When I don't have enough time to play a demanding RPG or if I want to change my mind, sometimes I'm playing puzzle games (among others). I recently tried a demo of Manufactoria 2022 on Steam - it's not on GOG unfortunately. Here's my first impression in case some of you like that sort of game. There are a few others I may report here later (Opus Magnum, [the Sequence], Unit 404, SpaceChem), so don't hesitate to share other puzzle games here as well.
The dev is PleasingFungus Games, they have made another game before, Silicon Zeroes, that I haven't played but the reception was "very positive".
This one is in the category of "assembling something", or "mini-factory". Robots are put on a conveyor belt and you have to design the assembly line to perform some operations, mainly sorting out the defects by testing if the "program" is correct, or modifying their "program". The "program" is simply a succession of blue and red tokens, that you can detect (if next is red, go right; if blue go left, if no token left, go ahead), or write. You may also be asked to build a test that matches the specs and an existing factory.
Below a typical puzzle. At the top left, the instructions and the type (length) of programs you'll encounter. An example at the bottom with the initial program (Start) and the expected program (Goal) when the robot goes out.
In this example the programs are quite general (may have 0 to 35 tokens), but sometimes the range is reduced, like "2 to 8 tokens", and you can use this information to simplify your assembly line. For example you don't have to test for an empty program.
Once you've completed the assembly line, you launch it, which makes a lot of robots pass through it to test each corner case. If you made a mistake, it will most likely be detected; in that case you can pause and run forward/backward to see what's happening and why it failed.
Once you succeed, you get the results in terms of area, speed and resources vs other solutions. I think the comparison is made with results from other players, like Zachtronics do in their games:
You can change your design and run it again to get the best result in each category, but it's not mandatory. Making an assembly that pass the tests is easy at first, then it gets more and more complex. Making optimal assemblies is harder of course.
I found it quite gratifying when, after changing the sequence order or using tricks, I could finally beat the best score (or in some cases, even go further). And the problems I had to solve were allowing for very interesting simplifications sometimes, they are obviously crafted and not generated automatically.
There are several assemblies for each plant, or theme, then you access to the next stage:
This trailer shows some typical animations to give a better idea of what is going on.
Overall, it's a lot of fun. Steam tells me I've spent 5 hours on the demo (I left it open while doing something else once). I'm the type of guy who's trying to re-do some parts to optimize them until he gets the best in all categories, so if you're satisfied by just passing the test, it will be at least 2-3 times faster.
The game is generally well explained and easy to handle. The tests are well made, they are varied enough and don't feel repetitive, and there are different types of tests which require a different way to approach the problem. The editor is convivial enough, there are even copy/paste functions with transformations that allow you to quickly replicate blocks.
The music is original if not exceptional. The graphics are fine but as you can see, simple and cartoon-like.
The game is still in EA, the final price is set at 16.79 EUR, which makes it the same price as Opus Magnum from Zachtronics. I'll probably do a quick review of that one later on since I've played it too; but I can already say that OM's overall quality is several steps beyond. However, it was released end of 2017.
So the price is fair but similar to older games that may be more attractive and offer more replay value with the editor and community-made puzzles. We'll have to see if Manufactoria 2022 offers the same functionalities.
The dev is PleasingFungus Games, they have made another game before, Silicon Zeroes, that I haven't played but the reception was "very positive".
This one is in the category of "assembling something", or "mini-factory". Robots are put on a conveyor belt and you have to design the assembly line to perform some operations, mainly sorting out the defects by testing if the "program" is correct, or modifying their "program". The "program" is simply a succession of blue and red tokens, that you can detect (if next is red, go right; if blue go left, if no token left, go ahead), or write. You may also be asked to build a test that matches the specs and an existing factory.
Below a typical puzzle. At the top left, the instructions and the type (length) of programs you'll encounter. An example at the bottom with the initial program (Start) and the expected program (Goal) when the robot goes out.
In this example the programs are quite general (may have 0 to 35 tokens), but sometimes the range is reduced, like "2 to 8 tokens", and you can use this information to simplify your assembly line. For example you don't have to test for an empty program.
Once you've completed the assembly line, you launch it, which makes a lot of robots pass through it to test each corner case. If you made a mistake, it will most likely be detected; in that case you can pause and run forward/backward to see what's happening and why it failed.
Once you succeed, you get the results in terms of area, speed and resources vs other solutions. I think the comparison is made with results from other players, like Zachtronics do in their games:
You can change your design and run it again to get the best result in each category, but it's not mandatory. Making an assembly that pass the tests is easy at first, then it gets more and more complex. Making optimal assemblies is harder of course.
I found it quite gratifying when, after changing the sequence order or using tricks, I could finally beat the best score (or in some cases, even go further). And the problems I had to solve were allowing for very interesting simplifications sometimes, they are obviously crafted and not generated automatically.
There are several assemblies for each plant, or theme, then you access to the next stage:
This trailer shows some typical animations to give a better idea of what is going on.
Overall, it's a lot of fun. Steam tells me I've spent 5 hours on the demo (I left it open while doing something else once). I'm the type of guy who's trying to re-do some parts to optimize them until he gets the best in all categories, so if you're satisfied by just passing the test, it will be at least 2-3 times faster.
The game is generally well explained and easy to handle. The tests are well made, they are varied enough and don't feel repetitive, and there are different types of tests which require a different way to approach the problem. The editor is convivial enough, there are even copy/paste functions with transformations that allow you to quickly replicate blocks.
The music is original if not exceptional. The graphics are fine but as you can see, simple and cartoon-like.
The game is still in EA, the final price is set at 16.79 EUR, which makes it the same price as Opus Magnum from Zachtronics. I'll probably do a quick review of that one later on since I've played it too; but I can already say that OM's overall quality is several steps beyond. However, it was released end of 2017.
So the price is fair but similar to older games that may be more attractive and offer more replay value with the editor and community-made puzzles. We'll have to see if Manufactoria 2022 offers the same functionalities.