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I'm back in my microbial genetics or symbiotic systems classes, but this time it's a lot shorter & more entertaining! 

Comments 

  1. I really liked the way that we could go back & recompile layers. I thought it was a great way to illustrate how that's the norm for endosymbionts: gradually being reduced / changed over time via gene transfer with host & other organelles.
    1. If that's intended to be a core mechanic, it would be really nice to be able to save & reload different organelles, cells, etc so we can go back in to re-edit them instead of having to rebuild each from scratch. Possibly starting with a wild type or auto-generated bits?
    2. Tangentially, is there a way to shrink a membrane if you're not using the full number of ports & internal slots short of dividing again (if upkeep is a factor)? This was the norm as it was more useful for both host & symbiont for diffusion and size considerations. Especially when you look at brown algae or diatoms with secondary encapsulations or photosynthetic dinoflagellates with tertiary even moreso...
  2. Can you explain how moving back to a previous layer to recompile is done, maybe with a baloon pointer when you transition between layers? Possibly autogenerated wild types or auto-generated bits?
  3. The transition from Layer 1 to Layer 2 was a little confusing when the host cytosol was encapsulated - I thought I'd picked the wrong path, and didn't realize I could do both.
    1. I understood why you did that from a mechanics & visual standpoint, but you may want to explain that it's to keep it simpler to rearrange things / less visual noise.
    2. An indication that you'll be able to build both host & symbiont before you pick might be helpful - I didn't realize it was so extensive!
  4. Diffusion vs cytoskeletal tracks: instead of making links to indicate diffusion & having to "reinforce" those into tracks, would it be helpful to dump / pull disconnected object endpoints (pumps / organelles / etc) into / from a shared pool (possibly with automatic diffusion lines draw in), with the actual dragging links being the method for reinforcing tracks? 
  5. An economic overview with a breakdown in the tooltip for totals of ATP/NAD producers/consumers might help with the "lipid synthase silently eating all my production" issue.
  6. I agree that there's a lot of text, but I'd have loved this as a study tool! Maybe instead of losing all that good info, have a 'verbose' checkbox for people who want the full set of info or underlined items that you can hover for a deeper dive?


Overall, this is great fun & good looking game! I'm enjoying it to the point of sending it around to former classmates & colleagues, even people I wouldn't normally talk video games with.

(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!  I implemented several of your points including saving a design and reloading it at each layer, shrinking the membrane, updating some of the tutorial details and menu text to try to steer the player better around compiling and recompiling, the economic overview on ATP and NAD+ production/consumption (you can click on either element in the top bar and it will pop out the rates), and a link in the tutorial to the field guide entry for that step to provide more detail, while keeping the tutorial text a little more constrained.  

I'm still thinking about your point #4 - I did make a change from another comment about diffusion below to try to make that function more consistently when resources are being shared between two consumers.  If you play again, let me know if this new version feels better or if you still feel like the whole diffusion system needs a redesign.

I also got some feedback that the look and feel were lacking, so I updated that as well.  I went for a stained slide look with microscope magnification transition animations between layers.  Hopefully you like the new look, but if you have any feedback on that, or anything else, I'd be happy to hear it!