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Exapunks (2018)

zachtronics.com

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Re: Exapunks (2018)

#21

Post by rafram »

jna_sh wrote: post #7
deelowe wrote: post #4

I wish Zach would start making games again. :-(

He never stopped, he’s just under a different label: https://coincidence.games/ They’ve released two Zach-likes, Kaizen and UVS Nirmana. Blatant self promotion, but if you want the full story, he chatted to me about it on Software Engineering Daily after the release of Kaizen: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2025/12/18/designing-in...

What's up with the AI narration at the beginning? Or is it just someone with an incredibly steady voice and AI cadence? It's uncanny and weird considering that this is a podcast hosted by actual humans!

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#22

Post by yoyohello13 »

fragmede wrote: post #12
jf wrote: post #5

This is one of my all time favorite games. It and Shenzhen I/O do a wonderful job of capturing the essence of what makes programming fun and put them into a game. My biggest surprise from playing EXAPUNKS is how futile it is to try and pre-optimize a solution. I had to remind myself time and again to solve the puzzle first, then try and try and optimize it. While the games are fun on their own, I recommend playing th…

> capturing the essence of what makes programming fun and put them into a game. They definitely straddle there line between "those is a fun video game" and "it looks too much like my job" for people in the industry, but there's a whole genre of workplace simulators for doing other people's jobs vicariously. A semi truck driver would see playing a semi truck simulator in the same way, but American Truck Simulator is q…

Too true. I used to absolutely love Zachtronics games. Then I became a professional programmer and I just can’t play the programming themed ones anymore. Kind of a shame because TIS-100 is what made me want to be a programmer in the first place.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#23

Post by Terr_ »

minraws wrote: post #6

bought opus magnum recently fun game, I have played exapunks a while back, it's not my cup of tea. I love programming for fun, but the language didn't gel with me. I liked their other games better, opus magnum is definitely in the top 2

I think I liked Infinifactory the most because:

1. It had the least overlap with my day-job work.

2. It's somehow more-pleasing to watch a mechanical (albeit simulated) 3D machine do work, contrasted to the flickering playgrounds of Exapunks or Shenzhen IO.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#25

Post by komadori »

mattbee wrote: post #18
comeonbro wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without specifically looking into it but just going off of Steam releases and headline, I'd assumed Zachtronics closing was Zach Barth leaving the scene, and the company that made Kaizen etc were some of his former colleagues continuing on without him. But apparently the Kaizen-making company is still Zach Barth? So what was Zachtronics closing then? Him changing his mind and coming back a year later? Why throw away…

Maybe he sold his company, or never completely owned the name himself?

Yes, as I recall, he sold Zachtronics to investors sometime after TIS-100 so that he could focus on making the games and have someone else worry about the business.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#26

Post by uludag »

jawarner wrote: post #9

For those who don't know -- while Zachtronics is no longer making games, Zach Barth is still active now under the company Coincidence Games. They just game out with a spacecraft engineering puzzle game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2536720/UVS_Nirmana/?cura... .

In case anyone's curious I recommend the podcast episode with Zach Barth on the Draknek and Friends podcast to hear where he's at now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLrh8wcBy8I

Happy to hear that he's continuing developing games and we can expect more to come!

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#27

Post by squeegmeister »

nbaksalyar wrote: post #19
markx2 wrote: post #2

Their catalogue is well worth buying. https://store.steampowered.com/developer/zachtronics

"Eliza" is a bit unusual for Zachtronics as it's not a programming/puzzle game but a visual novel. But it's excellent and I think it's one of their most under-appreciated games. It's well-written, well-acted, and very prescient. Highly recommended!

I think about this game often

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#28

Post by noduerme »

nbaksalyar wrote: post #19
markx2 wrote: post #2

Their catalogue is well worth buying. https://store.steampowered.com/developer/zachtronics

"Eliza" is a bit unusual for Zachtronics as it's not a programming/puzzle game but a visual novel. But it's excellent and I think it's one of their most under-appreciated games. It's well-written, well-acted, and very prescient. Highly recommended!

I'm good friends with the writer of Eliza. If you enjoyed it, you might like his novel.

https://matthewseiji.com/process

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#29

Post by krispykrem »

comeonbro wrote: post #13
jawarner wrote: post #9

For those who don't know -- while Zachtronics is no longer making games, Zach Barth is still active now under the company Coincidence Games. They just game out with a spacecraft engineering puzzle game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2536720/UVS_Nirmana/?cura... .

Without specifically looking into it but just going off of Steam releases and headline, I'd assumed Zachtronics closing was Zach Barth leaving the scene, and the company that made Kaizen etc were some of his former colleagues continuing on without him. But apparently the Kaizen-making company is still Zach Barth? So what was Zachtronics closing then? Him changing his mind and coming back a year later? Why throw away…

Here is something I (Zach) wrote up a while ago in an attempt to explain it:

> Back in 2016, we sold Zachtronics to a company called Alliance, who we worked for as employees and made all the Zachtronics games from SHENZHEN I/O onward. In 2022 we stopped working for them and started a new studio called Coincidence, which we own and run as a sort of co-op that allows us to work on projects together, or not together, or anything in-between. (By "we" I mean the five of us who made all the Zachtronics games from SHENZHEN I/O onward; the team was much more dynamic before that, as described in the first few pages of ZACH-LIKE.)

> I still work for Alliance and maintain the Zachtronics games, but we don't own any of that IP, so anything new we make is going to be attached to the new studio and the new name.

(I did spend a year teaching computer science at a public high school, but that overlapped the last year of Zachtronics, rather than being between Zachtronics and Coincidence like it's often reported.)

At Coincidence, we have released two puzzle games so far, Kaizen: A Factory Story and U.V.S. Nirmana, and have more (four?) in the works. I'm hoping that I'll get to work on some less-obviously-in-the-genre games soon, but I haven't git initted anything yet so I guess it's too early to say.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#30

Post by Eji1700 »

Always wish Exa could scale a little more. I understand that it's supposed to stay at the low level of coding, but when i realized unfolding loops was a very valid way to improve your score, I learned a lot, and also realized it's not quite for me.

All the joys of code reuse (as silly as that might sound) do get kinda lost in the game. I still loved it, but I'd kill for a sequel that was a little higher level on the tooling.

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