Shenzhen
I/O

Shenzhen I/O (2016) is a high-pressure puzzle game where you work to design and build electrical components for a tyrannical Chinese company. Play involves choosing, connecting, and coding chips to meet the requirements of your new boss. Deciphering how to solve each problem is part of the fun, but the real interest is the booklet that mimics real data sheets, providing key information on each problem you attempt to solve.

Set in a futuristic China, you play a new employee striving to work up the ranks and build groundbreaking components. However, as a new employee, you have to start from the beginning. To progress you must manage workloads, projects and relations with other workers. As you start projects you need to arrange components on the circuit board and decipher their use. The catch is that, much like real life, you need to use a book filled with data on each part to understand how to complete projects - the booklet can even be printed for an immersive experience.

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Progression is determined by how quickly you can construct these increasingly complex systems. Make enough money from your projects and you can invest in new high-tech circuits. You might start tackling each challenge in an organised way, but this steadily becomes frantic and chaotic as you battle to complete more and more projects. In this way, you need to use your datasheet to your advantage, finding key information is key to helping finish projects.

The result is a game where the fun lies in the endless optimisations and adjustments you can make to your work. However, the immersion of having to use a data sheet creates a realistic and rewarding experience.

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Our examiner, Will Oster, first checked Shenzhen I/O 5 months ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.