Programming Extremely Satisfying Alchemy Machines! - Opus Magnum

[@whatd0605]

"I'll leave that as an exercise for the viewer" lolol. Tyler the alchemy professor has greatly overestimated the abilities of his viewers.

[@IronCobraTD]

basically my math textbook on its "examples" at least its kinda fun in this scenario, nice job tyler

[@legion999]

You mean puzzle professor.

[@baconpork342]

I'm actually gonna download the game and do my homework believe it or not

[@telnobynoyator_6183]

It's really easy to see though, the quicksilver is taken once per cycle / tick to be used in the recipe. You can't get the quicksilver faster than that thus you can't go any faster

[@cottontailsify]

He explains it a minute later anyway, "The elements need to be pulled every 2 ticks."

[@the_nick_knack]

Ah, these optimization leaderboards bring me back to the Polybridge days. Really fun to see you show off something you clearly enjoy and are really good at!

[@JorgetePanete]

DildoBike

[@alexantone5532]

Dildobike

[@DagoDuck]

Where did Dildobike originate from? Is it an old thing of this channel, or was it just the way Tyler named his account, and for some reason the games he plays always use that name?

[@the_nick_knack]

@@DagoDuck He's used that name longer than he's used Aliensrock I believe.

[@TheArQu]

DildoBike is superior name

[@aepos_]

My brain couldn’t handle the amount of smart when he optimized for airship fuel good job tyler

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Coincidentally these are roughly the three design objectives for IRL CPUs as well, if you replace "cost" with "power use" you get the famous PPA: performance(=speed), power, area

[@jort93z]

not really a coincidence. It is intended.

[@Alpha_Synergy]

One of my favorite optimization games. Would love to see you play this game in full, especially as it has a nice story attached.

[@owenmason8437]

youll love SpaceChem then

[@turtlememes2334]

@@owenmason8437 please no dont remind me oh god now i want to play spacechem ARGH

[@CntRational]

A bit sad you're skipping the story, but glad to see you playing this game!

[@OutbackCatgirl]

Same, but oh well, tyler has specific tastes regarding stories and made his feelings clear on the story being pretty mid in Magnum Opus, and may not realise that there may be folk in his audience who actually enjoy the narrative even if it's a bit cheesy. That said, it's a valid decision for a few reasons. His general disdain for narrative driven exploration games with simplistic (if present at all) gameplay is well documented and, honestly, even if i don't feel the same way about every game he doesn't like, it's a valid take, in the same way that some people dislike basic puzzle games or grindy rpgs or mindless fps. After all, it's his channel, his videos, and it can be hard as a content creator to feel like you're making passionate, on-brand content that feels satisfying and fit for your core audience if you're just not interested by a specific aspect of the game, which is why so much is often edited out to skip essentially cutscenes in order to show the intricacies of gameplay. For what its worth, I honestly feel that Tyler is easily one of the best content creators covering this niche of puzzle, strategy and optimization games, and it's really wonderful to see him play games he's clearly passionate about mechanically where you can hear the satisfied joy in his voice. Like, say, patrick's parabox, and that other one i forget the name that was short but sweet based on organic learning and pathing puzzles, and that other other one where you had to figure out the underlying logical rules... Just, these kinds of innovative, outside the box, fresh and fun games are beautiful to watch him play because he's got the most solid foundation of logic and intuition for those kinds of puzzles out of any youtuber i know. Not once have I felt frustrated watching him play such games and missing some ridiculously obvious solution, because even if i do spot the solution first, the way he approaches puzzle solving is rigorous and *satisfying*, and that is absolutely a gift and a skill that keeps me coming back for more.

[@rextanglr4056]

he's the "play the game, skip the story" kind of let's player

[@buttonasas]

Meh, zachtronics stories are just _fine._

[@Some.username.idk.0]

@@KCzz15 and there are people who would be tabbed out if the story is included, impossible to please everyone, so it just depends on his preference

[@OutbackCatgirl]

@@theendofthestart8179 I have a great many hobbies. KZbin is simply a nice place to consume bite sized chunks of entertainment when I have free time and haven't already decided to do something else.

[@CoolExcite]

In case anyone wasn't aware Zach of zachtronics (maker of this game, spacechem, and others) is retiring from the game industry and the studio is releasing it's final game, Last Call BBS, on July 5th. It's a collection of 8 smaller puzzle games

[@redstocat5455]

Oh...

[@rileyn2983]

@@redstocat5455He didn't retire from the industry, Zachtronics shut down, but they started Coincidence Games. They've already put out a physical card game, and they just recently released an educational game (they've made other educational games before under the Zachtronics name). We might see another classic Zachtronics style game soon, who knows

[@pepijnvanoostveen7708]

For those interested I shall attempt to explain how you calculate the fastest time. You have one limiting input (the element you use most) and you can take one element out every two cycles, so if n is how many times you need the element: 2*n But the last element you take needs to get to the and after you pick it up, do for L the amount of operations (bonding, Calc, etc.) L+1 The formula becomes: 2n+L+1 (Note: n is the amount of limiting elements for all 6 outputs

[@pepijnvanoostveen7708]

I accidentally posted before I put the ‘)’ at the ens

[@jacobb5484]

Finally! Zachtronics is one of my favorite publishers with some of the best puzzle game around.

[@truthwatcher1808]

rip Zachtronics

[@mistercookboom1899]

Exactly.

[@VithorCasteloTutoriais]

Tecnically not a puzzle game because have multiple ways of solving the challenges, but yeah, zachtronics is sooooo good

[@Sintarzus]

@@VithorCasteloTutoriais just like polybridge

[@pikminman13]

Oh god damn it I knew as soon as I saw the results graphs it had to be Zachtronics. Not that that’s a bad thing. Just one of those “aaaaa” moments. From trying to play TIS-100 and getting stuck.

[@majestic-a1260]

I just found a game on steam called, "Please Fix The Road" not sure if you've seen it before but its a puzzle game with incredibly satisfying transitions, 5-10 hours of content, and super relaxing. I'm not that experienced with puzzle games but I love this one. The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that it is pretty repetitive for the first half hour or so. The game is only 11 dollars and definitely worth a shot, I would love to see a playthrough on this channel.

[@connormoran3737]

I absolutely adore this game! I’ve beaten every base game level, and do the steam page on it sometimes, trying to optimize the speed and stuff, I’m so excited to see you play it

[@oscarbarnes2130]

For anyone wanting to know why it's the fastest, adding a third arm means that by the time each arm is used again, it is in its original position and there is no waiting to pick the element up

[@delta3244]

And, for those wondering why the third arm was unneeded, it is possible to do what those three arms were doing in two. Notice that, in order to get the optimal cycle count, two things must be true: 1) inputs must be grabbed at the fastest rate possible. This is because a certain number of inputs *must* hit the playing field in order for 6 of the output to be produced, and we want to get them ASAP. 2) The number of cycles between the final input being grabbed and the final output being released must be as small as possible. Only (1) is relevant to this case. This is because the point of using 3 arms was to grab inputs as fast as possible; there being 3 arms did not change the cycles between grabbing the final input and dropping the final output. The fastest that any input can be grabbed is one per two cycles - cycle 1 it is grabbed, 2 it is moved off the input, 3 next inp. is grabbed, etc. The way this max throughput is achieved with 2 arms is as follows: Arm 1: grab, - this arm grabs rotate, drop, - other arm grabs rotate back, [repeat] Arm 2: drop, - other arm grabs rotate back, grab, - this arm grabs rotate, [repeat]

[@biggiemac42]

5000 hours of gameplay later I still love this game. Glad to see it getting attention here!

[@miberss]

jesus

[@pirilon78]

How tf do you not get bored of this

[@GratefulNPC]

Uhh

[@delta3244]

@@pirilon78 How would they get bored of it?

[@pirilon78]

@@delta3244 wtf am i meant to respond to that? By getting bored???

[@xDanKaix]

This is what I love about redstone machines in minecraft, finding this insanely optimized way of doing a basic task. Would love to see more videos like this.

[@drfidelis558]

BTD6 creators explaining the challenge: Just use ninja + alch spam BTD6 KZbinrs figuring it out:

[@insertherealotofeyeemojis2185]

the 4-2-0 arm is so underrated

[@gonb5434]

calcification paragon needs a nerf

[@nickdescovich4101]

Hell yes! Looks incredible. Haven’t seen or heard of this before, looking forward to more episodes.

[@Datboss1011]

Although this looks like a great game, for me personally it was really hard to follow as it got too complicated for my simple brain. No matter, I am here for the satisfaction.

[@fuzzysparkle9152]

A lot of the puzzling is skipped or sped up. If you were to watch a VOD of it, it would probably be easier to follow along. Maybe not though.

[@userblame632]

Id like to hear more of the thought process, but I do find super optimized setups so satisfying, even if I may have no fucking idea how its working xD

[@icewolf250]

Had big 'Draw the rest of the owl' energy, lol.

[@TheNaturalnuke]

It really slowly guides you into it before it ramps, it becomes very intuitive as you do it

[@MIKAEL212345]

@@TheNaturalnuke Yep, Zachtronics, the developer does this with all their games. You get introduced to mechanics so slowly that you are playing the game normally and hours go by and you just realized you created a monstrosity that if you saw originally you would've instantly given up on.

[@ferb57g17]

I was hesitant to watch this video but you introduced the game mechanics beautiful and now I am excited to see more of This game. It gives me Polly Bridge type vibes. Can’t wait to see more!

[@whitericeallday]

i really love the alchemy aspect of the game where you have reactants to make products, bonding, different elements, coming from a chemistry background this game looks splendid

[@electra_]

Wow, cool to see a solve for Airship Fuel that uses all three reagents in one machine! My strategy was quite different. I built one machine that built an airship fuel using one reagent, and a second one that built it using the other two reagents, and then I combined the outputs. Ended up being just as fast.

[@somniad]

I've played a bunch of OM optimizing for area! I even found 13 area health tonic back in the day, my one claim to fame - I was a total noob and assumed what I did had already been found, but no area improvements had been found in chapter 1 for months. Fun memories. It's really fun to see someone's process playing for cycles, something I never quite got into past areas near the start. It's funny just how quickly playing for cycles ramps up at airship fuel.

[@doomcat6426]

I just posted this as a reply to one of my earlier comments but I'm just going to comment it again as it could make these videos even better. Ok, I just watched it again without being zombie levels of tired and that definitely helps but I still think that it could be a lot more followable with just a few changes. First, blowing up the programming while keeping the machine still on the screen like at 11:15 really helps as I don't have to remember the machine and try to visualize it in my head as much while you are explaining it compared to when you just zoom in on the programming such as at 1:47. Second, whenever you reference an arm, if little arrows would pop up then it would make it much easier for me to follow as I wouldn't have to try to find the arm in addition to figuring out what it does, a great example of the lovely editor doing this was at 12:24. In addition, I was watching this on my quite large phone last night and despite 720p, I couldn't make out the numbers on the arms for the life of me so that would make it much more viewable to mobile people. The last thing would be much harder to implement as it would have to be something you would have to think about while recording, but being more precise and saying clockwise or counter clockwise instead of turn. Love your stuff though. -Doomcat

[@Lukas99g]

love how many different ways you can optimize your machines

[@eimazd]

Ah, I love Zachtronics games, and Opus Magnum is a personal favorite - I've loved the concept ever since the free Flash game "The Codex of Alchemical Engineering." Great to see you playing it!

[@meapyboy12345]

12:00 When Tyler said he did some off-camera building and then he showed us what he built it reminded me of those Minecraft videos with a person saying i did some off-camera grinding then showing that they had an obscene amount of diamonds and gold and stuff like that

[@lunascapes]

Codex of Alchemical Engineering got a spiffy new look, I see.

[@crazybeatrice4555]

Cool game, definitely want to see some area optimizations though, cause that's my favorite part of this game.

[@kengored_alt]

"So i did some off camera building" Thats where the fun begins...

[@-_--pv5ny]

The story to this game is nice and most of the base levels you can kinda 'brute force' even if puzzle games aren't your forte (200+ cycles lets gooo). The kicker is the challenge levels after you've beaten the story tho, with some of the constraints I could never figure out how to clear all of them. Would recommend to anyone that finds this cool to watch.

[@melt7651]

Would have liked to see more of a tutorial before we jumped straight into this one

[@Malroth00Returns]

these levels WERE the tutorial.

[@pennyjim5671]

@@Malroth00Returns Tbf he did jump pretty quickly into optimization

[@henrymccoy2306]

Honestly he described how to play pretty much perfectly

[@MudakTheMultiplier]

He has explained all the concepts, just not the actual controls or anything. Opus Magnum is absolutely a game you learn the basics of by exposure so spending time going over "this is a track, it slides things. This is an arm it spins things..." Just doesn't make for types of videos that he does.

[@alexdavis665]

Holy shit, this is my favourite puzzle game of all time, and now Tyler's playing it? Hell yeah

[@turtlememes2334]

I like that he actually used the final contraption in the thumbnail instead of just making up something complex looking

[@Hephaestus_God]

Got all the achievements for this game years ago, completely forgot about it. I remember seeing some of the world record builds and was like "Wtf this is crazy"

[@westarrr]

It's so fun to see people coming up with different ways to get cycle-optimal

[@prismghostvodsstuff6536]

I can definitely see you having fun with this! And it will be a lot of fun to watch especially with you trying to go for the fewest cycles, cost and area possible

[@anoneemous_ly]

Yes! ive been waiting for a while for you to play this

[@leandersmainchannel4493]

Finally! You did it! You played the game! I'm crying tears of joy right now.

[@anexor3632]

I'm glad you've found time for Opus Magnum because the Zachtronics games are all really good puzzle games

[@lonewulf0328]

Funny that you went back to play this one again. I too just reinstalled it a few days ago and cleared my progress to give myself a fresh start, and have been enjoying it.

[@craz107]

glad he took a look at this game. One of my favorite puzzle games from one of my favorite puzzle game devs

[@gobble_gang]

More please thanks. I've played this before and the later stages are INSANE to optimize.

[@Escher1288]

Finally somebody who optimizes for cycles. Aliensrock on KZbin the majority of people optimize for cost, then area, THEN cycles. The cult of speed thanks you for this. P.S. if you could, would you please go through the entirety of the Sigmar’s Garden minigame dialogue. While it can be somewhat tedious I have found no one on KZbin who has so. The little archivist that lives in my brain has been frothing at the mouth about this.

[@ericjoseph4203]

god yes i've been waiting for you to play this for ages my brain bas always basically been in denial about the fact you hadnt made a series on it yet it just seems so up your alley

[@pelidesachilles824]

I would love to see you continue this series. A bit of constructive criticism on the video: (although entirely subjective) I would love to watch the building and searching for solutions rather than just seeing the end product. Because then I would actually feel attached to the final solution, instead of just being interested in its complexity.

[@nalee2788]

Me to KZbin searching for some videos to watch : Show me a good video Me not finding anything : I said a good video Me when this very video came out : PERFECTION

[@sirhans1466]

I want to see more satisfying algorithm machine stuff xD The game looks really cool, I would really love more episodes on that :D

[@giakobbo]

I always love watching you go for leaderboards, no matter the game

[@FernTheRobot]

YES!!! I love Zachtronics games!!! Such a niche yet satisfying genre. tysm for playing this!

[@FernTheRobot]

Also. I love the editing at 11:20 that makes both the layout and the programming visually clear Also, the last optimization is indeed mesmerizing. I couldn't achieve that even if I wanted to.

[@markusmelvold8988]

Opus magnum seems like a game I would like to see you play more, your min maxing game is really entertaining to watch

[@Watch10045]

This game feels more like your a scientist in a lab instead of an alchemy student in an academy.

[@kevinb1229]

Oh, hey, it's Codex of Alchemical Engineering 2.0! Glad to see Aliensrock doing a video on it.

[@Malroth00Returns]

Man this game was great, I played it years ago and struggled just to beat some of those puzzles much less optimized for speed. (i did do some minimal cost runs that took forever)

[@atoaster1209]

You had me at "global high score leaderboard".

[@iexistguy-yi1gs4sp6y]

Looks like an interesting game

[@delta3244]

It really is. If it looks fun to you, I highly recommend buying it. The game's as easy (within reason) and/or as difficult as you want it to be because of the leaderboard + no built-in restrictions on the cost/size of machines. The concept is good and very well-excecuted, the game has every QoL feature a Zachlike* should have, and it can take as much playtime as you want by virtue of steam workshop levels & optimizing solutions. As for the less important but still noteworthy positives of the game: it has great music (to my ears, which are somewhat picky), its story is good enough to be worth reading as you play, and watching machines run is satisfying, which is enhanced by the great sound design. As for negatives about the game, just completing it w/out optimizing is too easy for my tastes (the reason I said the game can be as easy as you want it to be with little qualification is because of this). I can't think of any others, but I'm sure there are some; I just like the game too much too see them. (as applies to every game, the game isn't for everyone. It's very good, but you won't like it if you don't like the genre.) In general, if you like this game's concept and want to play other games like it, Zachtronics have made a number of them over the years. I'm sure some of the others will appeal to you. (fair warning if you do so: SpaceChem's QoL is _bad._ It's one of my favourites from the company because its difficulty is very high, but it's difficult to so much as save two different solutions for the same level in that game) *Zachlike ≈ a puzzle game where solutions are open-ended can be optimized by a number (typically 3) of metrics. Named after Zachtronics, the company that produced this game.

[@paulstelian97]

Zachtronics is one of the best programming game developers when it comes to the smaller games (Factorio isn't a small game lmao)

[@killerbee.13]

@@delta3244 The journal is a pretty nice version of a challenge mode, I think, it's a nice step up over the base game's difficulty. Also, the Sigmar's Garden minigame is surprisingly fun. It's kinda like hexagonal mahjong without stacking, but with some extra rules.

[@delta3244]

@@killerbee.13 That (the journal being a good step in difficulty) is true, at least. And yes, SG is great.

[@snowfloofcathug]

This is one of few games I’ll actually be able to challenge Tyler at, will be interesting to see where I managed to squeeze out a few extra cycles on him. And where he’ll absolutely decimate me on bigger/more complex projects. God I’m excited

[@Art_Gnat]

It is very satisfying watching you play. I would for sure enjoy more videos of this game.

[@RustySharks]

I've actually always wanted to see you play this so this is great!!!

[@xDanKaix]

come one we all know that finding the most efficient solution is far easier than proving it to be the most efficient solution. Alien really do be like a math text book explaining the easy stuff and leaving the hard stuff to us.

[@janelas7299]

The sound that the optimized airship fuel machine does has a nice beat to it

[@Pieter31]

I liked the optimization for cost, as it was much easier to see what was going on, which is very valuable for a first exposure to the game.

[@AzureFlash]

I would go so far as to say that Opus Magnum is Zachtronics' magnum opus. Hard enough to be interesting, but forgiving enough to be completable. Very pretty interface, well-designed controls. Optimizing for speed, symbols or footprint all lead to different playstyles. High replay value through the journal puzzles and workshop. This is THE game to recommend for people who want to test their "Zack-compatibility".

[@zagqueenofchaos8352]

honestly when I first played this game I thought you'd probably love this game especially I played it back in the poly bridge times

[@randomsword10]

So glad to see more optimizable puzzle games. Please continue this series!

[@iheartbinary]

Look at this guy coming up with fully functional programming on his first try. Seriously tho, I love this game but the amount of iteration it takes me to complete any level burns me out, lol! Please do more of this, I would love to see you play the later levels.

[@liamodea1275]

Glad to see you finally playing this! It’s the kind of game that I just assumed you had already played, so it’s nice to see you haven’t. I’m excited to see more!

[@G.Aaron.Fisher]

Glad to see Opus Magnum back. It's a difficult game to really explain why you need to do everything you do to get a score. I think I'd be floundering if I didn't have 200 hours in it. But you're doing as good a job with the explanations as possible.

[@Unlucky-9172]

When it isn't optimal but it looks cool anyways:

[@delta3244]

- Most solutions to surrender flare which involve unbonding/rebonding every salt - Most solutions that are extremely symmetrical (edit: grammar)

[@atlasxatlas]

I love optimizing for all three categories with priorities: speed then cost then area. having small machines that are cheap and also fastest is so satisfying

[@claytonharting9899]

The airship fuel solution makes a really good beat, very nice to listen to

[@faultofdaedalus2666]

YESSSSSS FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING ZACHTRONICS ON THIS CHANNEL!!! truly the crossover we have all been waiting for

[@michaelmoore2679]

Optimizing for cost ends up becoming 1 extend-o arm on a 2-tile track and only as many other components as absolutely necessary (no duplicate elements, smallest combination glyph, etc.). And a whole lot of patience to write an entire program on the one arm. Pivot pivot pivot drop rotate retract grab pivot pivot rotate drop

[@nisqhog2881]

I have finished this game twice already, but seeing your video made me get back to it once more. I'm proud to say that I was usually only one cycle off of max times, but the airship fuel one is such a complicated mechanism that I doubt I could ever do by myself haha

[@jackelier3401]

Just from the leader board I believe this was made by the same people who made Shenzhen i/o which is a puzzle coding game, although it does have space management as well

[@theunknown4834]

That last one... insanity

[@AliguraAethernum]

Love this game, and I was excited for you to play it for years now! Please do more of it (maybe even custom levels later on)

[@elementgermanium]

I feel big brain for playing this before Tyler, it’s so amazing

[@drumlineking07]

Me listening to the machine at 13:55 : "It's not unusual to be loved by anyone..."

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

Yesssssss, I've been waiting to see you play this! I knew it'd be right up your alley.

[@drwhothehell]

i’ve been wanting to see you play this for a really long time now. i absolutely can’t wait to see more

[@NStripleseven]

I think a lot of us would love to see more of this game.

[@antonkremov20]

Opus magnum, the satisfaction engine. You can either make a superfactory of hyperproduction or make a single piston arm on a track that carefully assembles a giant compound. Both look amazing with the gif record option.

[@setrouf]

I WAS WAITING SO HARD THAT YOU PLAYED THIS GAME GOD THANK YOU

[@imjustwolf]

I definitely want to see more of this game! I got it as a gift from a friend but it's really too annoying for me to play, but I do really enjoy watching others play it.

[@AtheK10]

Opus Magnum and all of the Zachtronics games are so good. Not sure how well they'll work as videos, but looking forwards for some more!

[@moofurg]

Glad to see you playing this, I loved it when I played it.

[@mattdunn7434]

This game is a perfect fit for this channel

[@cationforge144]

I remember seeing Tyler's first twitch vod (in 2019 ish), and he'd said something about coming back to the game on stream/YT once he got better. And while yeah, he was pretty bad back then he's trained in a cave for twenty years and come back stronger than we couldve imagined

[@themixedmaster]

I would absolutely love to see more opus magnum. Love this game

[@slouch186]

i love this game so much. zachtronics has such a brilliant mind for puzzles

[@kalemmackey2917]

This is gonna be the next series I watch really, really closely. I can already tell.

[@magikseagul]

Been waiting for this for years now, great to see you playing it. Had some loooooong nights doing the later levels. Have fun.

[@diggyhole5787]

Oh my god this is like my favourite puzzle game, it's been so long since I've even heard anyone talk about it

[@mson9713]

Hello

[@evanking1881]

Hello

[@caharlie2127]

Hello

[@Topoftheworld121]

Hello

[@joesmith4225]

Hi

[@gressorialNanites]

Ooooo Tyler plays Opus Magnum this surely is one of the days for KZbin!

[@Xhadp]

This is one of the games that I am going to be picking up during the steam summer sale such a cool concept and adds in new elements to not be another build-a-factory game. Can't wait to play it.

[@MudakTheMultiplier]

Yooo I've been so excited to see you do one of these games!

[@f.a.r.b5356]

This gives me poly bridge vibes, like, the way the video is presented, and I like it a lot, please bring more episodes

[@MeeTonToE]

I'm so glad to see you tackle a Zachtronics title. They're tricky little guys where some games' puzzles take days for me to figure out but never feel unfair. I'd also recommend Infinifactory, it's like Shapezio in 3D.

[@mushroomancer4407]

really enjoyed this tyler, more of this please!

[@underrated1524]

I actually quite like the story of this game in addition to the programming. Anateus's story resonates with the engineer within me.