krispykrem

It's good at some things (research and programming) and terrible at others (art and game design). In general, I try to look past the tools being used and focus on what is being made.

Thanks! I still play it often, which is not true of any of my other games.

It's unlikely. We do have a DRM-free version of Kaizen on itch.io, which also includes a Steam key so that you can enjoy the best of both worlds:

https://astralogicalgames.itch.io/kaizen-a-factory-story

Here is something I (Zach) wrote up a while ago in an attempt to explain it:

> Back in 2016, we sold Zachtronics to a company called Alliance, who we worked for as employees and made all the Zachtronics games from SHENZHEN I/O onward. In 2022 we stopped working for them and started a new studio called Coincidence, which we own and run as a sort of co-op that allows us to work on projects together, or not together, or anything in-between. (By "we" I mean the five of us who made all the Zachtronics games from SHENZHEN I/O onward; the team was much more dynamic before that, as described in the first few pages of ZACH-LIKE.)

> I still work for Alliance and maintain the Zachtronics games, but we don't own any of that IP, so anything new we make is going to be attached to the new studio and the new name.

(I did spend a year teaching computer science at a public high school, but that overlapped the last year of Zachtronics, rather than being between Zachtronics and Coincidence like it's often reported.)

At Coincidence, we have released two puzzle games so far, Kaizen: A Factory Story and U.V.S. Nirmana, and have more (four?) in the works. I'm hoping that I'll get to work on some less-obviously-in-the-genre games soon, but I haven't git initted anything yet so I guess it's too early to say.

Here is an interview with one of the researchers behind this project:

https://logicmag.io/bodies/tarek-loubani-on-3d-printing-in-g...

It explains the project and its motivations. It's been a while since I read it (2019), but at the time I found it really fascinating and inspiring.

Zach, here. There's actually an open source project called Sigrok that's compatible with a ton of logic analyzers, including the one-chip knockoffs from China.

http://sigrok.org/

Your second scenario sounds pretty cyberpunk too! I'd certainly love it if more people purchased our games, but piracy is unavoidable. I'd rather have a Russian 12-year-old pirate our games than never get a chance to play them.

Absolutely! Are there any games you'd like to see in particular?

Holy crap, that's absolutely the same car. I'll update the writeup with your discovery. Thanks!