{"id":1136399,"date":"2026-02-04T21:29:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=531559"},"modified":"2026-02-04T21:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:29:53","slug":"a-new-zachtronics-puzzle-game-kind-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-new-zachtronics-puzzle-game-kind-of\/","title":{"rendered":"A new Zachtronics puzzle game? Kind of!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2022, Zach Barth announced that his studio, Zachtronics, was closing. The team, which had built a reputation for beloved puzzle games like SpaceChem<\/em> and Opus Magnum<\/em>, and had released critical-favorite visual novel Eliza<\/em><\/a>, was ready to try new things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was time for a change,\u201d Barth told Kotaku in 2022<\/a>. \u201cThis might sound weird, but while we got very good at making \u2018Zachtronics games\u2019 over the last twelve years, it was hard for us to make anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Barth and other former Zachtronics team members have formed Coincidence, a \u201cflexible business framework\u201d that\u2019s produced card games, an educational math-themed racing game, and \u2014 announced today \u2014 a new puzzle game that will look familiar to Zachtronics fans. Not that we\u2019re complaining!<\/p>\n

Kaizen: A Factory Story<\/em> is an \u201copen-ended puzzle automation game\u201d set in Japan in the 1980s. You\u2019ll spend time \u201cdesigning, building, and optimizing production lines in factories\u201d to \u201cbuild calculators, camcorders, arcade machines, and more as you attempt to rise through the ranks,\u201d according to a press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always wanted to make a game about the heady days of the Japanese bubble economy,\u201d said Barth in the release. \u201cWith Kaizen: A Factory Story<\/em>, we\u2019re aiming to bring the open-ended design we\u2019re known for to a broader audience without compromising on depth or complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaizen<\/em> will be released on Windows PC later this year.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2022, Zach Barth announced that his studio, Zachtronics, was closing. The team, which had built a reputation for beloved puzzle games like SpaceChem and Opus Magnum, and had released critical-favorite visual novel Eliza, was ready to try new things. \u201cWe felt it was time for a change,\u201d Barth told Kotaku in 2022. \u201cThis might sound weird, but while we got very good at making \u2018Zachtronics games\u2019 over the last twelve years, it was hard for us to make anything else.\u201d Since then, Barth and other former Zachtronics team members have formed Coincidence, a \u201cflexible business framework\u201d that\u2019s produced card games, an educational math-themed racing game, and \u2014 announced today \u2014 a new puzzle game that will look familiar to Zachtronics fans. Not that we\u2019re…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1136400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nA new Zachtronics puzzle game? Kind of! | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2022, Zach Barth announced that his studio, Zachtronics, was closing. 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