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[Drakale]

So, Zachtronics(creator of Spacechem, infinifactory and some more obscure games) announced Shenzhen, a new circuit based puzzle game.

short Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5TbHcK_qvE

site: http://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/

Coming in October

Seem pretty interesting, kinda like embedded system programming made entertaining. Not much information yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

[Rilder]

Looks like a more complicated TIS-100, will definitely check out. Tis-100 is an interesting, frustrating and very satisfying game.

[ventuswings]

Nice. I've always liked Zachtronics game.

[0x517A5D]

Looks like a simulation of the entire job and workplace of a hardware engineer.

"Build circuits".  Within tight constraints.  Limited routing space, production costs, power budgets, tight timing windows....

"a variety of components".  Some of which are buggy?  I see version numbers on the component-choice scrollbar.

"Write code".  Microcode.  With no abstractions.  And no room for comments.  At least you can label your jump targets.

"a compact and powerful assembly language".  Thankfully, it appears to be consistent between all components.

"RTFM."  Incomplete documentation?  Badly translated documentation?  Whoo boy.

"colorful cast of characters".  Office politics?  The boss, the secretary, the intern, the weird guy, the guy who hates you....

"a brand-new twist on solitaire."  Unwind after a hard day's work?  Compete for a company-wide high score?  Get caught goofing off by the boss?

Madness.  Aren't games supposed to let you escape from real life?

Somehow I think I'll end up playing it.

[Levi]

I didn't really like TIS-100, it felt too much like work, so I'll probably skip this one.

I just want to see more cool stuff like Spacechem.  That is by far my favorite game by that guy.    Infinifactory wasn't bad, but somehow I think it wasn't quite as fun.

[Intrinsic]

Enjoying this so far, some nice challenging puzzles. And often i'll load it up just to play a game of Sol

I remember trying Space Chem out but not liking it, maybe i'll take another look and give it another chance, never tried TIS so maybe i'll pick that up.

[Drakale]

I like what I saw so far, but it's definitely not for everyone. The manual is sparse enough on information that without prior knowledge of programmation, I don't think I would have fared very well. The fact that comments line take an instruction space is infuriating, the bigger projects will be tough to understand.

[Cthulhu]

Of the Zachtronics games I liked Ruckingenur, Alchemy Whatever, Spacechem, and I was pleased with myself beyond description when I managed to solve the second puzzle in Engineer of the People without using the guide.

TIS-100 didn't look fun and I never played it.

[lastverb]

Zachtronics make great games, but there are 2 thing very wrong with this one.
1) RTFM - This manual is r*t**ed and it's made so to look funny when printed. Has anyone been trying to find something about power in that manual? Even conditionals are explained not where you would expect them to be. It could easily have 3 pages tops with all the relevant information.
2) Result charts are drawn with bullshitium and are so goddamn inaccurate thanks to markers wide as hell on a tiny chart.

[Malus]

Haven't really had any issue with the manual. With regards to power, the manual states:

While a MCxxxx microcontroller is in a sleep state, it consumes no power. Otherwise, power consumption is proportional to the number of instructions executed.

The charts do need some work, and there needs to be some combined power efficiency + cost metric. The game's also a lot harder than TIS-100, but it feels more polished and the puzzles are more interesting, in my opinion. And being able to place the chips down (and choose which ones you want to use) makes the optimization aspect more multi-faceted as well. It's a great game, which is par for the course for Zachtronics I guess.

[lastverb]

I know it is in a manual, but really most of it is useless and if you need ctrl+f to find key elements (power for example) it is really bad manual, especially if it's supposed to be printed according to creator. No one reads entire manual, certainly not the one that doesn't provide any relevant information in most of it. Yet, I know it's mostly done for the "feel".
Other than those 2 issues I mentioned earlier the game is great, although IMO parts like solitaire don't fit in (thankfully it's optional).