Spacechem

[Raane]

Didn't see a thread in the last 5 pages, did a search and came up with nowt.

Got this on a friends reccomendation and the glowing review on RockPaperShotgun. They said it'd be hair tearingly frustrating and rewarding at the same time and it's utterly delivered.

On the face of it it's a pretty nerdy title - an indie game where you play a chemical engineer who has to run reactors/a series of equipment to produce certain molecules from other molecules.

The interface is the genius bit - you've got two WALDO units red and blue and they pass along a path you define. They can then perform operations along this path. This typically involves grabbing molecules splitting them on molecular de-bonders and moving them to reform them into other molecules.

Playing the game requires little to no prior knowledge of physics or chemistry and its strengths lie in what a genius puzzle game it is, and with success it makes you feel like some sort of scientific genius just like you felt like a real ninja after beating a particularly hard part of Ninja Gaiden.

These links should give you a better idea of what to expect:

RPS Preview

RPS Analysis/Review

The game's currently discounted to $15 for the next few days and available on the maker's website: Zachatronic Industries

[Choo]

So after reading the edge review (9), I decided to have a go at the demo. It's a very clever and rewarding game, extremely satisfying to sit back and watch your work in action. Must be one of the longest demos too, I've yet to finish it!

Don't let the boring name and screenshots put you off. This is a brilliant and creative puzzler.

[Blu3Flame]

Picked this up today and it's utterly addictive, probably one of the best puzzlers I've played in years.

Trailer:

How To Play:

I've just spent the better part of the last few hours trying to optimise my solutions to puzzles I've 'finished'. There is massive rewarding feeling when your design actually works, followed by the realisation you could probably make it run better. This is rubbed in your face straight away as the game automatically compares your result with everyone else's on completion.

It's also got a fantastic upload straight to Youtube facility.

My solution to the level I've just completed.

Still room for improvement I think Oh and the demo is bloody massive, so there is no excuse for people not to check this out.

[Blu3Flame]

Not much love for this? Disappointing

I've just finished the last level of the demo, now onto the main game. According to Steam the demo took me 9.2 hours, which is a boggling amount of gameplay for a demo.

[toythatkills]

Not much love for this? Disappointing

I know I'm a horrible person, but I'm waiting for the next Steam sale

(I'm so poor, but will post eventually!)

[robdood]

There's a demo! I'll try this when I ge a chance! Sounds neat.

[routeburn]

I put an hour or so in to the tutorial levels and it's a fantastic puzzle game, but not for those who like "puzzle-lite" as it does require some real attention.

I think the developer shot himself in the foot with the length of the demo, as it's more than enough to satisfy my interest in the game right now (apparently it's a few hours of gameplay). If he had given the first couple of levels , I would have purchased it instantly. As it stands, I think I've got another couple of hours left in the demo!

I'll definitely pick it up in a Steam Sale though. Brilliant.

[Blu3Flame]

How far into the demo are you? It's probably even longer than you're expecting. It's the first three worlds in their entirety.

I've just started World 4 and it's throwing new and brain melting things at me. I had waldos going around and around in my sleep all night trying to work out a solution to the puzzle I'm on.

[Blu3Flame]

The solution to this level came to me in my dreams, pretty chuffed that it actually works.

[Joyrex-J9]

My mind! My poor shattered mind!

My background in Chemistry isn't really much help.

[Blu3Flame]

The solution to this level came to me in my dreams, pretty chuffed that it actually works.

...and because you're never quite happy with your solutions in this game, a little bit more optimising and I've brought it down to 451 cycles.

[hash ampersand]

I'm loving this so much, it's really quite compelling. The acetylene level that you posted the solution to earlier in the thread really stumped me for a while. I had no idea you could loop back through the grab, and only recently that the bond instruction could be sent from anywhere. Tough learning curve, huge satisfaction guaranteed.

[Blu3Flame]

It looks like Valve are getting behind SpaceChem now.

Team Fortress Blog

What else is up? This: SpaceChem, the game Robin Walker dubbed "pretty much the greatest game ever made," has introduced three new TF2-themed levels. Travel to Australia, solve puzzles and unlock achievements to receive the new craftable element Moustachium in TF2. Use this new element to craft special SpaceChem-themed items, including a fishcake. That's right: this marks the start of a trend we're all for: other developer working their butts off to make a promotion for us. "Put your feet up, Team Fortress Team," SpaceChem seems to be saying. "You let us handle this one." Don't mind if we do, SpaceChem. Don't mind if we do.

SpaceChem themed items in TF2? Oh yes!

[MrCarrot]

Awesome. Spacechem deserves as much attention as it can get. It's a lovely little game.

[Alan Stock]

This game sounds good but I'm already stuck on the 3rd level of the demo. The tutorials are terrible! I can't seem to dump my atom into the output (i.e. get rid of it from the board), I've deposited the red atom in the blue output area (as requested) but despite having an Out command in there it's not being removed. The blue strand isn't making a blue atom appear despite being set up the same as the red. Any tips folks?

[Bingox]

This game sounds good but I'm already stuck on the 3rd level of the demo. The tutorials are terrible! I can't seem to dump my atom into the output (i.e. get rid of it from the board), I've deposited the red atom in the blue output area (as requested) but despite having an Out command in there it's not being removed. The blue strand isn't making a blue atom appear despite being set up the same as the red. Any tips folks?

Without seeing a screenshot of your solution it's hard to say. I suspect you may need to change your red output command to output the correct area (right click it and select the 'Out W'). Ditto for the blue input - right click it and select 'In B'.

The new update adds, in addition to the 3 TF2 stages, there is Research Net - which has two new commands (fission, and teleport), a bunch of new levels and the ability to design and share levels. Seeing as how I've spent 32 hours getting to the and of the 7th planet (out of ten) the game is incredible value for money.

[fatoy.japa]

To echo Alan Stock, the tutorials for this really are badly written, which is a shame since the game looks terrific.

"This is a waldo." What is? No arrows or descriptions present. Now, I like hard games as much as anyone, but I'm genuinely stumped by the third tutorial level, too. I've been winging it so far.

[Bingox]

The Waldos are the larger red or blue hollow circles that move along the track. There are arrows pointing to them on the training screen. I found the tutorials very helpful, but thats a subjective thing.

I'd say it's definitely worth persevering through the opening stages - on later levels there is a real sense of achievement when you solve a particularly tricky problem, and it looks lovely seeing your molecules being created.

[Blu3Flame]

The new update adds, in addition to the 3 TF2 stages, there is Research Net - which has two new commands (fission, and teleport), a bunch of new levels and the ability to design and share levels. Seeing as how I've spent 32 hours getting to the and of the 7th planet (out of ten) the game is incredible value for money.

Looks like they've also added friend leaderboards and achievements to the Steam release.

http://www.spacechemthegame.com/researchnet-update

[Blu3Flame]

Just finished off the three Moustachium levels. I think I might have over engineered the third one a bit but I couldn't think of a better way to do it.

[Bingox]

Just finished off the three Moustachium levels. I think I might have over engineered the third one a bit but I couldn't think of a better way to do it.

Thats a much nicer solution than mine, I just kind of went with a brute force approach. Also my output doesn't look like a moustache!

[Alan Stock]

I figured out what I was doing wrong - I hadn't noticed the In and Out nodes have associated symbols for which symbol zone the instruction is for. You can change the symbol by right clicking and choosing the symbol that corresponds to the reactor you want to get or remove a molecule from.

EDIT - Exactly what Bingox said above! Cheers dude!

[RubberJohnny]

Yeah, just playing through the demo, it's really weird that the second tutorial has you trial and error figure out things that then get explained in the third.

I'm up to the H-C=C-H one, and stuck.

[Blu3Flame]

I'm up to the H-C=C-H one, and stuck.

That's a fun one.

My favourite solution to that is a mates ridiculously streamlined one:

[Alan Stock]

Yeah getting the hang of this now... as Jonny says, the later tutorials explain things you would be far better knowing in the preceding levels! I like the addition of the pipelines and multiple reactors. I'm now stuck on getting H-O-H to join up in one of my reactors, I don't want some sprawling affair but it seems impossible... good brain-worker this game, though it does feel a bit like I'm doing someone's job for them! This game could be called: how to become a robot!

[Alan Stock]

That's a fun one.

Ah that solution has helped me with the H-O-H, it never occured to me that you could get an atom twice from a zone within the same "round" by doing a crossroads through it, or even that you could do crossroads with instructions in the middle! My brain's clearly too small for this game

[Blu3Flame]

The game is full of little things like that which don't occur to you until a particular level has you cornered. I find it almost impossible to then resist going back through previous levels to smarten them up with new found strategies.

[Raane]

Wow, i pretty much counted this thread out after it dropped off the second page with 0 views .

[Alan Stock]

Argh, so frustrating when you get the first round correct and then watch it break on the second round because things aren't synched up properly! Please, just let me win with one correct element My solution was perfect, honest....

[Blu3Flame]

Are you on one of the multi reactor levels and getting one of the pipes over filling and causing it to jam?

The solution to that situation is to make the pipe longer.