So this has been a thing for a few days now, with the alpha released for $20 / £15.50 on the 19th October. And it is Zachtronics best game to date. It is still a fiendish puzzle game, casting you as an alchemist making machines to transmute and create molecules. But it is much more user friendly and accessible this time, with no restrictions at all. The aim is first to create what-ever, and then to optimise to the maximum for greater score. When you have built a machine, you are compared with what everyone else have done, and you can see how effective you have been. It is a great incentive to just try to tweak it just a little bit more to cut down the cost or the cycles it uses. It also looks very nice. It already have a lot of levels, and access to user created levels (through Steam Workshop at the moment)

It is really, really good and highly recommended.

Webpage - http://www.zachtronics.com/opus-magnum/

Nerd³ playing, explainng and recommending it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xupXPDbDiy8
RPS Review - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/10/20/opus-magnum-alchemy-machines/
Kotaku review - https://kotaku.com/opus-magnum-is-a-delightfully-esoteric-pc-game-1819800217
Steam page - http://store.steampowered.com/app/558990/Opus_Magnum/

gOg Wishlist - https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/opus_magnum

A GOG release was already confirmed by Zachtronics, so that whislist is unnecessary.

ah, good.

wonder how they will deal with user-created levels here

Ah nice! This looks to be a development of the alchemy theme previously explored in the Codex of Alchemical Engineering.

indeed, that's exactly what it is

So was SpaceChem (but, you know, in spaaaaaace!)

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The solitaire game in it is monstrously addictive, more so than in Shenzhen I/O.

The game itself, while extraordinarily pretty, is more of a chore for me than Shenzhen, because the visual spectacle of a well-designed mechanism is a strong incentive to only submit an optimized solution; and vice versa, an unoptimized solution screams at me "your solution sucks and so do you".

(In contrast, Shenzhen demands one to have a deeper understanding of the game to really appreciate the aesthetics of a solution or lack thereof, and, since I lack a deeper understanding, any solution that works is fine by me).

Which is why I said theme, not gameplay. ;)

Of course, most of Zachtronics games work on a similar gameplay premise. I think I'd call this type of game a procedural puzzle game, unless someone else has already tried to come up with a name for this subgenre. I suppose the same could be said for TIS-100.

I'm afraid I'm too much of a brainlet for Zachtronics games.

this is the "easiest" and most accessible Zachtronics game. Instead of looking for "the" solution, you just make a solution. the rest is then in optimising it, and you can do as much or as little as you want.


SHOW OF YOUR MACHINES!
https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohs83dLI2eC9t8kbm
https://giphy.com/gifs/xUOxf475WgdcxChkac

My creation tend to be low cost and area, but using many cycles

low cost, low area, many cycles...
https://giphy.com/gifs/xUOxf9xciufr8zOOGI

Uh...looks like it might not come to GOG after all?

Can we protest? Have they never seen a mobile game in their lives? Games with nice 2D graphics are now mobile games? Can we summon a blue to explain?

Yet mobile games are on GoG like ,

Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-A-Fide Edition

Reigns

I find it almost impossible to believe that this is the real reason. A game like this is refused because it 'looks too much like a mobile game', yet they'll happily accept games like 'Reigns' and reams of hideous-looking pixel junk? Added my vote to the wishlist, anyway.

If this is the real reason, I hope people responsible for this decision reconsider it.
Edit:
I just played The Codex of Alchemical Engineering on Zachtronics website. It is a wonderful concept.
http://www.zachtronics.com/the-codex-of-alchemical-engineering/