mechanic of graphing metrics for solutions is common to at least TIS, Shenzhen, and my favorite, Infinifactory. It's perfect for competitive tinkering.

[Deimorz]

SpaceChem does it too. It's also great if you have people on your friends list that play the games, since then you can see their exact scores and turn it into a direct competition.

[daemin]

Yep, I've spent days tweaking and optimising the starting few worlds of SpaceChem to get solutions which are most optimal. The only disappointing thing is that you can only save one solution to each challenge, so it means you need to pick a solution that is either the fastest or the one with the fewest elements. Luckily they have fixed it with Infinifactory.

[jacquesm]

I have the same effect with code golf. It's terribly distracting so I stay the hell away from it lest I get sucked in and am alerted to yet another night having passed by because the birds wake up.