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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rOIUUVFRKc What is Zachtronics Zachtronics is a game studio/guy who makes games that are programming-adjacent. They generally involve using your brain and a limited set of tools to construct a solution for something cool. Maybe you're arranging factory components to build something, maybe you're writing short fake assembly code snippets for a cheap electronics company. If you enjoy or have ever enjoyed any aspect of programming, you owe it to yourself to check out his library (spacechem, shenzhen IO, infinifactory, TIS-100, etc). If you don't, the way the games generally work is to take a relatively small set of tools and combine them in interesting ways, such that it is digestible enough to learn by doing without any background. Okay, so what is Exapunks? Exapunks, in particular, is about writing short bits of code to move around little hacking robots, and break into things. Apparently the game involves some sort of virus that lets people hack their own bodies. It takes place in 1997 and you get information from a series of (very 90s) hacker zines. I preordered the special edition and thus got physical copies of these - they're pretty funny and I can post photos later. Details are limited but I will know more tonight when I devote way too many hours to this! Based on the zines, we're back to writing short blocks of assembly code to move around and replicate our industrious little hacking robots. Of course, solving the puzzles is only step one. Zachtronics games are known for their leaderboards, which show a rough histogram of solutions rated on a few different measures, and precise numbers for people on your friends list. These are things like performance, number of components used, etc. Have fun spending 45 minutes coming up with a solution only for your rear end in a top hat friend to beat it by one, forcing you to scramble and continue working on it to one-up them. It's addictive as hell in that respect. I'll include a list of steam links at the bottom of this OP for folks who want more people on their leaderboards. I don't know how Exapunks puzzles will be evaluated, but I will soon. The game was supposed to release on August 21st but that has been pushed up to today, August 9th. It is early access at the start, and I know that's often shady, but Zachtronics has been awesome at releasing solid products from the point of release - they don't drop half-completed messes like many companies do, it will be a full game at launch and mostly receive QOL changes (and maybe a bonus campaign) over the course of early access.   Here's Zach's pitch: quote:The year is 1997. You used to be a hacker, but now you have the phage. You made a deal: one hack, one dose. There’s nothing left to lose… except your life. Okay, give me some steam friends for my leaderboard There were a lot of them in the thread for the previous game, Opus Magnum, here https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3837813 I'm sure a lot of them will play, but we can start a new list specifically for Exapunks. Post if you want in. http://steamcommunity.com/id/jeff-/ PS I don't think I've ever done a proper games OP before, let me know if there's anything I should add or change!
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Aug 9, 2018 17:24
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It's out! Gonna buy this asap when I get home, love me some zachtronics.
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Aug 9, 2018 17:50
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welp I missed an existing thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3865375
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Aug 9, 2018 18:10
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