Molecule Mash
Grow increasingly complicated molecules
Roll and tumble your molecule to attach atoms and create the desired compound. "Learn" organic chemistry in a fun physics-based way.
Control using WASD and QE to rotate the molecule. Mouse movements will rotate the camera. R will reset a level, and escape will return to main menu. Return to skip to the next level.
Made with: Unity (ProBuilder, TextMeshPro), Visual Studio, Audacity
Molecule structure data is pulled from the Protein Data Bank.
Tips:
There is no shame in skipping levels. Some of the later ones are pretty nasty.
You can try rocking the molecule back and forth to get it more to an angle that you want.
For some levels, it may be easier and quicker to gather atoms up all together before trying to assemble the molecule.
Update: I fixed a bug related to inputs being gathered differently on different hardware. As a result it should be more consistant now, though it did change the feel of the game a bit, so I have that as a 1.1 release on the page. I would still recommend it though to avoid some unforseen issues.
Comments (15)
Amazing game! The controls are in a good spot between wonky and intuitive (sometimes when youre too heavy the molecule jsut refuses to move tho). Im amazed at how polished this is and how much content there is, this could be a full game so easily.
Gongrats! One of the best ones I played so far. I love he concept.
Good prestentation and funny game concept that reminded me of SpaceChem for its serious-not-serious approach to science.
I felt movement was quite cumbersome and that I often couldn't make sense of which key I needed to press to fo which way, but that didn't refrain me to enjoy completing the first levels through try and error, and then just discovering those random and funny level layouts that ask you to build molecules in increasingly impossible way.
This was great fun! I love the popping sound, it reminds me very much of popcorn - especially when the compound jumps because of it :D My favourite level was fullerene, even though I didn't beat it. The game becomes really hard very quickly.
I wish the art was a bit more polished, but overall the game was really fun!
Super Molecule Damacy!
Clean visuals; sparse sounds; simple, effective design! Chill music would have been nice.
There is an admirable amount of variety in the levels. Height differences, slopes, tricky setups, good stuff. I'd actually enjoy most of them, If only the controls were up to the task.
E and Q do pretty much nothing after the molecule grows beyond a few atoms. Wiggling around with the main keys is unresponsive, inaccurate, and slow. I actually got a headache trying to complete the levels in the second half, so frustrating!
A shame really as technically everything is a-ok. Frustration just isn't my thing.
Overall: Average (5)
Graphics: Good (7)
Gameplay: Terrible (2)
Originality: Above average (6)
Theme: Good (7)
@HuvaaKodia Thanks for all of the great feedback. The game actually was originally going to be much more Katamari-like, but then I was inspired when the in the working prototype I used varying sizes of spheres and it made something that looked very much like those molecule models you would see in a high school chemistry class.
In terms of level difficulty, the Philosophy I took when making levels was that I would experiment to try to see what works in the system and order the levels based on difficulty of the experiments. Given more time, I would fill in the difficulty curve to work you up to those later levels. Serotonin on feels like a huge jump compared to the rest. Also the constraint of working with actual molecules caused some difficult challenges as not all topologies are really suited for the game as may be evident by the chlorophyll level.
I completely agree about the controls having watched people play the game from over their shoulder and on different hardware. Just goes to show how important playtesting is, and thank you all for the feedback! Iv'e been updating controls as my first priority in the post-jam version. Version 1.1 on the itch.io page should have more responsive controls if anyone wants to try that after rating the jam version.
All of this is inspiring me to want to write a post-mordem. I should get on that!
I really liked the idea of growing molecules using a katamari-esc collection system, but I felt like the movement was quite frustrating. Maybe I'm just playing it wrong, but moving any sort of large particle felt somewhat uncontrollable, and trying to get specific atoms filled up towards the end of the level was incredibly hard. The level that worked the best was the fullerene level, because the oject you were controlling was a sphere, making movement a lot easier. Most other levels felt to me like flipping a large, deformed log around. At least the levels had lots of variety.
Graphics and sound wise the game what it needs to, with the "pop!" of adding an atom to your chain being very satisfying, and the coloured atoms being easy to spot against the simple texturing of the levels (also liked the "70 picometers" joke). Overall a good idea, but too frustrating for me to rate highly in th gameplay section.
Cool idea, but quite frustrating when you get on to the larger molecules. Even when you can get them to go where you want, adding the atoms you are after feels like pure chance - and suddenly change the configuration of the molecule and how it controls. The Q and E keys didn't seem to do anything at all.
I don't know if I have a recommendation on how to improve any of that - maybe an octodad style walking mechanism where the atoms become like feet that you can stick and unstick from the ground? I guess that would be quite a different game though.
Graphics are simple, but effective - they feel very sciency!
Great idea for a game! I love the simplicity and how well it fit into the theme. The overall presentation was very nice as well!