“They were totally game to play ball”: how Zachtronics almost made a Star Trek engineering sim
“U.V.S. Nirmana,” a new puzzle game from Coincidence—the studio formed by former Zachtronics developers—has just launched. The game is described as a “Zach-like” puzzler of medium difficulty that channels the studio’s signature design philosophy into a spiritually-themed setting.
The game casts players as managers of a monastic spacecraft undertaking a pilgrimage through the galaxy. Rather than typical engineering challenges, U.V.S. Nirmana focuses on philosophical and spiritual dilemmas rooted in Dharmic religions. Players resolve these challenges using a cosmic reactor system that functions similarly to a music sequencer—a creative departure from traditional puzzle-solving mechanics.
Gameplay involves joining pipes and components to establish relationships between philosophical concepts like “form,” “amen,” and “svaha,” with players working to minimize a metric called “flux.” This design reflects Zachtronics’ signature approach of combining elegant mechanical systems with unconventional themes and aesthetics.
The release marks a notable point in the careers of the Zachtronics team, who recently transitioned to Coincidence. Notably, the article title hints at a forgotten chapter in the studio’s history: Zachtronics once attempted to create a Star Trek engineering simulator that never materialized. U.V.S. Nirmana appears to channel some of that unrealized concept’s DNA—particularly the focus on reactor management and logical puzzle-solving—into this original spiritual-themed experience.
The game demonstrates how the former Zachtronics team continues to innovate within the “Zach-like” puzzle genre, bringing their distinctive blend of accessible yet intellectually demanding design to new conceptual territories.