#space chem

[fipindustries]

years and years ago i claimed that zachtronics rides the line between making games that are fun to play and making straight up job simulators that are just as tedious to do as a real job. that was childish and immature of me.

now, years later, with more life experience and wisdom, i went back one more time to give space chem a 5th chance and i came to realize that the beauty of space chem is that it introduces neat little concepts, clearly delineated parameters, a clear and concise list of well defined tasks for me to perform at my leisure, and short, well designed little leaflets to gradually introduce each new concept one by one, with plenty of opportunities to practisce and make mistakes consequence free.

you know, everything that my current job (or indeed any job ever) is not

[fipindustries]

man i really just cannot wrap my head around flip flops, oh well, will keep trying tomorrow

[fipindustries]

many people comment that the problem with zachtronic games is that they feel too much like doing real work but the funny thing is that, i actually kind of like that aspect about them

is weird to descrive. i dont really like my job all that much, is boring and tedious and not particularly fulfilling. so there is a fun thrill when i finish the day to go out, take a walk, do some chores and then when the night comes turn on the space chem machine and start doing pseudo code. is like, by day im a boring office grunt but by night im moonlighting as a chemical engineer in space

there is something romantic about moonlighting with a weird wacky sci fi job that doesnt really exist

[fipindustries]

btw i am at puzzle 6 of planet 6, which i think is roughly where i was last time before i quit so... charting new ground?

[fipindustries]

i just made the ugliest most disgusting, clunky, inefficient, horrible solution in spacechem but ive reached that level of difficulty where you are like “fuck it, it works”

[fipindustries]

might have seriously just spent two hours and a half coming up with the ugliest, least efficient possible solution for a space chem level

like, this is not something a sane person builds

now let me be perfectly clear, it works

its slow as fuck and wastes so much material but it does the thing its supposed to do

but here is the key insight, it was supposed to be done with three reactors, i did it in only one

i managed to cram all the work that was supposed to be spread across three reactors into one

im exceedingly proud that i made this thing function and here you can see it in all its glory

[fipindustries]

this is possibly the most elegant thing ive ever created in my life

i managed to shave off more than a hundred cycles in its second iteration!!!

[fipindustries]

what the fuck am i even looking at