


Each puzzle consists of two "threads" that operate simultaneously, requiring players to explore and master concepts like in-order execution, branching, synchronization primitives, and subroutines in an organic and comprehensible environment." That's pretty cool, right? But my boyfriend's main complaint was that after a while, it became repetitive.
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Zachtronics says, "the most important thing this game teaches is how to think like a programmer. Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's more of a logic puzzle than real science. (Imagine them as a serious of standardized processing vats in a futuristic chemical plant.) Each "research project" requires that you make one or more molecule endproducts from some precursors determining the right proportions to use involved a little stoichiometry, but nothing complex. While you are ostensibly synthesizing molecules, you do it by assembling complex "reactors" - circuits of "bonders," which are widgets that add and subtract atoms. The creators admit the game is about "fake chemistry".

Let's be clear: SpaceChem is not going to teach you actual chemistry. blogging.) Anyway, I had my resident video game expert (my boyfriend) play the game for me and report back. (I always have a sneaking suspicion that I could be using my time more productively, by, say. Zachtronics offered me a review copy, but I'm not really a gamer. You're constantly having these little 'Eureka!' moments and folding them into a level to make for a more efficient machine. There's even a strange element of not simply feeling like a gamer, but a scientist. It's about getting stuck into a massive puzzle, laughing at the optimism of what's expected of you, and then finally applying what might be the finishing touch to your engine and cheering as it works. SpaceChem is a game where you build fabulous contraptions. It was billed as "an obscenely addictive, design-based puzzle game about building machines and fighting monsters in the name of science." What's not to love? A few months ago I got an email from Zachtronics, creators of the Codex of Alchemical Engineering, about the new indie game called SpaceChem.
