Open-Ended Puzzle Design at Zachtronics

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Published 2019-07-08

In this 2019 GDC talk, 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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All Comments (21)

@AlekseyLoykuts 4 years ago

It's so cool, when you can print out documentation for shenzhen i/o and play with pokerface, while others at home think you're doing some actual work
@Soul-Burn 4 years ago

"If it took 2 hours to solve it was probably too hard" ... haha hahaha... Some puzzles in SpaceChem or TIS-100 took me... way more than 2 hours.
@Lishtenbird 4 years ago

Dunno how much I learned about designing open-ended puzzles... but as a comedy show, I enjoyed that a lot :D
@silverhammermba 1 year ago

"Your question has to be one sentence" is a fantastic idea. I wish more speakers implemented that rule. "Hi, big fan of your games, I've been playing since..."
@vitorgas1 4 years ago

Zach optimizes even when talking, he speaks very fast
@riveteye93 4 years ago

Thanks for having this talk, any insight into the design of Zachtronics games is a treasure.
@marti0nesorare356 4 years ago

Thanks for the talk Zach! And thanks gdc
@Vospi 4 years ago

It must be a great system to work out your personal goals and business. Abstract enough, open-ended enough, restricted, tested.
@willhart2188 4 years ago

I love these games.
@JinKee 4 years ago

"instead of teaching them harder we just made it easier to use" if only chip makers could make new masks to do that.
@PsychadelicoDuck 4 years ago

A very meandering talk, but enjoyable to listen to and sprinkled with interesting bits.
@raven9057 4 years ago

A very very underrated game developer. Thumbs up for Zach and Jonathan Blow to create a game together.
@TheLavaBlock 4 years ago

very inspiring
1 year ago

I deeply admire this guy. And I don't say such thing often.
@MartinClausen 4 years ago

Why can't crafting be skills based?
@karlstenator 4 years ago

I freakin' love Spacechem >_<
@dylanknight1237 4 years ago

36:32 through 46:22 is supremely good
@andriypredmyrskyy7791 3 years ago

This just in from zach: the Riemann hypothesis must have lots of solutions, cuz we don't know what the solution is!
@phitrum 1 year ago

Double checks that playback speed is set to normal
@spenzakwsx4430 2 years ago

the thumbnail of your video looks very cool. what game ist that?