itch.io

Most of the testing was done on Arch Linux (natively, not using WINE) due to issues with the Windows PC I would normally test on. As a result, I mostly assumed that if it worked on Linux, it would probably still work on Windows as long as it compiled. The Allegro submodules have init functions that are supposed to be called before any functions from them are used, but for some reason on Arch Linux, the part of the primitives submodule that was used worked properly without calling that init function, as I forgot to insert its init function next to the other inits when I added that submodule, resulting in mismatched behavior between the two platforms. It should be fixed now.

Most of the testing was done on Linux due to issues with the Windows PC I would normally test on. As a result, I mostly assumed that if it worked on Linux, it would probably still work on Windows as long as it compiled. The Allegro submodules have init functions that are supposed to be called before any functions from them are used, but for some reason on Arch Linux, the part of the primitives submodule that was used worked properly without calling that init function, as I forgot to insert its init function next to the other inits when I added that submodule, resulting in mismatched behavior between the two platforms. It should be fixed now.

There's a population menu where you can hire people, which is how you bring them in. I will admit the gameplay is a bit janky though; the project was probably a bit ambitious given the deadline. In any case, the crashing bug should be fixed now - it was missed during testing since it only affected the Windows build (something that should not have worked in the Linux version worked anyway), and my Windows computer that it should have been tested on was experiencing technical issues at the time.

Good job!

Interesting concept. I definitely agree with Megarev's comment regarding user feedback. One possibility might be to have a simple text output area to write to in order to allow programs to output their results in a human readable format, as right now there's not a lot to do besides input the ASM and then watch the blinking lights (not that there's anything wrong with the blinking lights).

The art in this really stands out. It's very well done.

It's clear that a lot of effort went into it. I think the time limit is an interesting twist on a genre that can often encourage playing slowly and carefully - but the current implementation is frustrating. I'd recommend replenishing time and respawning oil on death (from any cause), and making the time limit act like any other level hazard. This would make things less frustrating, and would also give the game more room to grow if desired, as the forced restarts would become more problematic if you add more levels.

Good puzzle game! If you were to develop it further, having a few extra conditions and flow control commands to work with might allow for some more complex layouts, though it would also increase the complexity of the system - but that could be mitigated if it's introduced right.

The concept is good, but the difficulty is very high. Upon further experimentation, it appears that something that contributes a large amount to the difficulty is the way splitters work. My expectation was that they'd split the item stream evenly between items: i.e. send an item in direction 1, then send the next to direction 2, then the one after that to direction 3, assuming the input can be accepted by all directions. Instead, the splitter appears to simply use directions 2 and 3 as overflow in the event that direction 1 cannot receive the item. This makes it very hard to make sure that you're getting, for exmaple, both stone and brick, or converting the right amount of iron into the components while also maintaining enough raw iron, etc., without a lot of micromanagement.

Well done! Good variety of units, and interesting concept - clearly much effort was put into it. If you decide to work on this project more in the future, fast forward option would be nice between waves.

Thanks for playing! I wanted to implement a few more, but I ran out of time, unfortunately. I will definitely keep this feedback in mind if I decide to revisit this project in the future!

A very interesting concept! This looks like a nice foundation for something that could be turned into a fantastic puzzle game in the future should the developer choose. Everything that is here is well polished and the ability to recolor things is a nice touch.