Maxwell's Demon by TPace

[raw]
made by TPace for Ludum Dare 54 (EXTRA)

Make Maxwell's famous mental experiment real playing with cellular atuomata. Keep the temperature under acceptable limits by exchanging particles between chambers. When close to a panel, click with the mouse to play the puzzle. Select filled cells in one chamber and click on the position you want them to go on other chambers. Keep control of the amount of filled cells in each container.

PS: puzzles are randomly generated and don't have fixed and precise solutions. Just try to apply general principles.

Playing guides: tut1.png tut2.png tut3.png

Ratings

Given 41🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

Steffo
11. Oct 2023 · 19:48 UTC
This was... quite an hard puzzle game!

I see you've entered in the audio category, but I didn't hear any audio coming from your game; is that a bug?
rongon
11. Oct 2023 · 19:52 UTC
Why is there first-person movement at all, if the game is about logical puzzles inside the fixed screens? It would be much easier to play the game if I'm just focusing at the screens.
Game also lacks some feedback on tapping and what happens between turns, I literally can't tell what happened between turns, it's very hard to interact with the puzzles.
knexator
11. Oct 2023 · 20:38 UTC
Agree, the 3d is unnecesary
fisher2470
11. Oct 2023 · 20:41 UTC
Some music would be nice, these puzzles are really challenging and I think the concept overall is pretty strong. I also appreciate the many different variations on the initial puzzle concept, I just wish some of that time was spent on audio since doing puzzles in silence can make gameplay drag.
Flying Dog Fish
11. Oct 2023 · 21:07 UTC
I have no idea whatsoever what I'm supposed to be doing in this game. I can click a cell to highlight it, but I have no idea with kind of an effect that has.
🎤 TPace
11. Oct 2023 · 21:31 UTC
Thank you all for the feedback. I'll try to make the gameplay clearer. For those wondering, you have to click on a filled cell on one square and pass it to the other one. The objective is to keep the amount of filled cells under certain limits.
And yes, the game has no audio yet.
JustMars
11. Oct 2023 · 21:49 UTC
Definitely one of the games of all time.

(audio category can be opted out if there is no audio)
nikor
12. Oct 2023 · 17:12 UTC
I really like the idea of a game about Maxwell's demon. And a puzzle game based around cellular automata is a really good idea. I personally think the difficulty is quite rough. And i have made my own game of life simulations in the past. Maybe if you removed the timer it would be better? But again I really think the core game could have promise.
Tiseno
14. Oct 2023 · 06:45 UTC
I liked the concept, and the back story, and I love games within games.

I would play this puzzle game on my phone, because it was really interesting.

As for game design: the first 3 puzzles should not have been randomized and much much easier. There was too many things going immediately, the puzzles should have introduced one new concept at a time, instead of needing to read up and understand everything from the start.

I only managed to finish the first puzzle :sweat_smile:

A bonus point for making the speed in first person really fast :sunglasses:
🎤 TPace
14. Oct 2023 · 18:06 UTC
Thank you @nikor and @tiseno for your feedback! I updated the submission. I tried to make the game a bit easier (which requires a lot of fine-tuning for these cellular automata puzzles) and added a button that allows for turning the timer on/off.
justking144
14. Oct 2023 · 19:43 UTC
I really enjoyed the 3rd person world exploration to reach the puzzles. It was a nice touch, as were the instructions on the wall. That said, the pixel-art text you used is nice but a bit unpleasant to read over large paragraphs.
Manjari
15. Oct 2023 · 12:55 UTC
I will not deny I cleared the first level solely on guessing :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: I loved the concept and the timer panic was real!! The idea is really unique and fun and I loved to 90s windows style UI. My only complaint is the player walking speed is simply too fast it takes a few tries before I could centre the text/puzzle.
Peredom
20. Oct 2023 · 13:25 UTC
Too hard to understand. Make tutorial more understandable and UI as well. 3D confusion also unnecessary. A tutorial stage without a timer would also help.