I love the idea of this game, and I’ve written my fair share of 6502 assembly, but I’m afraid to say this goes way over my head! The first two puzzles made sense once I’d read the solution guides for them, but after that I couldn’t really get my head around it. All that said, you’ve done a great job on the game. It’s very polished, and only really lacking in audio. Nice work on the submission!
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Bootstrap's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| How much effort went into this? (keep in mind newcomers) | #5 | 4.800 | 4.800 |
| Does it implement the theme well? | #17 | 4.300 | 4.300 |
| Would you recommend this to others to try out? | #25 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Overall | #26 | 4.260 | 4.260 |
| Was this entry made during the jam duration? | #61 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Is this just spam? | #65 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Thanks for giving it a go - seems to be a pretty consistent theme in feedback that the puzzles are too puzzling. It's disappointing but I knew that it might be an issue, I was hoping with the documentation and solution guides that it would click for more people. I'm not sure yet if I'll do much more work on the game now the jam's over but if I do I'll be trying to make it more accessible and will probably start by seeking more feedback from people who were stumped to try to make sure I'm solving the right problems.
Cool game, I like the concept! Very unique. I'm still trying to figure out the microcode though :)
Submitted
The Great Machine GameYes, it's definitely not microcode. The in-game CPU is not-so-loosely modeled on the 6502 which uses a PLA to activate the signals and control wires based on the output of the timing logic and opcode decoding. I know a little bit about how it works but I don't actually know what that form of microarchitecture is called. I don't think I've ever seen it named. "Hardwiring" seems like a useful name for it :)
I am honestly baffled by how good your entry is… The game would probably benefit from introducing the CPU instructions progressively. Kind of a level one with simple enemies and a limited set of instructions (with 2 or 3 introduced at a time). Other than that I really enjoyed your entry. Thank you.
Submitted
MytonicaWow, thanks so much for the kind comments. I definitely agree the learning curve is too steep. More gently graded puzzles, including puzzles which focus on using the individual circuits before having to combine them to build opcodes is something I've thought about after submitting. Another idea I had early was to include an RPG / quest element in the overworld which would serve to slowly introduce the different parts of the microarchitecture, but that proved to be completely unrealistic in the 9 days of the jam. I might develop it further post jam but for now I want to focus on reviewing as many other entries as possible!
Game is very good along with the simple art style
A documentation on how to use the TI console would be nice (I don't get how TI works :D ), but besides that really good
The game's maze like feel is definitely nice
Good Work!
Submitted
A Grand DesignThis is a little overwhealming, i'm a fan of programming games (TIS-100 mainly) but reading the docs i might need an example of how the programming works.
Watch this space while i find someone to teach me :D
Submitted
The Grate MachineThanks Tezza. I knew the puzzles might be a bit hard to break into, I tried with the docs and some UI tweaks to make them more accessible but seems I've missed the mark a bit. I'll put together some solution guides which I think will be okay to share during the judging of the jam, then I've got a couple of thoughts about how to improve the experience after the jam too
The game is super cool! It reminds me a bit to "Hack 'n' Slash", but with the most iconic CPU ever built. :)
The game is wonderfull, works as it should and very well thought. Maybe it's a bit harsh if you have no prior knowledge about CPU microarchitecture, but with the documentation I guess it shouldn't be difficult.
Cheers, and good luck! :)
Submitted
Golden Rush Valley
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