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Update 31 - Less is more and Readouts

Hard Chip
A downloadable game for Windows

Greetings, Hard Chip players!

This update is all about user experience and building larger circuits more efficiently. Let's dig in:


2. New Readouts. The main issue right now with the game is the fact after completing simple puzzles, you lose sight of what is what real fast. Everything looks like a set of transistors and wires after a while. What do they do already? Where do I have to plug things in? A previous attempt at solving was made with Labels, but this didn't work well.

Readouts can be pinned, reduced, copy/pasted and saved levels and blueprints. Very useful, specifically in blueprint, because you can label all the inputs and outputs and can consider the blueprint as a black box afterward!

Example of readouts allowing to "forget" the intricacies of this full byte adder


Works with copy/past as well as with blueprints.


- Old default savefiles are all removed. Instead, only Demo_xxxx files exist. Clear things up a bit in the library!
- Duplicate level removed and Copy/Past buttons are removed. Instead, a small modal will appear when you select something worth to be copied! Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+X,C,V are still there.
- Simulation control is simplified, Auto Break, Step by Step, and Speed change removed (temporary) 
- a lot of too-small-to-list stuff


What's next? Discussion with players seems to suggest that a sense of progression is lacking. It's hard to see where you are and what the very next challenge that is awaiting you. I'll focus on proposing a revisited progression menu with a specific thread to follow.
Finally, a thing I love to do, optimizations! The simulation could be better with a segment-based path resolver. Simulation speed is not an issue right now but it becomes a problem when you want to go really big. For example:


As always, your feedback/suggestions/comments are instrumental in making this game.

Thank you for playing Hard Chip, and stay tuned for more updates and new features!

Files

  • HardChip_win64_v0.0.3.8.zip 128 MB
    Dec 02, 2023
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