The Steam Awards 2025 are open for nominations, and with your help, we think Kaizen: A Factory Story could win this year\'s Best Game You Suck At award.

Not that you suck at it. It\'s more about how bafflement can turn into feeling brilliant in a single moment. How an idea coalesces into a complex machine that miraculously does exactly what you wanted it to do. And then seeing your friend beat your score.

So if Kaizen has ever made you feel proud, frustrated, confused, delighted, or all of the above in the same five minutes, we would be honored to have your nomination. A Steam nomination (and reviews!) does more than earn us bragging rights as a newly formed co-op studio -- it boosts visibility and helps more folks join in the fun of thinking there\'s something wrong with the game and e-mailing Zach about it before realizing there really is a solution out there, waiting to be found.

Thanks for building, breaking, and occasionally questioning life choices with us!

Today\'s update adds a new achievement for solving every puzzle in the game.

Today\'s update localizes the variants tutorial images and fixes a bug where the variants tutorial was not automatically opened when opening a puzzle using that mechanic.

\n\nToday\'s update adds our final weekly bonus puzzle, the DESIGNER\'S NOTEBOOK, which is actually not a puzzle but a collection of TWELVE new puzzles based on existing puzzles. What?\n\nDuring development, I had originally imagined that about 1/3 of the puzzles in the game would be variant puzzles, which required the player to conditionally build one of two different products, in the spirit of the just-in-time manufacturing revolution that inspired the game. One of my favorite examples of this was the \"video recorder\" puzzle, which originally required you to build both VHS and Betamax variants:\n\n\n\n(Traces of this remain in the story, where we learn that Ozeki-san is a devoted Betamax fan.)\n\nWe prototyped but quickly cut this feature, as I felt it was too confusing for a game whose entire point was to minimize the \"unnecessary complexity\" of my previous games. After we released the game, however, I started exploring ways to add some harder puzzles, and ended up coming back to this idea. I re-implemented the feature, updated it to fit the final design of the game, and started resurrecting the original versions of puzzles with variants.\n\nThe Designer\'s Notebook, available at the end of the bonus chapter (unlocked after beating the game\'s main story), includes 10 new variant puzzles based on puzzles from the main campaign. There are also two non-variant puzzles: my original (and harder!) version of the \"pachinko machine\" puzzle, and an alternate version of the \"chess computer\" puzzle suggested by a player on the Zachtronics / Coincidence Discord that is very hard but also very funny. (I have yet to beat it... it\'s probably solvable?)\n\n

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the TOY CASH REGISTER!\n\n\"Get kids started early on understanding the transactional nature of modern life! This toy cash register includes a light-up display and drawers to enable buying, selling, and giving change. It\'s all about the Yukichis (Benjamins)!\"

Today\'s update fixes some puzzle story portraits in chapter 5 that didn\'t match the primary art.

Today\'s update fixes a small bug in the \"slot car track\" puzzle where the front of the \"jump\" part was incorrectly tagged as rotationally symmetric. Histograms and leaderboards for the puzzle have been reset.

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the SLOT CAR TRACK!\n\n\"Even though it was clear by the late 80s that video game racing would gain popularity over the old hobby of slot cars, someone at Matsuzawa apparently had enough of a soft spot for it to approve the release of this entry level track.\"

Today\'s update fixes the art for the \"dollhouse kitchen\" bonus puzzle to be less ambiguous.

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the DOLLHOUSE KITCHEN!\n\n\"This kids\' kitchen playset originally included real heating elements along with realistic flame and smoke effects, but those features were nixed before it went into production due to safety concerns. Nevertheless, the product was a hit!\"\n\nThis is one of my favorite puzzles that I\'ve made for the game so far. It\'s quite challenging!

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the BOOMBOX!\n\n\"Bring the beats with Matsuzawa\'s biggest boom box to date! The whopping twelve \"D\" batteries it requires will definitely set you back some cash, but the volume that enables will guarantee you never lose another boom box battle!\"\n

Today\'s update adds keyboard shortcuts to cut (Ctrl+X), copy (Ctrl+C), and paste (Ctrl+V) instructions.

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the CHESS COMPUTER!\n\n\"The Matsuzawa ENDGAME was an entry-level chess computer intended to introduce children and neophytes to the world of chess. But sales faced headwinds because nobody could beat it, even when set to the lowest difficulty.\"\n

Today\'s update contains some small file format changes to support a future update. Nothing fun, unfortunately.

Today\'s update fixes a minor issue where some solutions for the \"bidet seat\" puzzle were not accepted.

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the ELECTRIC GUITAR!\n\n\"Combining the best of analog and digital into a single instrument, the Matsuzawa Grendel MaxTar included a built-in amplifier and effects unit. Plans to add oscillators and a fully functional step sequencer were shelved, however.\"

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the ARCHERY TARGET!\n\n\"After an unsuccessful foray into developing new building materials, the Matsuzawa team realized its wood fiber composite was perfect for use in archery targets and dart boards. Thus, the sporting goods division was born!\"

Today\'s update fixes a bug where you could move products through tools (?!) under certain circumstances.

\n\nToday\'s update adds a new weekly bonus puzzle, the SYNTHESIZER!\n\n\"The battery-powered Matsuzawa Grendel let keyboard players jam with the music anywhere, anytime. It was praised for its eight realistic built-in voices and four-note polyphony, but some criticized the small number of keys.\"\n\nThis update also includes a small improvement to the output comparison tool where remnants will now be highlighted when the output product has otherwise been completed.

Today\'s update adds an experimental \"compare\" button to the zoomed-in output preview window that, when held, shows all the mistakes in your output product. It hasn\'t been thoroughly tested, so let us know if you see anything strange!\n\n

Did you catch us at the PC Gaming Show?

In case you missed it, Kaizen: A Factory Story will be launching on July 14th right here on Steam!

We're also releasing a demo, available June 9th (tomorrow!) as part of Steams Next Fest. It includes the entire first chapter of the game, with six puzzles to get you started and introduce you to the world of manufacturing in 1980s Japan.

Check it out and let us know what you think!