Opus Magnum, Or: Zachtronics For The Rest Of Us

[Kyle Burke]

Hi, Idle Forums! Long time first time. I'm very excited by yesterday's release of Opus Magnum, the latest Zachtronics game. Having only put a couple hours into it, it seems like a more accessible variation on the classic Zachtronics flavor. Mechanics like limited operation space (a huge factor in SpaceChem, TIS-100, and Shenzhen I/O) and keeping your various moving parts in sync have been seriously mitigated or removed, which means it's generally a lot less stressful to get your initial solution running. It is maybe the most visually hypnotic game they've made so far:

 

 

Has anyone else had a chance to play it?

[Erkki]

Wow, looks interesting. I personally got pretty far into TIS-100 and SpaceChem, but not quite to the end if I remember correctly - it just became WORK near the end. And Infinicatory I didn't find interesting for some reason, but this looks very cool. I also missed Shenzen I/O - will probably get both in the next Steam sale or something, to add to my ever-growing backlog.

[Laco]

Welcome, Kyle Burke! Your beautiful Alcohol Separation puts mine to shame:

 

 

 

I'm really enjoying this (16 hours played in under two days - oops!). I have a handful of friends who go completely crazy for each new Zachtronics game, which makes it great fun competing on leaderboards and discussing solutions around release time. The gif generator is perfect for this.

 

Before release I was worried it would play too similar to SpaceChem, which I liked but found impossible beyond a certain point. Thankfully so far it's closer to Infinifactory in difficulty curve. The essentially unlimited working space means solving a puzzle only really requires logical thinking and some trial and error.

 

Much of the challenge and fun comes from optimising your solutions, and in this game more than any previous I think the three categories (cost, cycles, area) generate really interesting challenges. In Shenzhen I/O optimising for cost usually meant saving maybe one chip, but here the component costs are very granular. The large possibility space means it's totally possible to solve a puzzle using, say, just one arm, or one arm on a track.

[sclpls]

I look forward to feeling really dumb when I get a chance to play this.

[Paul Smith]

Scott, of the GeekNights podcast streamed this if anyone wants an extended preview:

 

http://www.twitch.tv/videos/183797481

http://www.twitch.tv/videos/183954132

[Erkki]

I bought it and started playing, but I'm getting the feeling that it's going to end up very similar to SpaceChem and TIS-100 where the latter challenges just become more and more involved until it became almost work. I think the competition aspect of these games can be pretty cool and something motivating to keep working on improving the solutions in the easier end where it's not yet so much work. I only saw Toblix there, maybe I need to refresh thumbs people on Steam. I'm villane if anyone wants to add me.

 

[edit] Also, I kind of like the looks of the game, but I'm not sure if this alchemist story around it is necessary. Some of it is pretty badly implemented e.g. the ones where you see portraits in the middle of screen and then their dialogue appears one-by-one in the same box no matter who is speaking, just the portrait border gets a highlight. Pretty dumb solution as there are many better ways to show who is speaking. I also am not sure if I prefer the gameplay to SpaceChem for example - the programming there felt more pure and complete. At least the Magnum Opus way of programming is much easier to handle than TIS-100, but I'm not a 100% sold on the programming interface.

[Erkki]

My go-to solutions at the moment involve using lots of short arms. My alcohol separation is much less efficient than you guys, though. I think I will play through a large chunk of the story before starting to optimize, otherwise I'll feel like I bought another game which I won't complete.