Today, Lambda Spellcrafting Academy leaves Early Access! Thank you to everyone who has helped with testing out and providing feedback on early builds of the game. This would not have been possible without your help. To celebrate this launch, a major content update is now available. This includes: - many more levels - a brand new section - a story - a "boss" level - various gameplay improvements / polish This launch is not the end of the updates. I have plans for much more content I plan to integrate into the game. More details on these future updates will be coming soon. Enjoy the launch! Professor Whiskers has gone off for a nap, but looks forward to helping you learn the art of Spellcraft.

Thanks to everyone who has helped out in testing and providing feedback during early access. This game was made possible thanks to your support. I'm happy to announce that Lambda Spellcrafting Academy will be having its initial launch out of Early Access this Friday! Included in this launch will be many more levels, and finally a conclusion to the story. And there may or may not be a sale as well :) Stay tuned, and make sure the game is on your wishlist so you're notified of the launch.

Hope you're all enjoying the game! If you've gotten to the end and want more, or just want other pointers for learning more spellcrafting / programming, here are a few resources that can help you. The game itself was inspired by MIT's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, aka SICP. The course uses LISP, which is a programming language with the same sort of logic as the one used in the game. Though the game uses a visual representation, and the original language uses text. The original textbook is freely available online [1]. The original lectures were also recorded, and are hosted freely by MIT. [2] LISP is very good at allowing you to focus on the problem solving, without worrying about language details. One downside though is that it looks very different from other programming languages. It is still a very good first language to learn, but afterwards you might want to look at something a little more conventional. In that case, I have put together a series of lessons using Javascript, which has puzzles you can solve in your browser. These are freely available on my site[3]. And finally, feel free to drop by the Discord server if you would like help or just want to chat. [1] https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf [2] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video_galleries/video-lectures/ [3] https://www.bittwiddlegames.com/coding-school/programming-basics/ [4] https://discord.gg/zEptN9CvTx

Thank you for everyone who has tried out my game while in Early Access. To celebrate the early supporters, I will include a section in the credits for those that would like to be mentioned. The survey is now accessible through the full version of the game. If you would like to be included in the credits, please fill out the form as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has decided to support this game early in its Early Access. I am going to be decreasing the price of the game in order to help reach more people. I'd like to recognize those of you who bought the game early. To do so, I'm thinking of adding a section to the credits to list the pre-price drop early access supporters. What do you think?

Youtuber deValiante (deVa) has recorded a playthrough of the demo! If you're curious about the game but haven't yet played the demo, you can now watch the video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2I-vLvdlkA

Hello everyone, I have just pushed an update for the game. This contains many frequently requested features to smooth over some parts of the game that were previously a bit rough. Many players wanted more space to view the spell. Now you can minimize the chat window, giving you your entire screen for designing your spells.
On larger levels, sometimes you just want to start over. The trash button in the corner can be used to reset a level to its original state. And sometimes you want to undo a mistake. Undo / redo buttons to the rescue! You can access these with the buttons in the corner, or standard hotkeys. Instead of CTRL+Z (undo) and CTRL+Y(redo), you can just use Z and Y. Undo can also undo a "reset" action, in case you misclick.
Happy gaming and happy holidays!

Hello! Thanks to everyone who has played the game so far, and a special thanks to players who have provided feedback. I'm working on a patch that mostly focuses on "quality of life" type improvements, to improve gameplay in areas that currently feel a bit clunky. The update should be available in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Hi all, I've just pushed build 125, which has several new puzzles that introduce the concept of data structures. Arrays, pairs, and a few other types of nested data are introduced. Whether these ideas are completely new, or you've worked with them before, I think you'll find the puzzles pretty neat. Have fun!

Hi everyone, I've just pushed build 120 of the game. This contains new controls under the "cast spell" or spell runner page. This will let you play / pause / step forward / step backwards while watching your spell run. This should speed up debugging of spells, especially those that take a while to run. You can control playback using the mouse buttons in the corner, or use the keyboard: space / left arrow / right arrow.

Hi everyone, A user on the Discord pointed out an issue with the Mac release of the game. If you were getting an issue with "no executable found" when starting up on Mac, you were impacted by the same bug. I've just pushed new builds of the game for Mac, and its all working now. If this was preventing you from playing you can try it again now :)

Hi everyone, I hope you're enjoying the game in Early Access. I'm planning another series of levels to add to the game, but want to make sure they are both thematically interesting and good puzzles. In the mean time, if you are enjoying the game, consider leaving a review on Steam. And even if you aren't, a review would help me better gauge what parts of the game are enjoyable and which need work. Thanks to everyone who has chosen to support me while I work on this game. Best, Alex

I've just pushed build 114, which improves the experience of the spell editor. Before, you could only grab words from your word-pool at the bottom. Now you can grab and move words in the spell itself. Dragging a word from the spell and dropping it into empty space can be used to remove words from your spell. You can also do this to easily peek at the names for the inputs if you have forgotten. Grabbing a spell word will also grab all the words connected below it. This helps refactor or rework your spell more easily.

Just pushed build 113. Included in this update:

• Checklist optimization: Long running spells can no longer slow down the rest of the editor.
• Editing improvements: Replacing a word in the middle of your spell will no longer remove everything below. This makes it easier to replace similar words while building up your spells. See the gif for an example.

Just pushed build 112 for the Early Access version of the game. There have been a lot of changes recently that are only now getting pushed, since I had previously focused on getting the demo playable in the browser. Now the Steam version of the game has these updates:

• Improved scaling for the level browser / spellbook: Entries better adjust to the size of your device.
• Bugfix for "ripeness checker" level. Previously certain spells could crash the game. The crash has been fixed. A future update will improve the visuals for this level.
• Bugfix: Certain levels previously appeared to unlock out-of-order. This has been fixed.
• Updated a few all menus are usable with mouse only.
• Improved dialogs for the first levels. Several users mentioned that the instructions were too wordy, so the update focuses on clearer & shorter explanations. The remaining levels will be updated in a future update.

Hi everyone, I've just added tablet support to the web version of the game. If you'd like to play on tablet, the game supports touch interactions, including pinch gestures to zoom and dragging to move around in your spell. I've also reworked the dialog as part of this change, to better fit the smaller screens available on tablets. Rather than 5 lines of text at a time, only 3 are shown. I've also reworded many of the explanations to make them shorter. I've tested on a lower end device (kindle fire hd 8), and the game runs smoothly. If you try out the web version on a tablet, let me know what you think! https://www.bittwiddlegames.com/lambda-spellcrafting-academy/demo

Hi everyone, Several people have asked about playing the game on mobile. As a first step, I have made the game playable in the browser. Touchscreens don't yet work perfectly, but this will be updated soon. Running in the browser is not quite as fast as running locally, so some visual effects are disabled in the browser version. If the desktop / steam version doesn't work for you, feel free to try it on the web: https://www.bittwiddlegames.com/lambda-spellcrafting-academy/demo

Build 100 is now available for early access players. This adds 4 new levels which will teach you about arrays. I've also added a "challenge" section at the end, and moved a few earlier levels there. These levels were a fair bit harder than the others. This way they dont block progress. I'm planning on adding a hinting system to the game, to make it less likely for players to get stuck on any one level. Have fun! - Alex

Hello everyone, Lambda Spellcrafting Academy is now available via Early Access! The Early Access version of the game includes an extra set of levels, and a sandbox mode that will allow you to create and test your own spells. More levels are coming soon. Your feedback is always appreciated. Feel free to use: - The in-game feedback form - Steam community - Social media DM (BitTwiddleGames on Reddit and Twitter)

Hello everyone, I've just released build 95 of the demo. This contains a few fixes and changes based on user feedback: - Added a new level to better explain the checklist - Improved several levels so the checklist can accurately indicate partial success on a few levels. - Added the version number under the settings, so it is easier for players to check that they have the latest version - Prevent running "incomplete / higher order spells" for now. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback. Have fun!

Hi everyone, Just pushed a quick fix to the demo. One of the users in our Discord noticed that the spellbook level selector could appear completely empty, leaving you nothing to do when you start a new game. (Thanks for catching this) Oops. The demo should be playable again.

Hi everyone, I've just pushed build 90 of the demo. This includes a new level browser, so you can progress through the levels as you choose. You no longer need to try to complete the demo in a single sitting, as your progress will be saved. Your solutions to the levels will also be autosaved. If you want to revisit a level later, you can do so without worrying about losing your partial solutions. I've also been working on producing a bunch of additional levels which aren't included in the demo, but I plan to include in an upcoming Early Access launch. If you know anyone else that might be interested in the game, feel free to share so they can wishlist and get notified when Early Access begins. Thanks everyone for playing and providing feedback so far :) - Alex

Hi everyone, I just pushed build 85 of the demo, which contains - A new "if" level, which is simpler and should be more accessible to newcomers. - Clearer visualizations while casting spells, which hides internal details not relevant to your spell. - Edge hints, which let you know if you have parts of your spell off-screen. This should make it easier to find your spell if you lose it, and also make it harder to miss the added visualizations. I've also been working on many new levels, which I plan to start playtesting in the near future. Make sure to sign up for the playtest if you would like to help test the rest of the content before the full release. https://forms.gle/ZuvBAxfoyNvQsDuq7

Hi all, I just pushed build 80 of the demo, which contains a new system for seeing the effects of your spells. For each of the magic inspired spells in the demo, you can now see the effects of your spell. The new art is a bit rough, but I believe the new animations will make the spells feel much more satisfying to build. I've also reworked the levitation level, as I noticed the previous explanation wasn't very clear.

Hello everyone, Would you like to help test the full version of the game? I am starting to collect interest from players that would like to help give feedback on the full game, which includes many levels and features not present in the demo. If you'd like to help out, fill out this form and I will reach out when I'm ready to start testing. https://forms.gle/yMpzvNScVRo5as2X8

Hi everyone, I have just pushed build 75 of the demo. In it, I have added a dark mode, which can be selected under the settings menu. Additionally, I have added text descriptions for most of the cards. New cards will always be explained directly, but this little summary text should help if you forget.