Ludum Dare #49compo
Professor Unstable's Chemical Combustion
🧪 About
Professor Unstable's Chemical Combustion is a game about combining molecules without the mixture becoming unstable!
You can play it to try and see all the reactions or to get a high score - there's no "win" condition. Take your time 😊
See the tips below. I hope you enjoy it! 😄
🧪 Play
HTML5 (web) :video_game:
🧪 Controls
- Click on the test tubes to add molecules.
- Slide the flame on the bunson (bottom left) to adjust the bunson burner.
- Restart with the restart button (on the box) if things go wrong!
🧪 Tips
- Too many molecules will easily make an unstable solution.- Use the reactions to work out which molecules you need to add.
- Control the temperature with the bunson burner.
- The instability monitor is there to warn you if there's potential for a catastrophic chain reaction!
- You can add Red, Green, and Blue - other colours you make through reactions
- One combination of R, G & B uses energy in its reaction - thus lowering the temperature of the solution around it 😉
🧪 Tech
- Unity - Engine (https://unity.com/)
- GIMP - Graphics (https://www.gimp.org/)
- Audacity - SFX Editing
🧪 Dev Notes
There were some things that got cut to meet the deadline:
- There's no "win" condition.
- I created some music but wasn't happy with it so decided the sound effects would be enough.
- I spent a long time simulating fluid heat transfer and energy transfer - so there's that 😆 - you can't tell this in the game though!! 🤣
Comments19
The way the molecules move around is perfect. Combined with the sound effects it just feels _right_. The reactions are nicely done to create an interesting series of steps, too.
I'm not quite sure I understand what affected stability, which meant it was a bit hard to avoid it going bang. It felt like going slow was more stable, but I'm impatient so I risked going faster anyway. It worked until it didn't. 😆
It is almost factorio like reverse engineering the molecules you need to get to with a harder twist of temperature management. I feel like there could be a (niche but existent) market for this kind of game commerically, hope you continue it!
I did have a debug view which I never managed to add into the released version:
The molecules get energised based on the solution temperature they're in. They all enter at 17°. That's why - when they're near the flame at the bottom - they get energised a lot more and wobble around 😁
The temperature shown in game is the average for the solution - and it's this that controls "game over" (110° and -10°). The Stability text is trying to work out if you've got a lot of reactive molecules in the solution which might force the temperature up above the max, or down below the min. 🤓
Anyway I managed to get all the reactions
Great work!
I really like pressing stuff and making the thing explode :D