The next game from acclaimed designer Zach Barth has a launch date, and it's not far away: a few weeks from now on July 14th you'll be able to dive into your new job, constructing assembly lines for various products being manufactured in a factory in 1980s Japan.
The new demo-launch trailer for Kaizen: A Factory Story shows off in closer detail some of these toys and electronics we'll be putting together a piece at a time, and gives us a look at the process of making it all happen. It's also teasing a very catchy 80s-inspired soundtrack:
Kaizen is not technically coming from the old studio Zachtronics, instead being developed by Coincidence, the banner under which Zach Barth now makes his games. (Although the Steam page does say "from the original Zachtronics team".) Zach is well known in the puzzle-games-adjacent world for his programming, automation and engineering games usually centered around open-ended problem solving and maximizing efficiency and optimization. Coincidence has continued this trend from the Zachtronics days, while also branching out into publishing some thinky physical games too.
This latest title looks like pretty familiar territory for fans of the growing genre of "zachlike" games: a lot of the puzzle gameplay will revolve around placing robotic components on a grid which will then follow your programming instructions one step at a time, hopefully resulting in a finished and cohesive product once all the pushing, flipping and welding is done.
Just like on real world factory lines, you'll be hoping to achieve these things as efficiently as possible, reducing extra steps and saving wasted time/resources. (There's also a new pachinko-themed solitaire minigame, a feature which has become a fun staple of Zach's games.)
You can wishlist Kaizen: A Factory Story and play the demo now on Steam ahead of the game's July 14th release date.
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