Trans Neuronica Prelude
Winner of the second place of gamedev competition on Revision 2023!
Connect nodes but keep paths separate. Vast subversion of the classic numberlink.
This is a prelude to the upcoming full release of Trans Neuronica. It's a demo but also a standalone piece that contextualizes and muddles the story of the main game.
Wishlist the main game on Steam now!
If the web version fails to load disable Privacy Badger, as it blocks access to localStorage which is used to store saves and the campaign data.
Known issues:
- When playing in a resolution where there is empty space around the game area it's possible to hit HUD buttons outside the HUD area. This is caused by incorrect point transformation, playing in full screen should fix it as long as your resolution is a multiply of 640x360.
- Despite help saying so, `z` and `x` are not used for drawing and removing paths by default, you need to remap the controls from `j` and `k` first.
Download
Install instructions
Unzip the game to a directory of your liking and double click the executable!
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Going back to the prelude's final level after beating the full game and trying to see how close to a working solution I could get is fun.
bro what I typed random numbers then got teleported to level 10 which as expected was a death trap of complicated mechanisms I had yet to learn... i was stuck on level five... idk how to get back... wonderfully entertaining game tho...
Now I cant get back into the game it displays an error message of cant read Width or something.
Oh gosh, there are debug options under some secret keys but they all should've been disabled for this release. I can't really help you at the moment but I'll add a few changes for graceful handling of fatal errors and come back to you once the game is updated.
One thing though - if you could get the error to happen again, open the developer console (Usually F12 or Ctrl+Shift+i), then open the "Console" tab and make a screenshot of the whole error message with the stack trace, the whole red thingy that will appear.
Otherwise you'll probably have to clear the save (which can be done in the aforementioned console by running the command `localStorage.clear()` and refreshing the page) but until I come up with the update you'll have to play the early levels again... And avoid pressing any curious key combinations :).
Me failing the tutorial was a nice addon
Any hints for #9 please?
That's a tough one to give a generic hint to. It's an open-ended level, there are at least two fairly distinct approaches that I am aware of. I can offer these two general hints:
And one very specific regarding the last node, encoded with rot13:
Can u make Android port pls
That's a lovely idea but very, very, very unlikely for two big reasons:
Ok:(
Okay, I give up. I cannot figure out #7. Anyone got any hints?? A fantastic game so far by the way. Love the unique puzzle mechanics.
There doesn't seem to be a way to post spoilers in here so I used rot13.com (If you're unfamiliar just go to the page and paste the encoded hint) to protect the hints:
More spoilery hints coming here:
THANK YOU!! Man, didnt have much trouble with other levels, but this one had me banging my head against the wall! Your hints did it for me. :)
Thank you for making a really fun and unique puzzle game too!
This is absolutely fantastic. The idea of unlocking the new areas, then deliberately restructuring your connections so you can progress is fantastic. I absolutely adored these changing parameters as the game went along. The communications that came along, though brief, were fascinating. It was like reading old sci-fi short stories in the vein of Arthur C. Clarke. Wishlisted.
Thank you! I would never put my storytelling anywhere near Clarke's, but I appreciate the remark nevertheless!
really good (im stuck on level 6 atm), altho the moving of the background made me a bit nauseous, it might be nice if theres a way to turn it off!
Good idea, thanks!
Well, I'm definitely enjoying this. I'm only up to level 5 right now - it's got me a bit stuck, and I'm sure I'll feel really stupid once I finally realize what I'm missing - but that's half the fun of a good puzzle.
But even only this far in, I have to say (after being reminded of the keyboard controls my bug report thread) - WOW, I'm legitimately impressed! I spend more time than I should complaining about controls in games, and how often developers use a mouse at the expense of the keyboard (side-scrolling shooters using the mouse for the unidirectional fire button being a huge pet-peeve of mine, as my post history will attest).
This is the type of game that would normally just be mouse-controlled, and the keyboard controls here are actually a treat. Way better than the trackpad for sure, and I think even better than my brief attempt using the mouse to test the game on another system.
Kudos on putting some real effort into the interface/UX!!
(although my one complaint on that front would be that I think help says z/x work, but I had to explicitly configure them first, only j/k worked as a default, but that's a minor thing, since they can be customized)
Thank you! I must credit Alex Diener's gamedev videos for introducing me to the idea of seamless transition between different controllers. Without it I am pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered to add non-mouse controls to the game at all!
Sorry about the `z/x` confusion, I only noticed today that they're in the help file but don't actually work. Got it in my todo though!
(Btw, that earlier report you made about hud buttons getting pressed in weird places is fixed and will be released in an upcoming update)
i'm assuming there is a solution to #10, but i can't find it before i run out of time
Nope, sorry, it's meant to subtly-but-confidently signal it's impossible.
It's pretty fast, I spend like less than 2 hours to beat it but I really like it. When the full game will be release ?
Very soon. The exact date will be announced in a day or two, as soon as I can get the steam store page up and running.
I guess it only took 9 hours, the steam page for the main game is up and linked in the description :).
Yeah, OK, that's pretty good, isn't it. I guess I'm not surprised? :-)
Great puzzles and love the juggling aspect of the game. Spent a couple of hours and not sure how to complete level 9.
Did you ever solve level 9? If not, I just figured it out myself after many attempts, so here's a hint - the make or break moment for the level is when you reroute the grey connection to prepare for the green. You can set up for the end-level right there, if you don't, you have one more chance after connecting the red, before connecting the purple - but it's a lot more connection juggling.
Was able to finally finish it after a while with your tip, thanks for the help.
Interesting puzzles, I don't think I've run into a puzzle mechanic quite like when the areas start unlocking and you have to start juggling connections. Took a couple minutes the first time to realize how those were meant to be solved, then they were fun puzzles.
One problem I ran into though is that it seems like (on the web build, haven't tried the native builds) if I click near the top of the game area, it opens the game menu, making it very hard to start wiring near the top of the area.
Also, having some trouble with the right drag controls being used so heavily, but that's my own problem - either Windows 11 or my laptop touchpad just really don't make right-drag easy, so it's a bit of an awkward UX unless I go hook up my mouse.
Thanks for the feedback!
The hud/menu option should be solvable to an extent, make it not appear when the mouse is down.
You can also play the game with a keyboard, it's usually a bit slower than mouse but I think it beats touch pad by a mile.
Ah, thanks. Maybe I'll give it a try with the keyboard. I did see keyboard commands at the beginning, then forgot about them when everything seemed mouse-controlled.
As to the menu/HUD problem, sounds like maybe I didn't quite explain it right - and retesting it right now to explain it better, it's not quite as straightforward as I thought, it only happens in some places. The best example I've got is level 4 (since that's where I am right now) - the upper right corner has a 2x2 "room" with multiple channels coming into it. If I click almost anywhere in the top-left square of that room, (or within a 4x2 rectangle up-left from that square), the options menu opens (as if I'd opened the HUD and clicked the options button).
I hope that makes sense - if not I'll try to record a video or take a screenshot later to show the area I mean.
Interesting! I can't reproduce it at all so a video would be very welcome. Please send me an email at maurycy@evidentlycube.com (probably best to not attach the video in the email but upload it to a cloud storage/YT, I am not sure if the spam detector won't be overzealous!) Or DM me on twitter @EvidentlyCube
I had the same issue as clansing.
Using MS Edge (version 112.0.1722.39) on Windows 11 Pro (22H2 / build 22621.1413). I've attached a video of it happening. Let me know if there's any other info you need
Thanks! That's pretty bizarre, but I think I have a clue what might be wrong, I probably just wasn't persistent enough to reproduce it.
Thanks! I just finished work and was about to try to record it when I noticed you'd already put up the video. I never managed to trigger the level forward/back though - only the settings along the top, and the help menu down the right.