Why have I only found my new favourite puzzle developer shortly after they announce they're finishing?
This is my second Zachtronics game after Opus Magnum. On the surface, the games may seem quite similar; both are programming-puzzle games in which you give instructions to a machine to produce a defined output based on some input. In each case you will end up struggling for space as the machines become more dense, and you compete with yourself and others in terms of speed and complexity of your machine. But the actual core of these puzzles could barely be more different.
In Opus Magnum the machines are fairly abstract with a vague 'chemistry' framework. But in TIS-100 you are solving actual real-world problems with a very limited set of instructions. Can you sort this list of numbers just by shuffling them between stacks? Can you print this vertical histogram by only printing horizontal lines? I love it; the puzzles feels so much more meaningful than they did in Opus.
And yet, I do still think Opus Magnum is the significantly better game. It's undeniably much more polished, and does a better job of explaining its mechanics to the player (TIS-100 literally just redirects you to a PDF file for a list of commands if you dare to ask it for help). And I really did miss the almost tactile feedback in Opus; the sound design and visuals in that game were fantastic with your machine clanging along to a rhythm as it worked, while TIS-100 is visually extremely minimalist and almost completely silent. I know it's only a minor thing, but I think a few more beeps and computery sounds as each node went about its tasks would make this a lot more engaging.
But yeah, very solid puzzle game. Just be aware that the barrier to entry can be a little high, especially if you are lacking programming experience.
This is my second Zachtronics game after Opus Magnum. On the surface, the games may seem quite similar; both are programming-puzzle games in which you give instructions to a machine to produce a defined output based on some input. In each case you will end up struggling for space as the machines become more dense, and you compete with yourself and others in terms of speed and complexity of your machine. But the actual core of these puzzles could barely be more different.
In Opus Magnum the machines are fairly abstract with a vague 'chemistry' framework. But in TIS-100 you are solving actual real-world problems with a very limited set of instructions. Can you sort this list of numbers just by shuffling them between stacks? Can you print this vertical histogram by only printing horizontal lines? I love it; the puzzles feels so much more meaningful than they did in Opus.
And yet, I do still think Opus Magnum is the significantly better game. It's undeniably much more polished, and does a better job of explaining its mechanics to the player (TIS-100 literally just redirects you to a PDF file for a list of commands if you dare to ask it for help). And I really did miss the almost tactile feedback in Opus; the sound design and visuals in that game were fantastic with your machine clanging along to a rhythm as it worked, while TIS-100 is visually extremely minimalist and almost completely silent. I know it's only a minor thing, but I think a few more beeps and computery sounds as each node went about its tasks would make this a lot more engaging.
But yeah, very solid puzzle game. Just be aware that the barrier to entry can be a little high, especially if you are lacking programming experience.