i'd say... yes and no
The visual aspect of exapunks helps you debugging your code more easily, watching little bots walking around it's clearer than following signals between chips.
Shenzhen has a somewhat more realistic approach to programming, microcontrollers must be connected to each other to communicate, no magical broadcast as in exapunks. Data must be handled in a certain way depending on the the type of inputs etc.
If you liked the logical aspect of exapunks, i highly recommend you to try Shenzhen, it's a great game, and i've spent so much time on it after falling into the optimization rabbit hole ;P

Originally posted by mala:

i'd say... yes and no
The visual aspect of exapunks helps you debugging your code more easily, watching little bots walking around it's clearer than following signals between chips.
Shenzhen has a somewhat more realistic approach to programming, microcontrollers must be connected to each other to communicate, no magical broadcast as in exapunks. Data must be handled in a certain way depending on the the type of inputs etc.
If you liked the logical aspect of exapunks, i highly recommend you to try Shenzhen, it's a great game, and i've spent so much time on it after falling into the optimization rabbit hole ;P

thanks to be honest i found expunks really difficult to get my head around. so may this is not for me

these games are meant to be challenging. They are trying to teach you valuable skills through puzzles that span from basic, to stuff that can take days to solve (in the endgame). Sometime you breeze through challenges that others have found hard, sometime is the opposite. You overthink easy solutions, and underestimate hard ones. In the meantime, you get used to reason in a certain way, split the problem in a subset of goals, and put it together to find a working solution, your solution. If you already have exapunks, i suggest you to just take it slowly, it's not a rush, just have fun while bashing your head against a problem, once it clicks, it can be extremely rewarding :)

Originally posted by mala:

these games are meant to be challenging. They are trying to teach you valuable skills through puzzles that span from basic, to stuff that can take days to solve (in the endgame). Sometime you breeze through challenges that others have found hard, sometime is the opposite. You overthink easy solutions, and underestimate hard ones. In the meantime, you get used to reason in a certain way, split the problem in a subset of goals, and put it together to find a working solution, your solution. If you already have exapunks, i suggest you to just take it slowly, it's not a rush, just have fun while bashing your head against a problem, once it clicks, it can be extremely rewarding :)

yeah ive bought it so i will give it a go. i loved opus magnum but i think thats allot more straightforward. thanks for answering

I'd say the difficulty in this is the limited amount of space, for both components and code lines. I don't recall that constraint in Exapunks, which I'd say was a more enjoyable game than this one.
This game forces you to "optimize for size" from the start, with the later part of the game not allowing you to just run a non optimized version because of the component space constraint.

Originally posted by iAmTurok:

I'd say the difficulty in this is the limited amount of space, for both components and code lines. I don't recall that constraint in Exapunks, which I'd say was a more enjoyable game than this one.
This game forces you to "optimize for size" from the start, with the later part of the game not allowing you to just run a non optimized version because of the component space constraint.

i find the coding not clicking for me - some of it does. im probably being too impatient

patience is key when programming, things must be tested, fixed, modified.
More often than not, when reading instruction on new puzzles, i think "well that's dumb, i can solve it in 5mn, not even a challenge", jut to find out that my logic is completely flawed, and the problem is not a dumb as i first thought. I still have nightmares about the aquaponic bot XD

Originally posted by mala:

patience is key when programming, things must be tested, fixed, modified.
More often than not, when reading instruction on new puzzles, i think "well that's dumb, i can solve it in 5mn, not even a challenge", jut to find out that my logic is completely flawed, and the problem is not a dumb as i first thought. I still have nightmares about the aquaponic bot XD

yeah that's a good point I'm just not used to it i think i have no programming experience either.

It's more difficult than Exapunks, bc you can not create an inefficient solution to begin with. You have to optimize 1st try. You have no space for fooling around.
Exapunks allows much more inefficiency.

Originally posted by Shabazza:

It's more difficult than Exapunks, bc you can not create an inefficient solution to begin with. You have to optimize 1st try. You have no space for fooling around.
Exapunks allows much more inefficiency.

I think you're right im too stupid for either

Originally posted by Banci:

I think you're right im too stupid for either

naha, don't put it that way, these game are not meant to be "enjoyed" in the traditional way.
First part is just a tutorial, and if you have zero experience in programming, it can also be challenging, then the games get pretty unforgiven, they don't care if you finish the game, most peoples can't (me myself, had to look up for a couple of solutions after too many failed attempts.... damn you, aquaponic robot), they are trying to teach you valuable skill through well thought puzzles. You will feel stupid, you will be bashing your head against some levels, but at the end, the satisfaction of getting to a working solution, is incomparable to other games.

IMO it's considerably harder mostly because of the sizes limitations (both lines of code and board size).

In Exapunks, you can try messy solutions and refine them, even in the last puzzles.
In Shenzen you need to be smart from the get go, or scrap the whole thing and start again.

It feels a bit like the bonus levels in Opus Magnum, where sometimes, you can't just think smart, you have to 'be' smart. At least if you don't have any programming experience..
That can be a bit discouraging..

One thing that helped me was treat each different part of the solution as an independent module, and work on them separately, then refine them.

I wouldn't recommend it as a first-time zachtronics game, but if you finished and enjoyed exapunks you probably already have enough experience to survive this one

Originally posted by Gorpolox:

IMO it's considerably harder mostly because of the sizes limitations (both lines of code and board size).

In Exapunks, you can try messy solutions and refine them, even in the last puzzles.
In Shenzen you need to be smart from the get go, or scrap the whole thing and start again.

It feels a bit like the bonus levels in Opus Magnum, where sometimes, you can't just think smart, you have to 'be' smart. At least if you don't have any programming experience..
That can be a bit discouraging..

One thing that helped me was treat each different part of the solution as an independent module, and work on them separately, then refine them.

I wouldn't recommend it as a first-time zachtronics game, but if you finished and enjoyed exapunks you probably already have enough experience to survive this one

to be honest i wasnt that great aexapunks

Originally posted by Banci:

to be honest i wasnt that great aexapunks

me neither, but then i got so hooked, and now i even have record solutions.
But to be honest, i've always had a thing for puzzles and stuff, and a lot of patience. Remember playing an online ARG, and staring at the same images for 4-5 hours straight, looking for hints. To me it can be fun and rewarding, others probably find it awkward, stressful, and unreasonably difficult for a game.