Kaizen: A Factory Story - More Than Just Cogs and Compromises, Mate?
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Rock Paper Shotgun reckons 'Kaizen: A Factory Story' is a clever puzzler about factory automation and accepting that 'good enough' is sometimes just that, all wrapped up in a story about compromise and 80s Tokyo. Sounds like a brain-tickling good time, mate.
Right, so Rock Paper Shotgun's Brendan Caldwell (bless 'im) has been fiddling about with 'Kaizen: A Factory Story,' and it sounds like exactly the sort of brain-tickling goodness we need. Forget your shooty-bang-bang for a bit, this is about optimizing the heck out of factory lines. Think programmable robot arms making tellys... badly at first, naturally.
Now, before you start yawning, this *isn't* your typical 'become a ruthless efficiency guru' sim. It's more about accepting that 'good enough' sometimes *is* good enough. (I know, shocking, right?) According to RPS, you're chucked into 1986 Tokyo as David, a Japanese American lad who thought he'd be a bigshot but ends up knee-deep in the factory floor of Matsuzawa Manufacturing. Cue assembling cheap radios and questionable fashion accessories. It's a story about scaling back your dreams, but finding satisfaction anyway. Bit like life, innit?
What makes this tick different from the usual Zachtronics-style (err, *Coincidence Games*-style) puzzlers? Apparently, it's a bit more approachable. Less about complex math, more about clever spatial thinking. Can your Game Boy knockoff escape the robot arms? Can you rivet socks without causing a legal incident? These are the questions that truly matter, people!
Caldwell reckons the puzzles ramp up nicely, especially when you're trying to shove controls into the middle of a rice cooker (who *designed* that thing?). But the real genius is the tension between striving for perfection and just getting the bloody thing *done*. It's a Zachlike that interrogates its own obsession with efficiency, which is rather clever if you ask me. It's like those motivational posters that say 'DONE is better than PERFECT', but in video game form.
And just like any good Zachlike, there's a solitaire-style minigame thrown in for good measure. This time it's a mash-up of solitaire and pachinko. I'm already sold, fair dinkum. No word on whether you can export GIFs of your dodgy production lines to shame your mates, but one can hope.
Ultimately, it sounds like 'Kaizen: A Factory Story' is a game about accepting that our ambitions often shrink, but making the most of the shrunken version anyway. Bittersweet, innit? But also, strangely… comforting. Might be worth a punt if you're tired of the same old gaming grind and fancy exercising the grey matter. Plus, it's set in 1986 Tokyo. What's not to love?
Tags: puzzle games, automation, indie games, factory simulator, 1980s
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun