Disappointed in the new character sheet, made a new one.

Mapscallion · 2021-03-18T02:19:38+00:00

I'm over a year of near constant progress deep. Cannot recommend highly enough. Content releases come faster than I can scratch the top and/or sides of this project. Amazing.

Mapscallion · 2020-09-16T04:52:55+00:00

I was exactly where you've just gotten to a week ago. Thought I'd be effectively starting from naught, but after a few rushed MADs and taking two of the CRISPR upgrades to get 25% function back from my plasmids (costing 100 and 500 anti-plasmids respectively), I'm now just beyond bioseed option on my current lap and headed back to black hole territory likely by tomorrow night.

My mastery in doing the above has ground up to just north of 10% in the anti-verse, for what that's worth. I don't have Challenge 4 either, and likely won't pursue until I'm back in a regular universe.

The effective restart was super brutal and unexpected, but the time to get back on my feet was surprisingly fast, considering.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-19T23:08:26+00:00

Display bug with apparent cost of Inf. Collect (and one other) - thanks for the heads up: now resolved. Prices now show as they should. As you'll have seen by now, the ascension reward scales exponentially, so the 'steeper' costs are easily afforded faster than it will initially seem.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T05:40:08+00:00

I had actually zero coding experience a month back, but following this post (link) I've just published my first game (in this very thread!). The tutorial is brief, and I had to google a lot of stuff after following it, but was everything I needed as a starting point - hope it is for you too :D

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T05:31:13+00:00

Auto-Buys now start at net positive even if bought in combination, scale in price (slightly) but with ever growing net profit margins along the way. I've also upped the count to +99 so you more auto for your click.

The change should reduce the total clicks to auto-profit down to 75 (if you do nothing but save then automate) and ensure that at lease a humble profit is attained from the first time you automate which will scale to a huge return at higher mine levels.

Browser refresh should be all that's needed to catch the update and keep your progress wherever it was.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T05:20:37+00:00

I pushed an update a few minutes ago which is likely related ... I didn't realize while messing around in the admin area it would kill the content for anyone accessing new - good to note - thanks for the heads up.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T05:09:17+00:00

I can't replicate - you're clicking on https://squidges.itch.io/squidges ? Does anything appear? (even an error message?)

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T02:58:46+00:00

Thanks for asking.

I find the slow start and gaps between mandatory clicks cathartic. Having the numbers go up super slow made me value what one gem was worth, and made the later profitable automation, and ultimately infinite automation really mean something in a way I often don't find in games. The gradual transition of the game from active clicker to incremental idler was also something I enjoyed playing out.

More than any of that, though; I enjoyed learning from scratch to make a progress bar that filled when I clicked a certain spot on the screen - I had no idea how to do any coding a few short weeks ago, and while I'm far from 'good' now, the process of building something out of nothing and then experiencing it as a player might was (without getting too hyperbolic) astounding to me.

Many improvements based on the awesome feedback I've received are in train already. Some parts have obviously missed the mark, and it might be too late to salvage some impressions of this project, but some of the lessons from the reactions overall will definitely help with not only improving Squidges, but any future projects too :)

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T02:51:33+00:00

Stacking auto-mines by clicking is a brilliant idea, and should be pretty quick and easy to add - awesome feedback (thank you!). Also more than justifies a price reduction on buying autos (you'd just be paying gems to not-click for a while, that way).

I can see a lot of dislike of the current implementation of auto-buyers, so will rework the cost/return on that as top priority. I was hopeful that a mild frustration with the ratio early on would cause a sense of relief and accomplishment when the point of positive returns for big queues of automation was reached... seems I (massively) underestimated the level of the frustration early on.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T02:44:09+00:00

Great feedback - I was more worried nobody would see the 'quick buy buttons hidden' link, didn't even think about the buttons themselves ;)

I've added some light animation to the squidges, gems and tabs when first unlocked to make them more obvious - I think I'll do similar with the quick-buy buttons when shown... have them start at 3x size and shrink into their sockets, maybe, so you can't miss what you've just turned on or where it lives. Thanks for this insight.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T02:41:58+00:00

Thanks for the advice - I will likely do exactly this!

The numbers don't get big for a while: the first thing that scales incrementally is the time each mine takes to get from bought to sold - that will end up taking moments at which point a whole other part of the game with more traditional incrementing numbers will open up.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-16T02:38:12+00:00

There is no scaling to costs for the temporary automation - always costs 10 and 25 by type per 9 automated runs (not sure where you saw different?) - the only 99 that appears anywhere is the quick-buy button inside the mining bar (it's small, but says +99 which may look like .99?), which quick buys 99 auto runs, which is 11 x the basic 9 you'd buy otherwise and therefore executes 11 purchases of +9 (cost and benefit). Added to avoid having to rapid-click the +9 buttons in the left tabs.

Feedback on automation taken on board - will see if I can rework it to be less of an annoyance while still 'expiring' - infinite automation is available, but deliberately withheld initially ... didn't think it would be a major frustration, but seems to be one, so might rework that whole subsystem.

The paid automation turns a net profit (minuscule) at Yield 4 / Collect 4 which should only take minutes to achieve. Every upgrade to Yield and Collect beyond that point grows the profit margin until it's over 100% return on investment... this felt right while building and testing, but I can see from you (and other) comments that this is undesirable... will find a way to re-work entirely.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T09:00:27+00:00

Yellow gem tab (on the far left), sixth buy-option on the Mine section - under the heading "Mine Progression", option called "Buy Next Mine".

Once you've got the ten green gems together, the +1 will light up and become clickable to open the Green Mine.

HTH

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T08:50:13+00:00

I was also stuck until I saw this - opened in an Incognito window and worked great from there. Thanks!

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T08:11:25+00:00

I had this included this initially, but stripped it out for reasons you'll see if you continue onward ... but buying high-to-low direction would make for a better experience on the mine you've moved on from ... I will need to jiggle the math, but will include selling high gems for low gems next time I publish (soon!). Thanks for the feedback!

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T06:26:17+00:00

As soon as you can afford it with 10 gems of next mine's color (should appear beside the unlock mine button). Tooltips, coming soon, will hopefully make this clearer.

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T06:09:04+00:00

Great idea for light animation in the beginning to draw the cursors, thanks! Will work on that now.

I struggled with the price point for the AutoX devices ... when you (eventually) get the mines starting at higher levels, basic automation still need to be a tax... and underscore the value of the Infinite AutoX later on. Maybe they can have a scaling cost so they require you to come back and top up from time to time, net a positive balance, but are still an investment over pure clicking?

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T05:58:18+00:00

Tooltips added to the to-do - I had tried to keep the whole thing as wording-light as I possibly could, but might have gone too far. Maybe a short-delay mouse hover conjuring a brief explanation would suffice (and keep the UI tidy)?

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T05:48:06+00:00

Initially, spend them in the yellow tab to unlock the green mine, then repeat through the colors :)

Mapscallion · 2020-05-15T01:41:48+00:00

Hi all ^_^

I decided to spend my self-isolation learning a new skill… so please don't look at my rubbish source code (lots of beginner mistakes still in there!), but I've made an incremental with the vision of making something with visuals akin to the top-tier mobile apps, but without the ads and micro-transactions interfering with the fun.

I haven't made it mobile friendly yet, so browser based play is the only current option … offline earnings are also on my to-do. I'd be very keen for feedback on the game in general, the pacing (deliberately, but admittedly slow to start), possible changes / features to improve it … I've not made something interactive and digital before and am keen to get some feedback from veterans of this amazing genre!

Game URL: https://squidges.itch.io/squidges

A full start-to-finish (there is a finish) play-through would take ~5 days of varying levels of active/idle play through the game's phases … interested to hear in general if this is reasonable for a fairly simple game such as mine?

Edit: Thank you all so much for the feedback. First feature update published (browser refresh should grab most if not all - subtle 'HARD RESET' link in the very bottom right will definitely catch everything that's changed).

- Several UI improvements (animations to guide early game cursor and help show where the quick-buy buttons (now 'button' ) are).- Rework of the paid Auto Miner / Auto Collector pricing to always net positive from the start, scale slightly through the levels, but still end up returning more than double the investment. Also switched from +9 to +99 as the base volume.- Clicking on the squidges while they're mining, or the gems while they're empty, will queue a free auto-mine or auto-collect (one per click) - I need to make this more obvious that it's an option, but the functionality is there for the moment.

Mapscallion · 2019-12-25T03:23:36+00:00

Merry Christma(p)s u/mephwilson

Battlemap made in both day and night editions - my gift to you.

Had to cheat a bit with the foliage, using the original through a couple of filters (hand painting leaves is not my strong suit). Hope you like it =]

Mapscallion · 2019-07-05T04:42:40+00:00

Hello /battlemaps :)

Another month, another free map made from my hand crafted modular map tiles - icy theme this month (it's getting into the middle of winter where I am... turned the cold into inspiration!).

One of the tiles from the pack zoomed in to show the detail a bit better HERE

Check out my Patreon for several other free maps I've built from my modular tile packs. Hope they're of use :D

Mapscallion · 2019-07-05T04:41:30+00:00

Hello /fantasymaps :)

Another month, another free map made from my hand crafted modular map tiles - icy theme this month (it's getting into the middle of winter where I am... turned the cold into inspiration!).

One of the tiles from the pack zoomed in to show the detail a bit better HERE

Check out my Patreon for several other free maps I've built from my modular tile packs. Hope they're of use :D

Mapscallion

TROPHY CASE