A new trailer emerged from IGN Fan Fest of a new game called Kaizen: A Factory Story. This is a puzzle-programming game disguised as a factory automation game with a 1980s Japan theme.
As American David Sugimoto, you head to Japan for the first time for a job at Matsuzawa Manufacturing. It’s supposed to be a good gig in the international sales team, and this during the height of Japan’s bubble economy. But instead, David is sent to production lines to design… well, production lines.
Kaizen: A Factory Story has this uncanny resemblance to STEED FORCE Hobby Studio, one of the in-game games from Last Call BBS, the final game from Zachtronics. It also has an uncanny gameplay resemblance to Opus Magnum, another Zachtronics masterpiece.
It’s cool to see a new Zach-like game post-Zachtronics closure.
And coincidentally, the developer Coincidence is a team made up of former Zachtronics members. Including… one Zach Barth.
Is it still a Zach-like game if the actual Zach is making said game? Yes, like how we still call the soulslikes by the makers of Dark Souls a soulslike.
For those unfamiliar with the Zach-like terms, it’s a term to loosely group the style of games Zachtronics tend to make: robust problem-solving puzzles that will require you to think and work like a programmer or engineer to come up with a valid solution. There are always multiple ways to solve a problem, so there’s extra “fun” to be had figuring out how to further optimise your solution.
It’s one of those “job games” where it’s a video game that uses skills that some professional uses in actual workplaces, which is a fun way to discover or test if one has the skillset required for such a career in a safe, non-consequential space. Or a weird way to spend the time off if you’re an actual programmer or line engineer by craft. But not as weird as video game journalists and content creators playing video games on and off the clock.
Also, Kaizen: A Factory Story promises the ability to export GIFs to show off your satisfying/cursed solutions and in true Zach-like form: a card game mini-game. This time it’s called Pachi-Sol, a pachinko-themed solitaire game.
Coincidence isn’t self-publishing Kaizen: A Factory Story like their previous incarnation did. That responsibility goes to Astra Logical, an indie publisher label dead-focus on thinky games and puzzlers. They are also publishing another factory automation game.
There’s no release date for Kaizen: A Factory Story yet. But it’s coming to PC (Steam).