Loopy Particle Simulator by nusan

[raw]
made by nusan for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Cover.png This is an open-ended puzzle game (Zachtronic-style) where you construct a particle accelerator. Make particles speed up in loops and use collision chambers to create new and exciting particles! - 7 Introduction levels - a Free Play mode where you can toy with particles - a demo level to show an advanced circuit

PostJam version add: - save and load your creations (in freeplay mode) - improved performances with lots of particles (still not perfect) - add a "Panic button!" to destroy all particles in case of emergencies

(Particles names are imaginary, sorry for scientists)
(in jam version, due to some unexpected reaction, Positron collision gives Gravitron + Positron instead of Electron ... where did that missing electron went and how a positron mysteriously appears, only top scientist would be able to tell!)

  • NuSan: code/design/visual
  • Lutopia: music

Post screenshots of your circuits here or on twitter @NuSan_fx I would love to see them!

LD47_14b.gif

Other games made for this jam by members of Potico: - Stamp by @linheha and @lucien-catonnet - fractman by @niarkou and @samh - Floody Loops by @alixmic, @diffty, @florian-piette and tomalego

Ratings

Overall 111th 4.114⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Fun 107th 4.057⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 6th 4.486⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 28th 4.457⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 450th 3.943⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Audio 542th 3.457⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

MTabasco
06. Oct 2020 · 00:23 UTC
I spent more time playing this than I want to admit.
I really liked the music, but I would've liked to hear some sound effects.
Either way, congratulations, it was a really interesting and entertaining game :D!
paulhocker
06. Oct 2020 · 03:40 UTC
this is a really neat toy. will definitely play with it some more later. right now my brain is fried! thanks for making this.
Jordanfb
06. Oct 2020 · 05:04 UTC
This is super fun! I would've loved a way to determine for sure what particle was what just because sometimes in the free play I lost track of which was where (and a checklist of which particles I've made for completionist's sake but I guess there's something to be said for exploration). With a save/load function and a massive list of particles this would be fantastic! The only other thing that was slightly annoying was that there was no way to split up particles (which I guess is probably scientifically accurate? But still) but that meant that you had to create some particles twice which wasn't great. Super fun, super pretty, and solid music as well! Nice work!
shubart
06. Oct 2020 · 08:23 UTC
Great job. What an idea ! Nice music too
Remzo
06. Oct 2020 · 08:38 UTC
Hey, this is such a cool idea! Nicely done! The art is simple but everything is well communicated. I can totally see this becoming a full game.
Bozarre
06. Oct 2020 · 08:55 UTC
Really cool !
Lucien Catonnet
06. Oct 2020 · 12:54 UTC
Really neat game! I wished for more tools, especially being able to select and move a whole bunch of pipes together! It's very pretty, especially the collision effects!

The music sucks though :/

EDIT: hehehe I was kidding about the music, it's really repetitive though, I wish I had had the time to do more
🎤 nusan
06. Oct 2020 · 13:03 UTC
@lucien-catonnet oh come on, you made a great music in a very short time and I'm super glad you did it, I think it fit's the game and the dynamic aspect is pretty cool!
Denhette
06. Oct 2020 · 13:11 UTC
Very nice little game with a suprising amount of content! The music is a little repetitive, but the fact it's here at all seeing how little time you get to finish these jam games is an achievement on its own.
Greon
06. Oct 2020 · 13:51 UTC
Loved this, spent something like 2 or 3 hours in it, would definetely play an more version of it. One thing tough, when the Positron enters at the Collision Chamber at 160m/s it should output Graviton and Electron, but it appears it is outputing Graviton and Positrons, is that right? But still, amazing job you did there!
🎤 nusan
06. Oct 2020 · 14:27 UTC
@greon you are right, I will put that in the description. Due to a bug I haven't yet understood, it does output a positron instead of an electron. Sorry for the confusion as you can't easily see what particle you create it's very frustrating. I'm glad you liked it though!
legulysse
06. Oct 2020 · 23:10 UTC
Very nice prototype, visuals are extremely hypnotics and beautiful !
It definitely has a zachtronics kind of vibe, I love it.

It is very unstable when particles start to go extremely fast. I guess you rely on some kind of collision system that miss the walls between 2 frames ? I wonder if it could be handed through a more "gameplay" approach, like considering the pipes as splines and computing their way along the curves.

One thing I had fun with, was trying to sort out particles following a collision, depending on their speed.
Maybe this could be a path to explore if you are looking to add more mechanics, by asking the player to generate a bunch of successive collisions to generate and filter various sub-particles, that could have specific speed, size and/or lifetime :D

As for feedbacks, it certainly would benefit from some more information on collisions results. Maybe adding some symbols next to exits, to represent the particles created ?

On a side note, music is very repetitive when the level is empty, but once every layer is active it's very nice, good job Lucien o/

Overall a very impressive work ! Congrats !
Capital-Ex
07. Oct 2020 · 00:46 UTC
I definitely like the idea of building out a particle collider, however this quite few quality of life things that need to be added. Currently, the pipe system doesn't enable enough fine control over particles. Nor, is there enough information about the speed of the particle going through. Also, there needs to be a way to filter out unwanted particles. But, this is a nice prototype. The particle glow was really nice.
Spotline
07. Oct 2020 · 12:00 UTC
Great and very interesting entry ! I wasn't so sure about it for the first levels but I finally couldn't resist going all the way to Ultimion :)

There's immense fun in the core interaction of channeling and accelerating particles to these insane speeds. The 'filtering by speed' mechanic is also very cool. I had trouble rationalizing my pipeline, but I decided I shouldn't care and enjoyed the game a lot, as a toy maybe more than a puzzle game.

Surprisingly, the apparent "flaws" in the particle behaviors were the part I found most fun : the erratic behaviors at high speeds, the lost particles spraying all around and invading the other pipes when you try to hotfix a part of your circuit, the fact that orthogonal paths are able to cross without interfering.
I also liked the Book of Reactions being separate from the game and not contextual, so that you have to deduce and remember what is the particle you just created, and how to get to the next steps.

Anyway thanks for the game !
ice9
09. Oct 2020 · 06:08 UTC
Cool idea that fits really well with the theme! Wish there was more time to polish the controls (being able to select move more than 1 pipe at a time, hover over a pipe to see the speed/type of particles in it, etc), but besides some missing polish it was a fun game to toy around with :)
Daniel Whittaker
09. Oct 2020 · 18:55 UTC
Really neat idea with a lot of depth! Perfect for the theme
TwoHands
09. Oct 2020 · 19:15 UTC
Holy shit thats a really nice game. I love it! You should definetly continue that idea!
Sidonie_Go
09. Oct 2020 · 19:27 UTC
That's a cool game really complete :heart_eyes: congrats to the team. I just found the music a little bit too repetitive.
Oune
09. Oct 2020 · 19:42 UTC
Cool entry! I liked your take on the theme. The intro levels were not really interesting but I had a lot of fun in the Free Play.

On the improvement side, I think the controls could be improved for better quality of life with features such as duplicating multiple pipes at the same time and deleting a pipe with Right click.

Congrats on the game!
hijomo
09. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC
Overall
- looks nice, Lots of content. The full tutorial was very nice. I did have some trouble building the last element because 300 particles was just not enough. I really liked playing your game.

Fun
- Quite fun

Innovation
- The use of particle physics as a basis for the design was impressive.

Theme
- Nice interpretation of the theme. I had a field full of loops by the end.

Graphics
- I liked the blueprint ascetic and that the particles got brighter the faster they went.

Audio
- The audio changes with the speed of particles you create. It would be interesting to have each particle tied to a different instrument.
MatchaMaze
10. Oct 2020 · 02:44 UTC
How did you manage to build in a time-machine in this game?
I sat down for 5 minutes and an hour has passed.
Neat visuals! Really entertaining experience!
Geckoo1337
10. Oct 2020 · 21:26 UTC
Really interesting concept and the way you manage the theme is unusual. I didn't expect something like this project. I like too the large explanation about particle. All work as expected - really smooth and efficient. Puzzles are intuitive, clever and addictive. Maybe the music is a little bit annoying after a while and it seems to me that it doesn't fit with the game. Impressive work - original. Well done ++

PS : what is Potico? Un collectif ?
indigo
11. Oct 2020 · 15:24 UTC
Who needs branches when you can abuse collision detection error instead:
![branch_2.gif](///raw/368/1/z/39fea.gif)

Great, relaxing game. I like the take on the theme as well. I just wish there was more to do. A puzzle mode where you have to create a particular particle from a limited set of pipes might be fun to have.
mediyaz
11. Oct 2020 · 15:32 UTC
Love it - favourite game of the jam - Could play with this for hours - INSPIRING! I love how abstract it is and yet you really feel like a particle physicist work on the LHC. Well done!
michaelaranda
11. Oct 2020 · 15:36 UTC
I really enjoyed the dynamic music! I wish there were even more instruments added at higher speeds!
fmdkdd
11. Oct 2020 · 16:25 UTC
Looking at the particles looping around and colliding to create even more speedy particles was great. The escalating music is a nice touch as well. Overall, a very solid toy. I do wish there were more puzzles though. Hopefully you turn this into a Zach-like full-fledged game, and I would be all over it!
Fax
11. Oct 2020 · 20:09 UTC
Really fresh entry for the jam.
I appreciate this moment when i just look the recipes and try to combines particles.
Great job.
blinry
19. Oct 2020 · 19:36 UTC
I enjoyed this, what a neat interpretation of the theme! :) Especially the tutorial seemed well-paced, and playing with it felt like building marble machines in my childhood! We had a good laugh about the particle names, and the core idea seems really promising and balanced!

I found the interface a bit unintuitive - maybe I would have liked a way to directly draw the tracks.