Since I write and troubleshoot computer programs at work all day, it's not every day that I come home and want to do something of such a similar nature for pleasure. But I've got enough screws loose that it happens fairly often. I've got 14 hours booked in SpaceChem so far, which puts me at about an hour a day on average since I've owned it. Many of those 14 hours came during the long 4th of July weekend, but I've picked it up a few times after a work day as well.
SpaceChem flirts with an interesting level of difficulty for me. At times, I can envision the solution right away and simply have to execute and fine tune it. Other times, I've spent a good amount of time on a certain path, only to completely scrap the design and start over from scratch. It has been occasionally, including the level I'm currently on, quite frustrating.
I put in about 70 minutes tonight and still didn't beat the level. I spent the whole time debugging the solution I came up with during my last play, that is close to correct, but blows up about 3/4 of the way to completion. I think I can at least see a path forward now and I've narrowed down the source of the problem, but the fix isn't going to be easy, so I'll have to come back to it when I'm a little less fuzzy.
But so far, SpaceChem has kept my sense of frustration balanced with a sense of achievement for having completed its difficult puzzles. I was reading a post by Ian Hardingham on the mode7 (FrozenSynapse) blog last night on why they chose to allow uneven sides in parts of the game. I think it explains pretty well how SpaceChem can both frustrate and delight me:
The best game memories are of getting out of a tricky situation when the odds were against you, after all.
Games Played:
Frozen Synapse
Achievements:
The game has them, I didn't earn any today
No comments:
Post a Comment