vA031-Win64
So the 'victory' condition is to fill the score bar by creating combo's (sequences of two or more identical pairs) before.
The instability bar fills up every time 'junk' is made by mismatched pairs, or a pair's cut off.
And the instability bar is drained (the same amount) the score is increased.
Every time 'junk' is ejected from the sequence, the strand collapses, potentially creating more combinations.
So the eco. is deciding if making junk to enable larger combo's will fill the score bar faster than the instability hits its limit.
Generally I found myself that making combos of size 2 while setting up to make sets of three *almost* worked. Cheated to reduce the junk penalty and started having more success. (Fake ease/easiness due to practise?)
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feedback:
(UI/visually) have 'instability' and score extend from opposite ends of the same bar, to make the two literally oppose each other.
Try to make the instability less static/friendly so that it's meaning is clearer.
( ie: increasing instability grows tentacle like strings over the score meter. The tips/growing end of which thins out instead of pulls back when the instability is driven back. A (hidden) bead marking displaces the tentacles at the tip of the score bar, for clarity. I think this can be accomplished with a layered sprite and masks, avoiding actually calculating splines, though splines *would* allow the tips to wiggle...)
(UI/criticism) I kept getting confused that the next piece wasn't shown above, even though I 'know' that it's represented by the colour of the cursor.
I like the idea of showing a ghost/shadow of the piece about to be placed.
(criticism) combos didn't feel that rewarding. And I was often confused why this resulted in mismatched pairs sitting in the sequence after.
(UI) make the cursor mouse driven (or tracking). This would make placing the next piece following a combo much easier.
(gameplay) make the remnants of completed combos eligible for stronger combos. Be it a ladder like 2048, or just a +1 length bonus for every time it is used in another combo.
(gameplay/visually) Add a ball/motor that is pulling drags the end of the strand at the bottom into the cutting enzyme. Then on combos make 'it let go' and kick it up the strand where it will then descend (at its normal speed) until it reaches the end of the strand again.
(gameplay) make the different 'junk' affect the instability value differently to increase final complexity.
( ie: unstable mismatched pairs cost 5, cut-off single bases cost 3, cut-off matched-pairs cost 1? )
(criticism) Early on, too often I found myself unable to place a piece and had to wait to lose. Later I'd get screens without a match for any of the pieces I held.
(gameplay) perhaps allowing players to pair and 'eject' the piece they're holding with the one in the cursor as "an advanced" strategy would mitigate this.