TIGSource Forums

ĐiệnWorlds is a management/sim/strategy game in which you place wires and other components to power houses and businesses, to (in turn) make money from them and (hopefully) make a profit. At its core, ĐiệnWorlds follows the rules of the cellular automaton Wireworld (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireworld) (created by Brian Silverman in 1987). For flavor and for gameplay purposes, other rules and overarching mechanics have been added.

The game has a general "goal" of making money and avoiding high debt, but other than this, it invites the player to discover strategies, arrangements, and setups that work best in their situation. As the developer, I don't even know what kinds of strategies (if any) are "optimal" - but I think that an important element of what makes these types of games fun is this kind of exploration. The underlying Wireworld-like simulation is fun to interact with as well - I'd like to think the game has a certain mathematical "depth" to it. In general, testers have found both the game's micro- and macro- mechanics to be addicting and engaging.

IMPORTANT: This game has no tutorial. I would highly recommend reading the ĐiệnWorldsInstructions PDF, found in the main download .zip (or viewable at the link above) to learn how to play (at the very least, consult the "In-Game Controls" and "Starting your first game" sections).

Soundtrack:  The soundtrack album Electric Flora (by myself and F.T. Wyn) can be found at the following places:

SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/user-482994277/sets/electric-flora-dienworlds-ost)
YouTube (embedded below):
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv_st-izOto)

Other notes:  ĐiệnWorlds is now mostly finished. Of course, bugfixes will warrant additional patches, and there may be future versions of the game if I think of additional features to add.  Current version:  v1_0_0b

For those with slower connections (or who might want a more lightweight download), I've uploaded a version without any music (which cuts the filesize from 97 MB to about 1.5 MB). This download is identical to v1_0_0b, except it lacks music (sound effects are still present, but you can mute them if you wish - see the manual).  This "no music" version can be found at the appropriate link above, or at each of itch.io, GameJolt, and IndieDB alongside the main version.

(http://i.imgur.com/oAFqgU6.png)

This looks like my kinda game. Posting here so I remember to try it to tomorrow.

I'm getting a black screen; the music starts, and if I click I can see the cursor, but otherwise nothing. 

I'm on Windows 10.

Maybe compatibility settings to older Windows OS might help (try 8.1 maybe)?  Maybe a user account control thing?  Something leads me to believe that it's related to how Windows 10 is playing with pdcurses (the DLL used to generate the ASCII display), though I can't find anything on this problem.  Please let me know if any of those basic attempts worked.

Did you happen to get a chance to try?

unfortunately, not really. it's much more complex than i anticipated and the keyboard-only controls and lack of any ingame help add some additional learning curve. i don't mind complexity (i play dwarf fortress lol), but i have to have the time and willingness to get into a game like this. i'll get back to it once i do though.  :)

btw: is there any way to make the font larger? it's pretty small for me.

Yes, the game does take a little bit to learn the rules.  There isn't in-game help, but I instead focused on writing a descriptive manual. 

There is a way to change font size.  After running the application, right-click on the top bar, select "Properties," then the "Font" tab.  Here, you can change the font size (and there will likely be additional fixed-width typefaces to choose from as well).  Hope this helps!

Actually, messing with the Windows console font size settings might have brought me closer to figuring out what your problem is.

What is your display resolution?  When you start the game (and the black screen appears), are there scrollbars on the side and/or bottom?  If so, right-click on the top bar, select "Properties," then the "Font" tab, and try picking a smaller font size (pick something so that window is small enough, and the scrollbars do not appear).  Then, close and restart the application.

Please let me know if this works.  Thanks!

For those with slower connections (or who might want a more lightweight download), I've uploaded a version without any music (which cuts the filesize from 97 MB to about 1.5 MB). This download is identical to v1_0_0b, except it lacks music (sound effects are still present, but you can mute them if you wish - see the manual).  This "no music" version can be found at the appropriate link in the original post, or at each of itch.io, GameJolt, and IndieDB alongside the main version.

Aha, yeah, I'd changed the console font or font size sometime in the past.

(Sorry for the long delay; I lost track of this until I saw the link under your new game.)

I'm glad it worked for you.  Yeah, a few other people have reported this occurring, and it seemed to fix the problem for all of them as well.