Zachtronics Abandons Gamedev After 20 Years of Success
The award-winning studio Zachtronics is going out of business. Last Call BBS will be the team's last game. Interestingly, the creators made this decision of their own free will - not for financial reasons.
Known for SpaceChem and Ironclad Tactics, the independent studio Zachtronics will soon be disbanded.
- On July 5, the team's newest game will be released, i.e. Last Call BBS - the last project that the studio will develop.
- The game will debut in early access, which will last 1-2 months.
- The game will then receive updates as needed, and at the end of the year a collection of solitaire variants collected from the team's previous game will be released. After that, Zachtronics will be disbanded.
In a conversation with Kotaku studio's founder, Zach Bart, explained the decision. It was not taken for financial reasons. Zachtronics games rarely turned out to be big hits, but they were quite popular and the company's financial condition was good.
The people comprising the team simply decided that Zachtronics' time had come to an end. The developers have various plans for the future and at least some of them will remain in the industry, but for now they are not ready to reveal any details.
The creators are happy to have been able to make this decision on their own terms. They also appreciate the letters with warm words that many fans sent them after the announcement of the decision to close down.
Zach Bart stresses that this is not a temporary hiatus. In 2015, he was hired by Valve and as a result, Zachtronics suspended operations for ten months. This time the end is supposed to be final, although it is possible that the developers from this team will work together on new projects in the future.
Zachtronics' achievements
Zachtronics was founded in 2000. Initially, it was an amateur studio involved in the development of free minigames. The most famous of them is Infiniminer, which in the opinion of many people was the inspiration for Minecraft. Eventually in 2010 the team switched to making commercial projects.
- SpaceChem (2011) - the first paid game of the studio. We deal with designing production lines that produce chemicals on an alien planet. Valve initially refused to distribute the project on Steam, considering it too niche, but later changed its mind due to excellent reviews.
- Ironclad Tactics (2013) - a battle RTS with card game elements, telling the story of an alternative version of the Civil War, in which both sides use combat robots.
- Infinifactory (2015) - is an expansion of ideas from SpaceChem, but in the form of a 3D game, in which we manage a factory on an alien planet.
- TIS-100 (2015) - a puzzle game, in which we are tasked with rewriting segments of broken code in order to fix the eponymous computer system.
- SHENZHEN I/O (2016) - a puzzle game in which we produce and test electronic circuits.
- SHENZHEN SOLITAIRE (2016) - a standalone version of an unusual variation on solitaire, developed for SHENZHEN I/O.
- Opus Magnum (2017) - In this game, the player takes on the role of an alchemist who must build frugal machines that produce a variety of substances from available ingredients.
- EXAPUNKS (2018) - a game that enables us to play a hacker who uses robots to hack into computer systems. The machines are controlled by writing code in a programming language invented for the game.
- Eliza (2019) - A visual novel adventure game telling the story of a programmer who creates an advanced artificial intelligence with an unclear purpose.
- Molek-Syntez (2019) - A complex puzzle game in which we synthesize molecules of various chemicals to obtain new molecules with diverse properties.
- Mobius Front '83 (2020) - a tactical turn-based game, in which we defend the U.S. from an American army arriving from an alternate reality.
- NERTS! Online - An online solitaire game focused on quick games against other players.
- Last Call BBS - Collection of eight puzzle games in the style of PC games from the early 90s.
It is worth mentioning at the end that Steam Summer Sale has currently discounted all games of the studio. Most of them can now be bought for half price, but in the case of a few the discounts reach 75%.
