My EXA, a digital bug-looking thing made of code, scurries out into rooms representing nodes in a factory's network. Following the program I painstakingly wrote for it, the EXA disrupts this network with precision before running the HALT command to self-destruct. There is no trace of the fact I have hacked this factory, except that the snack bars it produces no longer contain peanuts. It's the little victories. 

Later I hack a street sign so it reads WAKE UP SHEEPLE and want to punch the air in triumph. Exapunks is the latest from Zachtronics, creators of tricky puzzle games like Opus Magnum and Infinifactory that are all about moving things from one place to another, and hacking games like TIS-100 that are all about typing made-up but believable code into computers. Exapunks connects the two, providing space for code and a visualization of that code's effect, which is mostly moving things about.

In this alternate dystopian 1997 I've got the phage, a disease that slowly turns my skin into useless microchips like a crap cyborg. I can only afford medicine if I agree to perform arbitrary hacking jobs for a mysterious lady who doesn't understand human emotions and is totally not an AI. Sometimes that's making ATMs dispense cash for free, sometimes it's the peanut job.

Exapunks doesn't mess around. The tutorial throws you right in it, expecting you to learn by reading a manual that comes in the form of an in-universe zine you can print out or just alt-tab to in a pdf reader. This zine, Trash World News, is a lovely little artifact that, as well as teaching commands like LINK to switch hosts and GRAB to interact with files, implies a whole community of helpful cyberpunks. So do the conversations on Chatsubo in the corner of my screen between levels and the occasional visitors at the door.

That's more than just world-building, it's a hint about how to get the most out of this game. You shouldn't go alone. There's a real-world community on the Steam forums and the subreddit that's grown during its time in Early Access, and seeking them out for advice is essential. This is a game that requires a kind of programmer thinking you either have or you don't, and as someone who very much doesn't, I needed help.

My solutions are ugly and often involve multiple EXAs programmed with slight variations on the same code to deal with every possible eventuality. Cleverer players use commands like REPL to make replica EXAs containing cloned code that doesn't hurt their score. They're efficient in ways I not only don't think of, but never would.

The programming language is robust enough it can even be used to make games within the game. When I got hold of a GameBoy-looking cyberpunk handheld called the Redshift I could write my own arcade games onto it, and play ones made by other people for a break when solving puzzles started to feel like work. There are a couple of minigames to unlock as well including a Russian solitaire variant, and there's a competitive mode that tests your code against against another player's. Both these things give me headaches.

Exapunks shares with Zachtronics' previous game Opus Magnum the idea it's OK to brute-force a puzzle. You'll still unlock the next level and story snippet, but you won't make the leaderboards. To do that you need to try harder, tweaking commands to use fewer lines of code, create fewer EXAs, be more elegant.

Exapunks is a two-coffee game, one that requires focus and alertness. Even then, there's a hard limit on how good I'll ever be. I feel out of my depth, like a smart dog who graduated puppy school and has been put in a physics class. Infinifactory and Opus Magnum remain the Zachtronics games I'd recommend to people, but if you aced both of those and are ready to graduate, Exapunks is the next level.

We're trying out a new format for our weekly list of new games on Steam you might have missed, with a separate entry for each week's collection. You can check out previous games we've highlighted here. As always, these are five of the smaller games that might have otherwise escaped your attention in the glut of titles that come out on Steam every day.

EXAPUNKS

Steam pageReleased: August 10Developer: ZachtronicsPrice: $20

You may know Zachtronics as creator of puzzle games like Opus Magnum, Spacechem, and Infinifactory. He's also the brain behind hacking games TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O, and EXAPUNKS is in that vein, thematically speaking. You're a hacker forced to make viruses and bust open the security of everything from banks to highway signs because it's the only way to get the medication you need. EXAPUNKS is set in 1997, so you learn how to hack by reading a zine called Trash World News between levels, which is a great concept. EXAPUNKS is in Early Access, but as with prior Zachtronics games it's feature-complete and will receive polish and balance tweaks over the next few months.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass

Steam pageReleased: August 8Developer: Kasey OzymyPrice: $15

It seems like there's an entire generation of game designers who grew up on the surreal JRPG Earthbound. Yume Nikki, Undertale, and now Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass all bear the weight of its influence. In this you're a boy who is sent out into the wide world by your mother on a quest for honey so she can make a cake, but along the way you'll use your power of imagination to transform into a variety of creatures with their own abilities and also get into turn-based battles with some real unusual monsters. It's quirky as all get-out, and pretty sizeable too.

Alter Army 

Steam pageReleased: August 7Developer: Vague PixelsPrice: $4.50

A 2D action-platformer made by two teenagers from India (you can read their story here). Alter Army has a rocking guitar soundtrack, and one of its heroes wields a guitar as a weapon. You'll be smacking up evil trees and exploring a dying civilization, all in service of collecting crystals that summon a new batch of enemies each time you grab one.

LIBRARY

Steam pageReleased: August 10Developer: Happy SnakePrice: $2

A little game with the cutesiest visuals, LIBRARY is about throwing books at people. But in a nice way? You run through a colorful library making friends and then chucking books at them while everyone smiles as if it's all as delightful as tea and crumpets. It's got the jauntiest soundtrack, which is what makes it all seem like innocent fun. LIBRARY also contains Happy Snake's previous game, Morning Post, which was the same kind of thing only with envelopes instead of books. 

Circle Empires 

Steam pageReleased: August 9Developer: LuminousPrice: $8

Once a popular little demo you could get from Gamejolt, Circle Empires is now a full-fledged standalone game. It's an RTS where the map is made of circular areas representing mountaintops, all connected in a grid. You plunk down some workers in one circle, gather resources, make some fantasy troops and then march them over to one of the next mountains to take over. Circle Empires takes the RTS formula and makes it snackable.

These games were released in the week prior to August 12, 2018. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

Zachtronics, the maker of Spacechem, Ironclad Tactics, Shenzhen I/O, and most recently the outstanding Opus Magnum, is working on a new game called Exapunks. The year is 1997, and you're a former hacker with a bad case of the phage. There's only one thing to do: Read the zine—write a virus—get a dose. 

Your Exapunk hacking skills come to you by way of Trash World News, an underground computer mag that carries tips, tutorials, secret information, and "searing commentary." Based on the knowledge they contain, you'll create EXAs (Execution Agents) and turn them loose in networks belonging to banks, universities, television stations, traffic signs, game consoles, or anything else that might prove useful—including your own body. 

Hacking servers or region locks will open up access to other in-game content, and you can even create your own homebrew games on the in-game TEC Redshift console—if you hack the devkit first. Multiplayer will be supported in head-to-head hacker battles, and you'll also be able to create your own puzzles—that is, networks—and share them through the Steam Workshop.

The game will include two printable issues of Trash World News, which Zachtronics said will be "essential to playing the game." They'll basically serve as Exapunk's instruction manual, in other words, much like the faux circuit-building guide that came with the studio's 2016 game Shenzhen I/O. And if that game (and others) are anything to go by, you'll need it: Exapunk sounds like a willfully dense and difficult game, which would also be in line with previous Zachtronics experiences.

Exapunks is set to go live on Steam Early Access on August 21, and will sell for $20. A limited edition release, with printed copies of Trash World News, 3D glasses for the TEC Redshift in-game programmable console, and an envelope with secret stuff inside, can be preordered directly from Zachtronics for $35 in the US, or $45 everywhere else.