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(1 edit)

A very interesting - and addictive - game. Despite the flaws I see, it's interesting enough that I kept trying to beat my top score (212 atm).

A little more detail for new players:
The pink ring around each circle 'outlet' is a timer that will have time added when it receives an energy dot (though not reset). The blue meter indicates the outlet's progress to completion. You can add as many connections as you like from each factory or 'combine' node, but the energy will alternate which connection it travels (each destination will receive energy less frequently). You'll want to try and micro-manage the connections such that your combine nodes receives all their source energy at a similar rate (it won't send the combined energy until it receives energy from all it's sources).

A cheat / bug / weird mechanic that might be handy:
Create two combine nodes from a factory node, then connect one to the other. Now you have 2x the original factory's energy at half the rate you would normally have. This is handy when you don't want to add more connections from existing factories.

One of the major issues I find is that the number of on screen elements can get overwhelming and it becomes difficult simply to find the different factories in the network or easily miss an outlet that hasn't been connected. Changing the colours scheme to contrast the two might work. Or highlighting other factories / combine nodes when creating a new connection. Or making outlets appear in waves, to give the player time to clean-up / micromanage their network without losing tension. There are a few options.

The other major issue was that it felt difficult to accomplish the primary goal to achieving a high score - balancing the distribution of energy between factories. Namely, when a factory or outlet appears you would scramble to connect it up, but you wouldn't have enough time to use it very efficiently. It's not telegraphed to the player very well, but the energy can go to waste sitting (or dissipating?) at combine nodes while waiting for other energy from a different connection to combine with. The UI doesn't inform you of this at all and you seemingly don't have time to fix these issues in your network, but it's the ultimate reason you lose a game AFAICT.

A similar game that others may want to try is Mini Metro.


I hope you release an update for this, because it shows great potential. :)

Hi!

Thanks a lot for the comments! We do work on an update, please feel free to add your ideas here: https://trello.com/b/ojeNlNyg

Regarding the strategy with creating two combine nodes from a factory node, then connect one to the other - this is legit, it helps a lot and we use it all the time. Maybe we should include it in a tutorial.

I added everything to the trello board.