Opus Magnum

So I finally bought a Zachtronics game. Most of them feel too much like what I do at work, which is why I’ve not payed them much mind. This one was on sale, and the reviews said the challenge was more in optimizing than solving, so since optimization is something I enjoy, I picked it up. And didn’t sleep until 6am.
There is a story, and it is mildly entertaining, but the meat of the game are ten “alchemical” productions that you must create from reagents. Basically, you are creating a nanotech assembly line proxy, using manipulators and special tiles that do things like create bonds, break them, transmute metals, convert cardinal elements to salt, etc.
The size of your assembly line is unbounded, as are your machinery to place and the number of operations you can tell each machine to do. It is always obvious from the beginning what special tiles are required, so anyone that can reason what needs to be done should have little trouble constructing a working solution, with the notable complication that when the machine loops back to the beginning, you need to have reset all the manipulators and provide enough time for stuff toward the end of the line to not be in the way of the beginning. These are both easily solved, though identifying the problem may be harder.
Unlike other Zachtronics games, the visuals on this one are quite appealing, and at times, watching your finished creations work may be mesmerizing, especially if you did quite well on one of the optimization goals. I’d post an example, but I’m on my phone :/