Tag: Unstable Engineer

Quite a lot of small tweaks in this update, mostly to certain tests. Some puzzles have been made more forgiving, others have had unintended (and boring) solutions removed:

• Blueprint/Primary/Hard/1 – Removed possibility of hovering to central exit from left.
• Blueprint/Aquatic/Hard/1 – Reshaped the level to make the timing more lenient.
• Blueprint/Aquatic/Hard/3 – Fixed the release timing. (So sorry if you were stuck on this one!)
• Blueprint/Unstable/Hard/2 – Removed unnecessary turbo upgrade to eliminate one solution.
• Spark/Primary/Hard/3 – Alternate solution left in, but changed hint to reflect this.
• Spark/Aquatic/Hard/2 – Moved conveyor to beneath central platform to stop step-building solution.
• Spark/Aquatic/Hard/3 – Disabled the ability to discard hovercrafts while rising up walls.

I’ve also made some other changes, either to fix minor bugs or add requested features:

• In spark tests, can press ‘RETURN’ to discard blueprint.
• Arrows on conveyor belt graphics have increased contrast.
• Elevator tracks no longer fade when near edge of screen.
• Fastforward sound now stops when resetting test while holding SHIFT.
• Will no longer exit office if cancelling a menu with ESCAPE.

Thanks for all your messages everyone. It’s impossible to catch everything when testing your own games – your help is invaluable!

Some significant bug fixes in this update!

• The data storage system has been tweaked, which should eliminate the issue some players were having where their progress would not save, or would roll back to previous saves.
• The speed up mechanic has been overhauled so that it no longer leads to ‘unstable’ movement speeds. Now tests that rely on precise timing should be unaffected by whether you speed up or not.
• The compression method has been changed, giving a smaller file size and better quality sound.

Thanks to everyone who messaged me with their bug reports. I hope you continue to enjoy my puzzles!

Another update for Unstable Engineer! Features:

• Step-by-step advance: When paused, press the Speed Up button (Or SHIFT) to advance all blueprints by one step. This will allow you to time your blueprint upgrades as precisely as you like, without needing to spam the play/pause button! Now you have no excuse for getting your timing wrong…
• Tweaks to a couple of tests to remove unintended (and boring) solutions. Now they’re much harder! Yay! (Specifically: Blueprint Tests/Aquatic Zone/Hard 1, and Blueprint Tests/Unstable Zone/Hard 2).
• For balance, Spark Tests/Primary Zone/Hard 2 has been switched with a completely different level. The original test will be included in the upcoming expanded version of the game for mobile platforms.
• Fixes to a number of frame-precise upgrade glitches, especially on elevators. (Thanks to John & Robert for identifying most of these.)
• A basic landing screen to deal with browser focus compatibility.
• A few minor training dialogue updates.
• A few minor graphical updates.

Thanks to those who sent me bug reports! It’s only slightly embarrassing to realise my challenging puzzles have a blatantly obvious solution I’d somehow never noticed…

Have fun!

I’ve updated Unstable Engineer with a few minor tweaks:
– Fixed the glitch where sound might not resume following speeding up in tests.
– Corrected the majority of the sound corruption.
– Fixed the ‘floating body part’ glitch in the Office. (Despite how funny it was.)
– General stability and lag reduction.

I’ve also added one new feature: Now, when you pause during a test, small markers will appear to show the spaces each blueprint is moving into. This should help with precise upgrades, and particularly when judging discard timing during Spark Tests.

That’s all for now!

Ahh, that glorious time in a project where you have to go back and tweak everything you’ve done up until that point, because it’s all getting too big. (A known issue with Unity and WebGL, to be fair…)

So while I modify my images to make them viable for RGBA DXT5 Compression… with or without Mip Maps… whatever the target platform… (This is what you get for not planning ahead, folks…)

…Here are some more screenshots in the meantime:

Just thought I’d sneak a quick update in before the end of the year, like the ninja I am.

I’ve made significant progress with Unstable Engineer, my next game – which takes place some time before the events of Unstable. You are an engineer hired by a mysterious company called QTech, and your job is to test out their various ‘Blueprints’ and ‘Sparks’. I don’t have a new demo for you, but here’s some screenshots of the different game modes to whet your appetite:

I’ve also overhauled the UI since my last update (i.e. there now actually is a UI).

As you progress in the game you can get to know your coworkers, and earn their trust. Perhaps then you’ll uncover what exactly is going on in this secretive facility…

…Or maybe you’ll just learn some of the worst jokes I could think of. And if that doesn’t get you excited to play this game, I don’t know what will.

Have a good Christmas!

As promised, I’ve updated the demo for my upcoming puzzle game. You’re an engineer hired by QTech, a secret facility developing machines called ‘blueprints’, powered by mysterious entities called ‘sparks’. Test out their devices, while getting to know the other researchers, and trying to uncover why exactly the facility is so secretive.

This demo features the early stages of the game, with the actual gameplay, although with many placeholder graphics. My next task is to design the blueprints themselves, so they aren’t just simple palette-swaps. I may go overboard, so you can expect much more interesting animations than in the original Unstable!

…But until then, you can wait patiently by playing this demo over and over and over…

I’ve started working on a new game! I suppose you would call it a prequel of sorts to Unstable, although the gameplay is different. The premise is that you are an engineer hired to test out the various blueprints, and you do so by guiding the robots to different exit points using the blueprints as upgrades. As you complete these tests, you’ll learn more about the mysterious company who hired you, and you might even find out why everything is being kept so secret…

It’ll be mouse-based gameplay where you click on robots to upgrade them. If you’ve ever played the Lemmings games (and if not, why not?) then you’ll have a good idea of how it works, although there are some significant differences, and there will be other game modes with different rules.

It’s early in development but I’ve created a simple demo with a handful of small levels. It only has placeholder graphics and there’s no sound, but it should give you an idea of the gameplay for the main game mode. Check it out if you like, and I’ll keep you updated on further progress!