What ZACH-LIKE is
ZACH-LIKE is a digital book of behind-the-scenes design documents from Zachtronics, along with a pile of games and prototypes from the studio's history. The book itself comes in two PDF layouts: a tablet-friendly portrait mode and a widescreen-friendly "simulated book" mode, so you can read it the way that suits your screen. Alongside the text you get early builds and lost projects, including an early version of Infinifactory with placeholder art, an early Opus Magnum where arms stack recursively, and the solitaire tactics minigame that was cut from it. There is also Project Typhoon, a submarine-based sandbox game that was stopped a few months into development, and the full back catalogue of pre-SpaceChem Zachtronics games, from Gregor Mendel's Pro Botanist to Infiniminer.
Playing together
Hack the Planet is the piece built for a group: Zach made it specifically for a party at his house, and it takes three friends and four keyboards to play. The goal is to conquer the network. The Steam features list Online PvP and Remote Play Together, so there are options for getting people into the same session. The rest of the package is reading and poking at prototypes, which works fine as a shared activity even when only one person is driving.
Before you start
The games here are rough by design. They are early builds, prototypes, and things that were never finished, so expect placeholder art, odd mechanics, and unfinished edges. The pre-SpaceChem back catalogue is described as terrible games, with a note that any enjoyment other than ironic is not guaranteed. Treat the whole package as a look at how the studio got to where it is rather than a set of polished releases.