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Exapunks (2018)

zachtronics.com

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Re: Exapunks (2018)

#101

Post by Schlagbohrer »

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…

I love the Zachtronics games and Zach-likes, but, for hardware engineering the minor differences with reality drive me crazy. Such as the clock edge timing in Shenzhen I/O and other points where something so lifelike doesn't work the way I know it does in real life.

I also get this problem when I play Linux-terminal-emulating games like the various "global hacker" CLI based games.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#102

Post by Schlagbohrer »

lostdog wrote: post #79
unsnap_biceps wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an older engineer, I love the Zachtronic games because they're pure development and I don't have to drive consensus or herd cats.

I should set up a LARP where 30 people solve TIS-100 together

Will the LARP costumes require suits and ties and a Company Song, ala 1960s IBM, or require scruffiness and nap rooms ala dot-com-bubble tech startups?

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#103

Post by Schlagbohrer »

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 tried to replay Eliza this past winter after having played it and loved it when it came out. But I couldn't get past the start of the game because not only is it so dark, BUT SO MUCH OF IT CAME TRUE!

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#104

Post by Schlagbohrer »

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!

The in-game phone apps that just show a looping pixel art city scene with haunting ambient music are mesmerizing, even moreso than the beautiful solitaire game.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#105

Post by Schlagbohrer »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #34

I haven't played this, but just reading the description... > Learn to hack from TRASH WORLD NEWS, the underground computer magazine. It seems like a missed opportunity not to name-drop 2600. But I guess they wouldn't be allowed to do that anyway.

Trash World News has a way less annoying editor than 2600

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#106

Post by Cthulhu_ »

BretonForearm wrote: post #76
bspammer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening to the podcast linked elsewhere in this thread, it sounds like he’s not at all reached the level of financial independence to indefinitely fund future projects. In fact the only game that went moderately viral (Opus Magnum) is not owned by him at all. This is really disappointing to me as many of his games are some of my favourite games of all time and I assumed he’d be set for life off them. I guess the ta…

If I was Notch I'd send a meagre 10 million or so Zach's way out of gratitude. Karma is a thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they rejected it (if it were to happen), Notch is a horrible human being, only coming out as such after he sold his company. Microsoft mostly scrubbed his name from Minecraft besides one mention in the credits, and seem to have distanced themselves from him entirely, including not even inviting him for the game's 10 year anniversary celebration.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#107

Post by jackdoe »

Its discounted on steam summer sale, I bought it and played all evening yesterday.

Printed the zine.

It took me to my happy place.

Thank you.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#108

Post by mhitza »

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…

I enjoyed both TIS-100 and Exapunks though I didn't have the patience to finish either of them. For me they get too hard (due to constraints) too fast (if not straight up obscure).

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#109

Post by yvdriess »

vanderZwan wrote: post #92
krispykrem wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hey, as someone born in Ghana I just want you to know I think it's pretty cool you used a Mankala-based game as the minigame this time :) (at least, that's what I'm prematurely concluding based on ten frames of trailer footage) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancala?wprov=sfla1

Having played it: yep! It's a solitaire Mankala/Awele game. You use the sowing mechanics to try to clear the board, with chains scoring exponential points.

Re: Exapunks (2018)

#110

Post by ortichic »

joshu wrote: post #43

I've been writing a game off and on that's sort of at the intersection of a Zachtronics game and... Starcraft? I guess? With some Factorio in there, for good measure. The idea is that you have to break into and exfiltrate data from a laboratory that uses their own transputer-like architecture. Write a mobile program to explore the network, another to start migrating the data, and so on. Migrate too hard and the human…

The no-UI part will probably deter a big portion of players. Allowing own tooling on the other hand sounds cool. Adding an optional UI, or getting someone to do it for you would certainly help. But then again, if it is interesting enough, someone might just do so after you launched it without a UI
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