The Signal State on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Signal State puts your logic skills to the test with complex puzzles inspired by modular synthesizers. Repair machines, rebuild an abandoned farm, and be part of a revolution that will change the fate of agriculture once and for all.
The Signal State is a puzzle, logic and simulation game
developed by Reckoner Industries
and published by The Iterative Collective and indienova.
Released on September 23rd 2021 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 9 languages: English, Spanish - Spain, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese, German and Japanese.
It has received 572 reviews of which 497 were positive and 75 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.1 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 16.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 9.93€ on Eneba.
The Steam community has classified The Signal State into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at The Signal State through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7 / 8 / 10
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1366 x 768
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 500 MB available space
MacOS
- OS: macOS 10.9+
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1366 x 768
- Storage: 500 MB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
A valiant Zachtronics derivative puzzler with a very steep difficulty curve, could scratch that Zach itch if you have enough patience. You probably ended up here because after the closure of Zachtronics you've been looking for something to fill that void. Maybe you're still a little sad about the closure. Maybe you sort of blame yourself for letting that candle go out on your Zach shrine and that's why they shut down. No, of course you don't. That's... that would be crazy. Where was I? Right. Signal State is more than Zach-similar, it's an expansion of one of the games in Zach's last outing, 20th Century Food Court. So if you liked that one, read on. And if that one made you tear your hair out and curse the very existence of fast food, maybe give this one a pass. Bring machinery back to life! It's a big restoration job, and it's yours. An intriguing post-apocalyptic techno-puzzle game So, the technopocalypse happened. Whoops! Every machine called it quits at the same time and we don't know why. What we do know is that society fell a pretty long way, but we're trying to rebuild now. That's where you come in. You're given a farm to bring back to operation. This involves getting its machinery - some simple, some fiendishly complex - back online. You will get to watch changes happen to your farm (not in great detail but you'll see some progress). Your tasks will get more and more complex. Your paycheck will not change. (You don't get paid.) Edutainment in obscure technology Most people have never worked with Programmable Logic Controllers. This game seeks to end that. This isn't a programming puzzle game; this is more of a modular logic system sim - in other words, PLCs. If you played 20th Century Food Court in Zachtronics' Last Chance BBS, you've played this game in a lot of ways. This one goes deeper and has a greater scope, but the overall feel and gameplay are very, very similar. That's not to mean this isn't fun or unoriginal, mind. They just cover the same basic technology. Varied puzzles, and lots of them There are mandatory "main quest" puzzles to handle, and scads of optional ones. Just like you'd expect, the optional ones hand you some pretty thorny problems to fix and you do get a nice dopamine bump when you do, but you don't really gain anything for all the extra work. Unlock a new part early? Nope. But hey... dopamine. Curse machinery as you try to bring it back to life! Yeah, this job might make you headbutt a brick wall. Learning cliff You've heard of a learning curve? This game is a learning cliff. Actually, it's a lot of them, one after another. The game is a succession of being thrown head-first into one after another. Although early puzzles sort of build into one another, cultivating a knowledge base and then expanding on it, once you're past the middle of Act I or so, the difficulty level goes up rapidly. "Hey, you learned clock modules and how to string them together to make compound signals! Way to go! Now figure out how to solve this clock problem that doesn't resemble anything you've done before and that your previous solutions cannot apply to." Frustration is an inescapable part of this game, and while some frustration is good - it fuels a feeling of achievement - at times this game seems to enjoy your discomfort and confusion a little too much. Odd design choices There are some things the developers did that honestly make no real sense. For example: as you run a test on your build, the output is mapped to musical notes. Whatever the output value is determines the note played. Except it's not music . It's a cat walking across a piano. It's random, it's unpleasant, and you can't disable it. Do you want to run an incremental test to see if your subsystem is working? Then be prepared to hear an assault of blerp-blerp-blerp-blerp "you were wrong" tones. I ended up disabling the game's sound simply because not only did it not contribute to gameplay, it actively made it unpleasant. ENOUGH WITH THE DISCORD Yeah, we get it, you have a Discord. Congratulations. It's not an achievement. Stop putting the link everywhere in the game. I give you no credit for having one, I give you no credit for offloading your bug reports or what should be in a help file on it. Seeing it again and again is annoying, not helpful. The Bottom Line If you're really going into Zachtronics withdrawal, Signal State is a good way to slake that thirst provided you still have your Zach frustration callouses. They're going to get a workout here. But the puzzle design is solid, the mechanics are solid - Signal State is a good game. Just keep an eye on your blood pressure and make sure you're getting enough sleep.
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An extraordinary logic puzzle simulation game with a story set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world, in which you repair abandoned technology and machinery in order for a community to rise again and regain the life they have lost. The graphics fit the broken world, which is not meant in a negative way, the rusty and slightly yellow-brownish look just fits the story, period. The interface is very well organized and you find your way around very quickly, I was also impressed by the gameplay, the game picks you up exactly where it should be. The title song is one of the highlights, a wonderful piece of music that simply fits this narrative fantastically and conveys a good portion of confidence and courage to face upcoming hurdles, apart from that, the rest of the songs are less significant and a bit repetitive, but still okay. One thing that is super important to mention here, is that the game is definitely not for everyone, and if you are not much into modular synthesizers and electronics, and you rarely play challenging puzzle games, the chances are very high that you won't have much fun with it and even very quick throw in the towel out of frustration. But if you enjoy puzzle games with a touch of programming that can be a little challenging and even sometimes mind-bending, The Signal State is definitely worth a try. And if you're here because you love synthesizers, well my friend than this is a definite recommendation, especially because of the sandbox mode.
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This game is reminiscent of the Zachtronics games, and does a good job with the style. The premise of analog modules can make for interesting puzzles, but the campaign is quite easy. There are a few interesting, optional puzzles, but it feels like not all the mechanics are done the justice they deserve. However this issue is balanced out by the great workshop support, that easily makes the game worth it. 8/10
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i like this game, i love modular synths. i wish the game background music synced up tempo wise with the puzzle playback. it's literally insane that it doesn't just do that. i just turned the music off. wow. i wish there was a like "0.75x recommend"
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Fun but short game that somewhat scratches the Zachtronics itch. IMO its better than a lot of other Zach-likes, but is too short to justify buying at full price. Worth getting if it's on sale. Took about 3 hours to finish the main story, spent a little time solving some of the optional levels too, which I may go back to later. Other than being too short, I didn't like that wire length is counted in the final score. This just motivates you to go back and shuffle components arbitrarily after solving each level.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Signal State is currently priced at 16.99€ on Steam.
The Signal State is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 16.99€ on Steam.
The Signal State received 497 positive votes out of a total of 572 achieving a rating of 8.14.
😎
The Signal State was developed by Reckoner Industries and published by The Iterative Collective and indienova.
The Signal State is playable and fully supported on Windows.
The Signal State is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
The Signal State is not playable on Linux.
The Signal State is a single-player game.
The Signal State does not currently offer any DLC.
The Signal State is fully integrated with Steam Workshop. Visit Steam Workshop.
The Signal State does not support Steam Remote Play.
The Signal State is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for The Signal State.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 28 July 2025 23:08 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 25 July 2025 03:32 |
| Steam price | 30 July 2025 04:32 |
| Steam reviews | 28 July 2025 03:53 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about The Signal State, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about The Signal State
- SteamCharts - Analysis of The Signal State concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck The Signal State compatibility
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Game modes
Features
Online players
13
Developer
Reckoner Industries
Publisher
The Iterative Collective,
indienova
Release
23 Sep 2021
Platforms
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