Sorry TIGsource people for not updating this devlog! I've done a lot of work on tricone lab, just didn't feel there was anything particularly newsworthy until now.
Anyway I now have a total of 42 levels in the game, including 4 for the new anti-catalyst mechanic (M7) and 5 more which combine anti-catalyst and the new constructor mechanic (M8).
There are also 2 new fairly easy levels to help players learn the transporter mechanic. The transporter levels are redistributed across two maps: M5 and M6.
I want players to be able to access different mechanics without necessarily having solved all previous levels. In other words, the game should support non-linear progress as much as possible.
So, I decided to reallocate the levels from M1 and M2 across three maps: M0, M1 and M2. M0 and M1 are basic tutorial levels and must be completed first. M2 contains the harder breaker puzzles, but after M1 is completed a number of levels with other mechanics also open up: M3, M5 and M7. Some limited testing has found that people can go from M1 to M3 or from M1 to M7 without much difficulty.
As I've mentioned previously, I want to provide players with a concise written reference of the mechanics, via the node description feature. Players do not need to refer to this at all throughout the game as all mechanics are revealed via the level design. Many players will not read the description and that's fine. However, I have found some players like to look things up either before solving a level or when they get stuck. Also, someone might return to the game after a break, and not remember the fine details of what they learned.
However, I don't want to include in the description information on mechanics which the player has not yet encountered. For example, catalyst synthesis is inhibited in negative cells, but I don't really want to tell the player this until they have encountered negative cells: it's confusing and spoils the later reveal.
So, in order to support both non-linear progress and gradually revealed descriptions I have decided to use a mechanism called
progress keys.
These progress keys allow me to track fairly explicitly what the player has learned about the mechanics.
New progress keys are added as the player solves more levels. The more progress keys a player has, the more detail is available in the node descriptions.
Rather than having a direct relationship between maps (e.g. completing M1 unlocks M2), new maps are unlocked based on what progress keys the player has.
This should also be useful when there are user-generated levels -- players will only download levels which they have learned enough mechanics for.
Here was the overall map-of-maps for v0.002.1 alpha:
For the v0.003 alpha the map-of-maps has changed to become non-linear. But also shown here are some of the progress keys which are gained by completing a map: these are the ones which unlock other maps. In one case, M6, you need multiple keys to unlock the map. As I add maps and levels which combine multiple mechanics, I'll reuse this multiple keys idea.
v0.003 is on the way in the next few days, I just need to finish tying up the node descriptions with the progress keys.
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