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Food Chain Farm v0.2
amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
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Following up this, I've made a new version of Food Chain Farm!

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Major concerns from version 0.1 should be fixed now. That's not to say that there is plenty remaining on my TO DO list. But the fixes included here are important enough to warrant a release. I have hardly done any graphics improvements, that will have to wait for a future version.

New in this version:

  • Better flow control, reducing or even eliminating the chances of deadlocks in the bake-off level

  • More clearly mark gates of incubators with arrows

  • Clearly mark play area border, also make play area larger on most levels

  • Fixed bug where you could overwrite mill and churner

  • Added one new level with two new incubator types and one new resource type.

Thanks to all the testers of v0.1, in particular Wouter van Iersel, Chris Katko, Aaron Bolyard and Edgar Reynaldo!

Download it here, try it, and let me know what you think!
Windows installer
Windows zip bundle
Linux tar bundle

Game Website: https://games.helixsoft.nl/game/foodchainfarm/

So, what do you think of the new level? Keep in mind, this is for the biology classroom :)

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
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Yeah, I know, it's on my list. It doesn't really break the game, it's merely an annoyance so I gave it a lower priority.

Fixing the deadlock was more important. Have you managed to finish the apple pie level this time?

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

Yes, I got past it, had to kind of hack it together, but it worked.

I couldn't get the hunter 'factory' to produce enough meat for the little girl this time. It would be sporadic. I'm sure if I timed it better it would work.

What kind of application is this? Is it javascript? The window doesn't change zoom well. The scroll bars don't adjust, nor do they reposition. The dragging is kind of obnoxious. MMB dragging might be more appropriate for a 'web app', as MMB controls scroll in most every browser.

And the (no) auto under / over behavior is still broken in my opinion.

There should be inventory indicators, and I still can't tell whether it needs something, or it has something already in many cases, for instance the gases. For instance, sometimes everything 'hangs' waiting on a certain product to be delivered until you fix the broken path.

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

Here is what it looks like on my desktop.

video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omXW0P2hCRo

The animation and presentation are top-notch, but as shown in the video, there seem to be issues with the controls. What kind of information would you like?

Linux 4.18.9-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Sep 19 21:19:17 UTC 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux

amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
avatar

Yeah, it looks like the engine is receiving coordinates that are off. This is odd, the electron wrapper is based on a version of chrome that is fixed.

In a few days, I'll put together a debug version so we can get more information where it is going wrong.

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

This is odd, the electron wrapper is based on a version of chrome that is fixed.

Would the fix happen to involve blink gen property trees (BGPT)? If so, I may have been haunted by a possibly related bug for some time now. :(

What's your call on the video, by the way? Would you like it taken down now?

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
avatar

What's your call on the video, by the way? Would you like it taken down now?

I'd prefer if it didn't linger around for too long, yes :) But I would love for you to do a real video once the bug is fixed!

I should note that I get the occasional glitch where a extra piece gets created in a random position.

I'll add it to the list. Does this happen when you switch between connector types?

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

I'd prefer if it didn't linger around for too long, yes :)

👍

amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
avatar

Today I was showing the game in an actual biology classroom here in the Netherlands.

The version that I used in the classroom was slightly different, and was accompanied with an assignment sheet that had to be filled out. So it was a somewhat structured lesson. Still, I think the students liked it. But more importantly the teachers liked it too. So that is promising, I may be able to really hit the sweet spot that is both fun and educational.

I added a feature to the classroom version: it keeps track of everyone's progress on a central scoreboard. That way it becomes a bit of a race for the whole classroom. Another level of gamification.

The main barrier for the students turned out to be that nobody could figure out how to cross pipes. So that will be the next thing to improve.

edit: removed picture

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