The Devil's Calculator is on sale now!
The Devil's Calculator
Steam Autumn Sale
The Devil's Calculator is on sale now!
Steam Summer Sale
https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/cmm
Logic & Numbers Bundle
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23432/Logic__Numbers__Best_Games/
50% off during the Steam Halloween Sale
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Named a PAX Top 10 Indie Game and a Webby Award Nominee, the Devil's Calculator is an exciting challenge for numberphiles, math novices, and puzzle lovers.
New Game Mode and UI Improvements!
This is Chris, the lead developer. I'm so pleased to announce that after a considerable hiatus, we were able to find the time and resources to integrate a few features we've been wanting to add for a long time. One of the biggest points of feedback we received was the somewhat tedious menu system - we made an artistic decision to try and go for an analog / diegetic feel with the menus, and that became frustrating for players, particularly with the DLC content. The first thing we did was create a simple action sheet that can be accessed by holding down "levels" or by hitting "help" and pressing the "7" key, which now has a hamburger icon on it.
This menu will provide access to an ordered list of all the DLC levels for easy navigation, as well as.... a new game mode just in time for the school year!
I had always wanted to develop an engine that could procedurally generate levels for the game, but wasn't sure how to approach it. Eventually, I got frustrated and just started tinkering, After a lot of trial and error, this new build represents the first pass at that engine. It doesn't support the OEIS function, and much work needs to be done to improve my approach, but it seemed to give me a good challenge when I was play testing it.
As far as adding more levels to the main game (beyond the DLC) the reality is that very few players, extremely few in fact, are ever able to finish the main campaign - so we thought taking the approach of building an engine that can adapt to a difficulty the player is comfortable with and dynamically create new levels would be a better long term goal.
I'd like to stress that this new play mode was done in a kind of wonky way, I'm almost a bit embarrassed to share the code (which I will update soon) because it does some sloppy things and gets semi-mixed results, so I welcome any ideas on how to better generate levels. I'll go into detail on how it works in a later post that I'll make sure to share here.
Also, out of an abundance of caution, I've created a new public branch called "previous" where the previous build can be accessed just in case there are some bugs. We obviously play tested a fair amount, but you never know!
Last, I'd like to say I love this game, and have loved my time working on it. I am so thankful to the rich community of players who have engaged with the project and supported us. Your involvement and feedback has been invaluable and is always deeply appreciated. Please feel free to reach out to our non-profit any time (info@cinqmarsmedia.org) or on twitter at @cinqmarsmedia. We always love to hear from you, even if you're just saying "hi"!
My Deepest Thanks,
- Chris
Summer Sale | LIVE Developer Play
Lazy Chess DLC
Use skills you gained in our new game Lazy Chess to noodle out a fiendish mathematical puzzle. Available now, free, in every copy of The Devil’s Calculator, our Webby-Nominated math puzzle game!
Webby Nominee for Best Puzzle Game
We're always updating new DLC levels, so follow us on @devilscalc and reach out if you need help coding a level for the community. Hope everyone is staying safe and coping as best they can under the circumstances. Thank you all for your support.
PAX, MoMath and new free DLC!
Thrilled to share with you all that the Devil's Calculator was a selected as one of the PAX 10 indie games of this year. If you're going to be in Seattle Friday August 30th through Monday September 2nd, please stop to say hi!
Additionally, we were recently featured at the Museum of Mathematics in New York City where I gave an in-depth presentation on the game for their MOVES conference. Highlights of the talk and new level tutorials can be seen here
We also have a brand new free DLC level (one of my personal favorites) from the great Alex Bellos, bestselling author, numberphile regular and guardian puzzle contributor.
The latest update features several bug fixes including improved font smoothing and faster performance. Thanks for all your support of this project and educational gaming in general! You guys are the best!
- Chris
Version 4.0 Live, More Free DLC and New Features
Excited to share our newest update with the community:
- New DLC by Tony Padilla and other mathematicians
- Deeper integration with Wolfram Alpha including custom hints, notebooks and scatterplots
- Wolfram MathWorld resources for all puzzles
- Interactive Tutorial added for first level
- Improved BigInt performance across the game
- Bug Fixes including issues with data persistence for DLC and community levels
- Wolfram Cloud API integration for advanced functionality
Our volunteers have been hard at work and trying to roll out an update every month or so with bug fixes, new features, and great new levels by your favorite mathematicians! Follow @devliscalc for updates and thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your support and engagement with the project!