Fixed flashbang achievement not popping

[ 2024-12-18 22:31:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

With the server shutdown I have changed the default endpoint to localhost as I still get charged for DNS requests. Changed Disable AI Generation to default to true Added text in popup to remind people its recommended to turn off AI Generation.

[ 2024-12-17 05:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added a button to unlock online based achievements. The servers will be shutdown sometime between now and Christmas and the GitHub pages will be updated with references to database dumps if anyone wants to host their own version (which can be used by running with the flag --endpoint ).

[ 2024-12-09 10:12:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you to everyone who has given the game a go, i hope you had at least 3 minutes and 24 seconds of enjoyment from it. Its been nearly 6 months and it was fun making this, however the costs of running it with little to no return and no where for it to go from here, unfortunately i will be shutting the servers down. This will happen sometime in the next month. The game will stay on steam, however the online features will only work if someone else (or yourself) chooses to host it. Features to use a custom server are already in-built into the game itself.

Open Source

The frontend and backend services of the game will be available on Github. Full database of combinations will be made available on the backend Github at some point, but it still needs to be formatted. While making the game there were plenty of times I came across someone asking 'how do I do x thing' in regards to steam games and nodejs, then a few months later saying 'it's solved' without actually providing any information on how it was done. Hopefully the code can help anyone learning to how some things work. Currently the server is designed to be launched in a heroku instance, or locally but there are plenty of undocumented gotchas, this is by no means a plug and play alternative but its what I can provide. Thank you again for everyone that gave this game a go, sorry if this wasn't how you expected this game to end. Look forward to the future games I make (hopefully offline ones that don't require streams of money to keep afloat xD)

[ 2024-10-24 10:15:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed crash when server isn't available. Fixed missing languages. Added server shutdown message.

[ 2024-10-24 10:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added some more checks to language loading to prevent the base items from not loading. Full Explanation: A few people have noted that they have no items when they first load the game, i am still unable to replicate this issue but have taken a deep dive into the code. This update addresses a possible cause if the language database file fails to load or if it loads in the wrong order, no items will load. I have made it so that Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Time, Life will always exist no matter the state of the loaded file. This won't stop the other reports of items disappearing, but hopefully it lowers the chance of anything like this happening. I am now working on a 'Send Feedback' button to make it easier to submit logs so that i can properly see what is actually happening, but that will take some time as it requires some server backend work.

[ 2024-07-23 09:19:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some may have noticed (some may not have) the server has been having issues translating for the last 12 hours but it wasn't being reported by my monitoring. It should be fixed now but i am sorry i didn't see it earlier

[ 2024-07-06 07:05:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Almost had the update go clean, i forgot to remove some things from the local recipe list to match the server.

[ 2024-07-05 00:42:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

V2 is here!

I know the updates have been few and far between, but the update is finally here. With all the changes, this game has basically been rewritten from the ground up.

Fixes

• Put the AI in its place (it should now generate things that make more sense)
• Fixed element dissapearing when copy key was released
• Optimized side list sort and filter to work better with thousands of items
• Fixed issue with database files being overwritten after failing to load (it will now opt to not save instead of overwriting)
• Completely overhauled data storage to reduce filesizes and load times.
• Refined quit behaviour to hopefully close correctly all the time now.
• Fixed rate limit errors showing as 'unknown' (or not at all)
• Fixed dragging copied element to side menu removing the source as well.
• Fixed a bunch of visual bugs with either color or layout (more noticable with the supporter theme)
• Fixed smaller issues relating to item storage and visual bugs
• Fixed error and debug logging not being available (you can now pass --logLevel ) to help with issue reporting

Changes

• Moved menu items into a side menu
• Moved some statistics server side, now there are save based and user based statistics (the user statistics are the accurate ones)

New Features

Freeplay Mode

Freeplay mode is a new mode that allows you to input custom starting items. It also:

• Uses the same AI as standard mode
• Has a 1000x bump to the max depth cap on combines
• Allows for more characters and numbers in the items

This mode costs credits to use and is a completely optional part of the game for people who are committed and want to support the game.

Daily / Weekly Mode

These 2 new modes provide 4 items as a target with credit rewards (may change in the future), something to strive for when you dont know what other game to play :). These items are divided into groups. These numbers may be altered in the future if they are too hard etc.

• Easy: Base recipe with a depth of 2-25
• Medium: Base / AI recipe with a depth of 2-100
• Hard: Base / AI recipe with a depth of 100-1000
• Random: Completely random item

Store and Themes

Support the game with items from the store, from some themes (sorry im no designer but i tried my best) to items to help combining. Credits will only be used in freeplay mode, see the top right of the screen for how many credits you have

Other Features

• Added performance list setting, this list is not as pretty but will improve performance when scrolling through thousands of items (but IMO at that point searching is easier)

Potential Roadmap

I still believe this game is yet to reach its full potential. I already have some ideas i have had that i want to put to users to get some feedback:

• Leaderboards (the backend is already prepared for it)
• Wiki race style competitions with friends
• Speedrun timer (goes along with the first idea)
• Co-op profiles.
• Favorite / Hide items in list

Known Issues

It seems crazy to release the full game with known issues, but these are minor things that require a huge ratio of time to figure out / fix compared to leaving them in. If they bring more issues then i will fix them sooner.

• Credits amount will sometimes de-sync when spam crafting items, or adding new items. This is only visual.

[ 2024-07-05 00:22:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed crash when background is unknown Fixed some other small things relating to the update of the game, during the next week i will be migrating the database and moving the server to the new version, there may be downtime during this if i mess it up. Hopefully all goes smoothly. I will post on Steam and Discord within the hour if I mess something up.

[ 2024-06-25 12:50:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! It has been a while (sorry about that). Most if not all of the backend and frontend work for the full release has been completed and I am now in the process of testing and verifying everything works as it should.

Be prepared

I want to be very clear with anyone who has already played the game that the full release WILL REQUIRE YOU TO RESET YOUR SAVE. Because the new versions items are so much different, there is just no other way.

The Beta

During this brief period I can offer beta access to anyone that wants, all you have to do is join the discord and message anywhere (or private message @KlutzyBubbles) letting me know you want to (or just to chat :P). I do still have a full time job and run on AEST, so keep that in mind when waiting for a response. (Worst case you will get a response within 16 hours). Note: Anyone who runs the beta may have issues with save files which may require deleting saves / settings. If you are not comfortable doing this, the full tested version isn't too far away (fingers crossed).

When will it be available

I have no set dates at the moment, however I plan to have it released within the month (no promises xD). The information about changes will also be released on or before release. Thank you to everyone who has played the game so far, and for everyone who continues to play it in the future - Klutzy

[ 2024-06-18 12:54:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed bug where overlapping items wouldn't allow you to drag onto each other. Sorry there hasn't been many bigger updates, most of the changes are major ones that have been added to v2 (full release), so all the changes will be available when it is all done.

[ 2024-05-09 04:30:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed request timeouts resulting in infinite combining animations Changed context menu on items to show both AI and Base at the same time Fixed first discoveries of base items showing as a holo (they should just show as a base) Loosened Egg and Idea achievements to activate when they are found rather than finding all recipes for them Fixed find all base results achievement not unlocking Fixed some one off recipes appearing as a hint which prevents further hints Some additional notes, in the coming weeks i will be scaling the servers down, and performing some maintenance in preparation for the full release, so if you notice things not working it should be back after a minute or two.

[ 2024-04-28 12:15:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed crafting recipes for Gold and Alchemist. This update edits save files, please report any issues. you may notice that Philosophy + Liquid Philosophy + Metal Recipes have changed, so if you had combined those before, you will now have Alchemy instead.

[ 2024-04-19 04:03:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed items disappearing after combining

[ 2024-04-17 06:05:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Add clear all button to bottom right of the screen Add clear text button to search bar (hopefully it works on linux the same as windows) Slightly optimized filter / sort. Fixed elements not being movable at the bottom of the screen.

[ 2024-04-16 23:53:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added idea suggestion popup. This can be accessed by clicking the light bulb. The game should no longer white screen on crash, instead it fails in the background and the error is added to the log file. Fixed an uncommon error where dragging just after an item is combined crashed the game. Fixed session token saving not working (this means that combining items should be faster). Changed 'Offline Mode' to 'Disable AI Generation' to better describe what the switch does. I am not coming to the end of the bug fixes / server changes and can start working on the features that will actually affect gameplay.

[ 2024-04-16 07:12:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Congrats to all the players for making over 100,000 items! (And for burning a hole in my wallet faster than expected)

Want to say thank you to everyone that tried the game, it has been more of a success than i could have ever have hoped. The plan was over the course of 2-3 months about 50-100k items would be generated which would be enough to start working properly on the AI side of things so 2-3 days is quite something.

Issues

The items don't make sense

One of the main points i want to address is the 'boundless but its just made up' as this seems to be the only downside (and rightfully so). I made an oopsie (oops) with the AI prompt, this was fixed a couple of days after release but because at that time ~70k items had already been generated it may already be too late. One thing this change wont do is outright remove the 'made up items', it will take a lot more work to get the items to be more engaging, and make more sense. But that is still planned for full release.

Translations

On the first day of release i noticed a bug that only happened once in every 100-200 items where a translation for the name would fail and it would store nothing. This has been fixed but there are still some items hanging around that may not have any name for.

• Traditional Chinese ()
• Simplified Chinese ()
• Polish (Polski)
• Dutch (Nederlands)
• Italian (Italiano)
• Spanish-Latin America (Espaol-Latinoamrica)
• Korean ()
• Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)

There is no way (yet) to proactively fix these so they will have to stay empty for a while but i am aware of it.

Suggestions

Great to hear some suggestions of things to add / change. The bulk seem to be interface changes or more information about the items etc. I have read through and added all of them to the to do list and will see about adding them soon(tm). You can view the Github issues if you are wondering what has already been suggested. I am always open to more suggestions / ideas for changes even if it doesn't fit with the game, it usually is enough to spark other ideas that can also suit.

When this will all happen

As i mentioned before, the rate of all of this is already 2 months ahead of schedule, and the bulk of my spare time right now is pointed towards fixing some of the backend issues that you guys cant see. Hopefully some frontend changes can start in the coming weeks.

Stats / Facts because who doesnt like stats and facts

The server feeds ~9,000 words per minute (14,000 tokens) into ChatGPT 100k items and their recipes takes ~69mb (nice) of space in the database. In the time it took to write this post 1000 items were requested.

[ 2024-04-15 00:32:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small backend stuff no one should care about but if you insist. - Fixed UNDEFINED_LANGUAGE_DEF for unknown errors - Moved token to headers to prevent log spam on servers.

[ 2024-04-14 13:33:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Well there are definitely people playing the game now, which has highlighted some issues with the server. This patch is just a few housekeeping items to prepare for that server update. - Add new translation error (Errors can be found in the info screen advanced section, the wrench icon) - Add version to API endpoint to help myself debug

[ 2024-04-12 05:57:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

The time has come to publish the game! So enjoy using my money to make AI combine items :D I will be monitoring the backend closely to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong, however the status is always visible to you at the status website (Or in one of the channels in the discord).

[ 2024-04-12 00:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

tl;dr; Planned release is May. Thank you to everyone that wishlisted the game :). It really does help to know there are some people who are wanting to try the game.

Release date / pricing

For those that don't already know, the game will be free. And hopefully supported by some cosmetic purchases (don't worry dark mode will always be there). The cosmetic purchases (which i hope at the very least a handful of people are able to purchase) will be there to support the server infrastructure. The actual release date depends on one final feature being implemented and then just polishing changes. The planned release has always been around May, but if i can get it out earlier i will.

[ 2024-03-31 01:39:31 CET ] [ Original post ]