So it's this process where that's generated. All of the puzzles in the first chapter are telling you about the kind of people that you work for. Because, if I say there should be some sort of hangover cure, Zach can figure out what that means in the gameplay, what a molecule of that looks like.īut what those puzzles are are created with the story in mind as well. All of those are brainstormed from a story direction as well as from a mechanical direction. So like, some of the products that show up in the first chapter, they have you making some silly products for them, like hair gel and hangover cures, and things like that. 'All of the puzzles in the first chapter are telling you about the kind of people that you work for.'Īnd so, what we do is, together we brainstorm all these different ideas of things you could be making in this world. And then there needs to be some reason to make all these different things that you're making.

So in the case of Opus Magnum there's this design space, here's this thing that we can do with alchemy, and here's this world that this alchemy takes place in. The value placed on story in Zachtronics' puzzle gamesīurns: The way we started working at Zachtronics, pretty much since Shenzhen I/O, is that Zach has this design space that he's working with, with puzzles. Zach Barth, co-founder of and developer at Zachtronics And for more developer insights, editor roundtables, and gameplay commentary, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel. You can watch the stream embedded above, or click here to see it. We've transcribed some of the more interesting passages of the conversation below. Zachtronics' namesake Zach Barth, along with Opus Magnum writer/music composer Matthew Burns, were able to share some keen insight into the game's development,embedding narratives into puzzles, and the current furor over lootboxes and F2P. So we decided to invite them on the Gamasutra Twitch channel to talk about their design philosophy and process. Barth and his cohorts have had interesting things to say about making puzzle games before, like this and this.

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