Project Overview

The Theme of the GMTK 2024 Gamejam was "Built to scale". My first idea was a factory game where you could make modules of with input and output that could shrink to be reused in other parts of the factory, this was partly inspired by the minecraft mod "compact machines". This however was and still does not seem realistic to complete in 4 days. that is why i opted for a simpler factory puzzle game where you create molecules out of atoms.

My focus for this project

This was my first attempt at a more complicated and original game where I put into practice the things i leaned at the TU delft. I now realize that there is a lot I should have done differently, but I was and still am proud of what i accomplished in those 4 days.

I am most proud of the design of the puzzles, this is something i put quite some thought in and I am very happy with their difficulty. I started with the desired end product which was inspired by real life molecules, and then tried to make this molecule in the smallest space possible. This is backwards to how the player will encounter them, which is where the difficulty comes from. If it was hard for me to optimize the space the solution took up, it would be more difficult for the player to find the solution. During play-tests however the difficulty of the earlier puzzles was also quite hard and it was unrealistic for me to introduce a new building to the player and have them at the same time use that building efficiently, this made me revisit the earlier puzzles.

I also added a typewriter effect to the text, which i feel added a nice touch to the aesthetic of the game. In testing however I found that the speed was way to slow and the effect made it harder to read the text. I thus had to up the speed, but leave a longer delay before the text disappeared after all text was displayed.