SOMtHINGa from NoThINGa by Jimbly

made by Jimbly for Ludum Dare 45 (COMPO)

title<em>full</em>alpha.png

Use fission and fusion to make SOMtHINGa from NoThINGa.

Links * HTML5(WebGL): dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD45 Phone/Touch-friendly! * Source Code: Jimbly/LD45-somethinga-from-nothinga

Simple arithmetic becomes incredibly interesting when constrained by space! Everything should be self-explanatory, or described in the tutorial/hints. You can safely go back to previous levels or look ahead without losing your progress.

Screenshots:

There's a secret "bonus level" if you beat all other levels. I have, after the compo ended, verified that it is, in fact, solvable, though I wasn't sure at the time of adding it =).

My take on the theme is incredibly literal, perhaps adding an implied pair of quotes around "nothing". I learned that there is a very limited set of words that can be crafted using the periodic table, and very few languages' word for "nothing" fit that, so I had to get a bit creative.

Development Notes

Tools Used * Custom Engine: GLOV.js * Mtn Dew * Photoshop * Bosca Ceoil * Element colors from CPK Coloring * Fonts: Shadows Into Light, Oswald, Palanquin

This Ludum Dare I had a simple idea, and had a completely functional prototype about 3 hours after the competition started. Before implementing it, I thought it would be too simplistic, and planned on allowing for varying pipe sizes in each direction to get 1:2 or 1:3 ratios instead of just 1:1, but it turned out that it was already a bit tricky to see what was going on, and amazingly more interesting and challenging than I thought it would be, given how simple the core idea was, so I left it alone, and just spent lots of time on polish, and even got to sound and music!

Post-compo bug fixes * Fixed one of the hints being shown on the level after where it was useful

Youtube	http://www.dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD45/#D=COMPO
Youtube	https://github.com/Jimbly/LD45-somethinga-from-nothinga
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/somthinga-from-nothinga

Ratings

Overall	20^th	4.067⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Fun	65^th	3.778⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	18^th	4.256⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Theme	243^th	3.432⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	202^th	3.444⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Audio	87^th	3.589⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Humor	241^th	2.5⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Mood	131^th	3.527⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Given		31🗳️	42🗨️

Feedback

Brandon JS Lea

06. Oct 2019 · 23:51 UTC

![NoO2.PNG](///raw/8f0/91/z/26aac.png)

Hi, I'm a little confused about something.
I seem to have "O", but it's not registering for victory. Is this a bug or am I just being dumb?

Bobothegreat

06. Oct 2019 · 23:53 UTC

It was pretty neato :D

Chaosinism

07. Oct 2019 · 00:25 UTC

It is really a creative way to interpret "nothing". The puzzle looks simple at first, but it turns to be strategic and challenging. Good job!

🎤 Jimbly

07. Oct 2019 · 00:28 UTC

@brandon-js-lea Ack, I have a "hint" about that, but it doesn't show up until a level or two later - the outputs must be provided in order, so you need an Oxygen to the right of the Hydrogen. I think I'll count that as a last minute "bug" from rearranging levels and fix that hint to be on the second level.

Evannex

07. Oct 2019 · 01:01 UTC

Wow! Absolutely Amazing game. Honestly I love the concept, and it's much more challenging than I thought at first, but in the best way possible! :D

CantThinkOfName

07. Oct 2019 · 07:47 UTC

Really fun and cool you made your own engine for a game jam.

🎤 Jimbly

07. Oct 2019 · 13:55 UTC

@cantthinkofname Glad you enjoyed it! The engine is primarily for other commercial projects, but I keep it open source so that I can use it for game jams and a few other people can hack around in it. Also, each Ludum Dare tends to find a couple engine bugs or add an engine feature or two, so it goes both ways =).

toasteater

07. Oct 2019 · 15:19 UTC

Very fun to play, and feels pretty innovative. The sound and music are very coherent and fitting with the puzzle gameplay. Great game!

FoolishFire

07. Oct 2019 · 16:28 UTC

This is a fantastic puzzle game, complimented with multiple audio cues so they never wear on the listener. The addition of highscores amongst players leaves you wanting to cut down on moves to get that top spot. I lost a lot of time playing this :)

🎤 Jimbly

07. Oct 2019 · 17:01 UTC

@foolishfire Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I love having a high score list on optimization puzzles, really pulls me into it =). I might have to go back and see if I can match the high scores...

TopperVideoGames

07. Oct 2019 · 21:23 UTC

A math game I can sink time into! This is very polished, and the rules make sense after learning about the order and how the odd splits alternate on each row. It would have been helpful if there was some indication which way the odd split would go as I kept getting mixed up on row counts. The high scores themselves were a big hint on the best way to solve the puzzle, would be nice to toggle showing them for a blind first try. Very challenging puzzles, great job!

🎤 Jimbly

07. Oct 2019 · 21:40 UTC

@toppervideogames It's not the intended use, but you can shrink down the right bar (did that so there was more space when playing on mobile), and that has a side effect of hiding the high scores =). But, yeah, not showing the high scores until you've completed the level would be a pretty good idea. I didn't run into that when testing because, well, there were no scores yet =).

Listonos

08. Oct 2019 · 00:56 UTC

I liked it, a simple puzzle concept but surprisingly fun with very solid execution. Especially the high-score board is nice.

goudagames

08. Oct 2019 · 12:16 UTC

This is a great puzzle game, simple rules yet the levels can get quite dificult. I love this interpretation of the theme. Amazing job!

🎤 Jimbly

09. Oct 2019 · 04:05 UTC

# SPOILERS
For anyone who is curious about the bonus level, which you would normally have to unlock by beating all the other levels, you can go directly there with [this link](http://www.dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD45/#D=BONUS), and here's a screenshot of the solution:
![bonus_level.png](///raw/dd3/z/290a8.png)

Aret24

09. Oct 2019 · 10:22 UTC

My mind is BLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but game overall very well made(in two days it is very hard to make every element to this game) and music is cool and r e l a x i n g!!! :D

RealityCheck

09. Oct 2019 · 12:29 UTC

Great idea and well executed. The tutorial could've given me a little more info as to what determines the changing elements - took me a while to figure that out... could be I'm just dumb :)

The minimalist style works very well, and I like the subtle zooming as you build up. Music and sounds are wonderfully balanced to the gameplay, and keeps your frustration from getting out of hand.

azrou

09. Oct 2019 · 13:13 UTC

Good concept, good mood, good graphics, music and sound effects match perfectly.

Right-side UI could fit better with game graphics and mood.

And... wow ! It's pretty hard !

🎤 Jimbly

09. Oct 2019 · 13:34 UTC

@aret24 Glad you enjoyed it, and that you didn't need the "Music: Off" button =).

@realitycheck I wanted the tutorial to be mostly a chance to figure things out (and, hopefully, only complete the level by demonstrating that you figured them out, but random clicking sometimes works too ^_^), and the titles "Fission" and "Fusion" (meaning splitting and joining) I thought would be clear, but I had at least one player without English as her native language got very confused by that, so it probably could have been more clear. Glad you liked the zooming out, I really like how that turned out, and it was mostly done out of necessity because I wanted to be able to play on my (tiny) phone =). The zoom level of the Bonus Level pictured above was my initial UI scale, and it was a bit rough (probably pretty hard to play that level on mobile).

@azrou Yeah, the right-side UI is pretty much just purely functional, wish I had had some good ideas (and the time to do so) during the compo on how to style it better =).

Lombax

12. Oct 2019 · 01:51 UTC

i find this game super addicting. i like puzzles and this is one i would definetly download for my phone when i go out traveling. gj :dog: :dog:

🎤 Jimbly

12. Oct 2019 · 06:07 UTC

@lombax Glad you liked it! Once the web page is loaded, it's all offline (except for updating scores, which I think it will try to do if you reload the page when back online), so it should work reasonably well on your phone =). Things get a little small for the bigger levels though, unless your phone screen is large.

eugsun

14. Oct 2019 · 00:53 UTC

I'm in awe at what you have come up with. This is such a simple and powerful idea that would not have come to me at ALL. Do you happen to be staring at a periodic table while doing the jam??

Love it!

🎤 Jimbly

14. Oct 2019 · 02:33 UTC

@eugsun No, I wasn't. I was mostly just brainstorming snarky literal interpretations of the theme, and maybe also thinking about alchemy ideas, and just thought "I wonder if I could spell "Nothing" from elements?", turns out I coulldn't, but it got close enough that I figured I'd try it out - ended up *way* better than I expected =).

Tommyflower

15. Oct 2019 · 18:22 UTC

it was exciting playing with atoms this way. It makes you feel like you are doing it inside some kind of experiment :D The music is very atmospheric. Well done!

schwede

15. Oct 2019 · 18:49 UTC

Nice concept! Amazing that this idea is done in 48 hours! Beside your great idea I liked the way how you interact with the UI. Like the sounds hovering over the nodes, adding or removing the nodes.

candlesan

17. Oct 2019 · 06:03 UTC

This was a very original concept. I liked the theming with the elements. The audio was simple but effective.

kleinzach

18. Oct 2019 · 22:08 UTC

I love the simplicity of this game. The mechanic is really easy to understand, and is so easy to do, and it leads to a really nice set of puzzles. Great job!

hijomo

18. Oct 2019 · 22:35 UTC

This is a great idea. I had fun with it. The need for the order to be correct was challenging. Awesome game.

🎤 Jimbly

18. Oct 2019 · 22:51 UTC

@kleinzach Thanks! I love the simplicity too - when I was brainstorming, I thought "well, that's the start of a game, but it's probably not going to be interesting unless I add a bunch of stuff", and then was constantly surprised when I chose two words with basically no regard to gameplay and they led to an interesting puzzle =).

@hijomo Yeah, I debated taking that requirement out, but I found it made things much more interesting (by being more challenging) - there were a lot of pretty trivial solutions if the order wasn't required. It does, however, limit the search space, so if you take a relatively brute force approach (just add things until you're over the first number, and split and re-add until you get down to it), you end up solving the puzzles not quite efficiently, but still with a competitive score.

DDRKirbyISQ

18. Oct 2019 · 23:00 UTC

Oh dear...trying to come up with elegant solutions to some of these was infuriatingly difficult. Level 8 was where I decided to just give up and start brute-forcing something without regard to effeciency.

I know a lot of people who are super into games like these....great job taking a simple yet novel concept and putting it into a nice execution!

Would be nice to be able to control the "rememberance" of child links down the tree -- either via right-clicking or otherwise. I get that preserving the previous links is a nice quality of life feature but sometimes I felt myself just wanting to nuke an entire branch.

Great job!

🎤 Jimbly

18. Oct 2019 · 23:16 UTC

@ddrkirbyisq It's less of a "quality of life feature" than it is a "quality of life omission" - it takes code to go and clear the children, doesn't take anything to leave them there (other than the code that doesn't draw them if the sum coming in is 0, I guess ^_^). When really looking for optimal solutions (I was inspired to go back and play some levels again to compete against my friends), I did find I wanted a way to nuke a whole branch too, but just ended up clicking the "reset" button and starting over instead :). Not really feasible on the bigger levels though. If I ever expand this game, will definitely add such a feature.

nerdysl0th

18. Oct 2019 · 23:20 UTC

I love it! The mechanic is original and it just so happens that I'm kind of a chemistry nerd, so I really enjoyed it. The scoreboard is a great addition that creates a competitive atmosphere, which I also love. Great job!

🎤 Jimbly

19. Oct 2019 · 00:02 UTC

@nerdysl0th Glad you enjoyed it! Also glad that the total lack of relation to any real molecules didn't bother you too much ;).

nerdysl0th

19. Oct 2019 · 00:03 UTC

@jimbly Haha it's fine, I kinda found it amusing :)

Lexyvil

19. Oct 2019 · 00:24 UTC

Fun puzzle game! It's all math in the end. It's still hard to wrap my head around how to solve some of the levels, in a good way.

DDRKirbyISQ

19. Oct 2019 · 03:03 UTC

@jimbly: Ah, makes perfect sense! Wasn't a dealbreaker by any means so no worries.

SheldonZS

19. Oct 2019 · 03:26 UTC

Thanks for the fun math game. I enjoyed how you used the word for nothing in various languages as the starting point of several of the levels. Having worked a lot with binary numbers helped a lot :) Also, high score on your bonus level ;)

![capriciousness.png](///raw/b30/71/z/29b3b.png)

🎤 Jimbly

19. Oct 2019 · 04:07 UTC

@sheldonzs Wow, nicely done! That pretty handily beats all of the other scores =)

dob

19. Oct 2019 · 05:28 UTC

Very cool puzzle idea. I got through the tutorial, and then I got a little bogged down understanding how things go - I could have used a bit more of a difficulty bridge upward, or maybe a few more hints, before getting to harder stuff. Graphics, the representation of the puzzle, and art were very good, and music was cute.

zuf

19. Oct 2019 · 08:30 UTC

One of my favourite entries in the compo. I spent a long time completing the levels and then more time optimising the solutions.

I got Opus Magnum and Portal vibes (from the leaderboards/optimisation and the layered music).

Also, great work with the [analytics](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/somthinga-from-nothinga/statistics-about-chemistry).

🎤 Jimbly

19. Oct 2019 · 13:37 UTC

@zuf Glad you enjoyed it! Nice job beating all of the levels, and nice scores! Though I wasn't trying for it, yeah, I think I'd consider this game a "Zachlike", it even has 3 different aspects to optimize like most of the Zachtronic games =)

Lars-Erik

20. Oct 2019 · 12:00 UTC

Well put toghether puzzle. A bit of fiddling with the GUI and you have a nice little mobile game.

helicoprion

23. Dec 2019 · 16:47 UTC

The game is really, really cool XD
![微信图片_20191224004631.png](///raw/e53/b2/z/29fb3.png)

🎤 Jimbly

11. Apr 2020 · 16:22 UTC

@helicoprion Nice job on the high score!