Kaizen: A Factory Story
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| Kaizen: A Factory Story | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Coincidence |
| Publisher | Astra Logical |
| Platforms |
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| Release | July 14, 2025 |
| Genre | Puzzle |
| Mode | Single-player |
Kaizen: A Factory Story is an automation puzzle video game developed by Coincidence, a studio formed by Zach Barth after the closure of Zachtronics, and published by Astra Logical. It was released for Windows, Linux and macOS in July 2025.
The player takes the role of an American engineer in the 1980s during the Japanese asset price bubble, hired by a Japanese company to help create assembly systems for a variety of electronic items. Like Barth's previous games, Kaizen gives the player open-ended sets of tools and commands to create these assemblies, with the player then rated on global scoreboards based on how efficient their solution is based on certain criteria.
Within Kaizen, the player takes the role of an American engineer hired by a Japanese manufacturing company in the 1980s to help design assembly processes for various products. The game's narrative follows as the engineer becomes accustomed to the Japanese approach to manufacturing, with the story progressing as the player finishes each assembly design.[1]
Within each puzzle level, the player is given a set of manipulators, such as arms that can push, pull, or rotate parts, or devices that establish connections between parts. The goal is to program these manipulators and controls as to correctly assemble a final product from several subcomponents. The game uses a visual programming language along a timeline so that the player can coordinate the actions of these manipulators and controls. When the player's assembly has successfully built a number of the desired product correctly, they complete that level and move onto the next level; they are shown how efficient their assembly is based on several metrics and how these compare to others using global scoreboards.[1]
Like most of Barth's past games, there is an added solitaire mini-game, with the one in Kaizen based on a solitaire and pachinko mashup.[1]