[JimiofEden]

I keep returning to Zachtronics games endlessly in my free time, despite doing engineering work for 8-10 hours a day for the last months. Sure they're a bit of a facsimile of a programming challenge, but they're pretty tough problems, especially in the ones that are basically using assembly. I even had someone reference that my latest Opus Magnum creation looks like cellular automata.

If you can simplify the problem/solution space into a puzzle, give me a leaderboard to compete against, more specifically let me compete against the people I care about, and give it the barest amount of polish, it's the kind of thing someone like me would obsess over.

[ryandv]

> Sure they're a bit of a facsimile of a programming challenge, but they're pretty tough problems, especially in the ones that are basically using assembly.

They are indeed "real," bonafide (though perhaps sophomoric) programming problems. There is an Exapunks puzzle that has you implement a form of binary tree search/traversal in assembly.

[recursivegirth]

Esoteric programing languages is the term you both are looking for. I think the Zachtronic languages fit firmly in there somewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language

[ryandv]

Usually I see that term applied to Turing tarpits, intentionally obfuscated languages, joke/meme languages, or ones with highly heterodox syntax. Zachtronic languages are really none of these and closer to an assembly (reduced) instruction set architecture. What makes them toy-like languages is that the "machine" you're writing assembly for is rather oversimplified, and is in fact totally fictitious.

[jader201]

I need to try some of their other ones. I’ve only played Opus Magnum, which I loved.

But being the completionist that I am, I stopped playing it once I got to a level I wasn’t able to perfectly optimize across all three measurements.

[the__alchemist]

Zachtronics games are great! Very challenging. They made a big splash with Space Chem a while back. I need to go back to Opus Magnum and finish it...

[hcs]

Zach's next game Kaizen comes out tomorrow! https://coincidence.games/kaizen/

[zeristor]

Sounds like it’s come out just in time.

I thought Zachtronics had given up making games for some reason. Or did I dream that, if I did that would be really weird.

[xingped]

They did stop. I'm also confused that there's a new game.

[JimiofEden]

Very exciting - Thank you for sharing! I knew that there was a new game on the way, but I had no idea it was so immediate!

[jader201]

Oooh… a factory automation Zachtronics game??

Take my money.

[xingped]

I thought Zachtronics shut down/wasn't making any more games? Are they back? If so, why?

[peddling-brink]

What a coincidence, I love games like kaizen.

[RataNova]

Wild how often these games end up sparking ideas or techniques I end up using IRL