The minds behind Opus Magnum and Infinifactory are dropping another clever game for ya. Möbius Front ’83 is a new strategy game by Zachtronics set in a past where the United States is being invaded by its dark realm self. Möbius Front ’83 will launch its turn-based tactical battles in November. (more…)

Cor, kids have it easy nowadays. Sure, they’re inheriting a polluted hellhole teetering on the brink of ecological and economic ruin, but look at all the neat games they get to grow up with. Thanks to Zachtronics announcing they’re giving away (nearly) all their games to schools, some of them even get to muck about with fabulously inventive puzzle boxes during their pretend workday. Imagine that! Privileged tykes.

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Zach-like, the book about Zachlikes by Zach Barth, creator of the genre, is now free albeit notably less papery now. Zachtronics’s previously Kickstarter-exclusive book was a collection of design documents from the creator of Spacechem, Opus Magnum, Infinifactory and many more, showing just how he engineers his puzzles. Now anyone can read a digital version for free, and it comes bundled with a pile of his early browser games, unreleased prototypes, and even a card game if you’ve got printer ink to burn. Grab it free on Steam. I feel smarter just having it on my PC.

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The alchemical puzzler Opus Magnum has a few of us at House RPS scratching our heads and shouting “a-ha!” before giddily sharing our twisted contraptions in GIF form. It’s real good, friends. The studio behind it, Zachtronics, is headed by Zach Barth. I spoke to him about the game’s machines, his short stint at Valve, and the reasons he sold his own company. (more…)

A proposal: puzzles games focused on assembling or programming – or both – should be called Zachlikes. Following the atom-assembling SpecChem, production line ’em up Infinifactory, and the computer-programming TIS-100, Zach Barth and his Zachtronics have announced a new Zachlike. SHENZHEN I/O [official site] will combine assembling and programming to build circuits from components and then write code for them. It’s due to hit Steam Early Access in October and, for now, you can check it out in this wee announcement trailer:

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SpaceChem and Infinifactory creator Zach Barth has released his latest thing-making puzzle game, which sits somewhere between fiddling with chemistry and building automated factories. TIS-100 [official site] is an assembly programming puzzler, having you literally learn and write code to fix up corrupted code in the mysterious eponymous ’80s computer. Yes, you do need to learn and write the TIS-100’s assembly code. Computers are puzzles!

After a seven-week stretch in Steam Early Access, TIS-100 properly launched yesterday.

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Infinifactory [official site] is another thing-making puzzler from SpaceChem chap Zachary Barth, this time going into 3D to set up production lines manufacturing goods for cruel alien overlords. It initially launched incomplete on Steam Early Access in January, though even at the time John was really into it.

Maybe you’d rather wait until it was fully finished before playing yourself. In which case, good news: after five months of updates adding so, so much more, Infinifactory has launched out of Early Access to become a proper released game.

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Infinifactory [official site] isn’t quite the game it is meant to be just yet, still on Steam Early Access, but that hasn t stopped our John Walker from really enjoying its brain-twisting twists and turns. To summarize from the alpha preview, this new puzzle title from Zachtronics is very obtuse, very good, and very much something that would benefit from updates – like this one!

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After having folks design molecules in SpaceChem and automated plants in Infinifactory, Zachtronics are back with another puzzle game of complex systems. What comes after atoms and factories, the whole dang universe? The multiverse? Nah, you write assembly code.

Today Zachtronics both announced and (sort of) released TIS-100 [official site], a game about rewriting corrupted code to fix a fictional ’80s computer. It’s on on Steam Early Access now for 4.49. My prediction: their next game after this will be to literally program SpaceChem.

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