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Open-Ended Puzzle Design at Zachtronics
Imagine shipping puzzles in a game that you haven't solved yourself, confident that players will find interesting and creative solutions on their own. That's not unusual at Zachtronics, the studio behind open-ended puzzle games such as 'SpaceChem', 'SHENZHEN I/O', 'Opus Magnum', and 'EXAPUNKS'. In this session, podcaster Drew Messinger-Michaels talks to Zachtronics founder and creative director Zach Barth about the studio's puzzle design process, from the initial foundation to the basic mechanics, to the way story is integrated.
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