Meltdown: The Complete Guide to Reactor Maintenance. by triggthediscovery
Attempt to startup unstable reactors using the trusty handbook Meltdown.
Gameplay is point and click, M key to mute the music. Escape to quit.
GAMEPLAY NOTE
you only have to protect the center, damage to other areas won't go against you.
Here's a video of me completing the first two levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaWcncdbcVY
Patch (Oct 5): modified pointer code to accommodate more screen resolutions & changed default song (the song was in game prior, but a different song was mistakenly set as the default)
Patch 2 (Oct 5): Made fixes for game speed (it was dependent on CPU). Fixed a bug which kept item effects active when they shouldn't have been available, this required rebalancing, as fixing it made later levels impossible.
Patch 3 (Oct 6): Modified the in-game manual to fix some issues and also clarify some points/mechanics.
I have two assets folders and two executables on the itch page, one with the file I released before the deadline, the other with these fixes included. The assets folders are included to facilitate comprehensive comparisons between the two versions.
Ratings
| Overall | 1036th | 3.3⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1436th | 2.6⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 199th | 3.85⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 162th | 4.175⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 467th | 3.9⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 671th | 3.25⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 620th | 3.525⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 16🗨️ |
The music was really nice, and the visuals felt perfect. The shaders used for each screen looked amazing, and made it feel like I was really analyzing visual data.
I didn't really understand the tools too well and brute forced my way through the solutions, but it was still a good experience that stood out from the other submissions
That said - I love the idea. The wide variety of tools are exciting, animations ae clean and the different ways of problem solving depending on the issue - great. The music is great too - it's just a litttttle too much to process all at once!
I did make a couple additions to the manual to clarify mechanics, which I could lay out in detail, but I honestly don't see the difference between changing that and adding clarification/additions to the rules outside of the game.
I also felt the changes I made were in line with the rule about bugfixes stated in the rules "if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline". I have always included the source files from release, and in case that's insufficient I've also went back and included the release executable if you're stringent about the release experience.
Introducing the different views step-by-step might have been preferable perhaps?
I did get through a 3 reactors, but the EM warship one had me confused.
A lot of potential for an interesting 'spinning plates to keep you alive' game!
Very complex for a LD-game (which is positive)
However, I would like an easier first mission to flatten the learning curve.