Jason here, junior Dev and Designer for Cyclotronica. I've been working on this update for some months now, and learning a lot more about coding along the way. Dad/Randy/Our Senior Dev has been teaching me how to code in Unity for a couple years now so this was sort of a final Exam to get this latest update out. I'm therefore pleased/relieved to announce more progress on Cyclotronica!


We've added a brand new Track Builder with well over 300+ Track Section Prefabs with which you can now construct YOUR VERY OWN PARTICLE ACCELERATOR -- and of course the ability to Save and Load your own Tracks. Right now everything's in Single Player BUT this will also be a jump-off point for Players to host their own Cyclotron Races and Crucible Battles later. There's a Materials Selector and a selection of different series of Accelerator Tunnel Prefab parts... Coils, Curves, and Straightaways, Gates and Ramps, Hazards, Particle Emitters, etc.

I'm just cracking into designs for the tracks myself and will be releasing lots more parts and deeper Series Prefabs. Right now most Prefabs go up to about Mark V or VI. I could easily see them going up to XIII. The speeds you can attain are really something. Remember: There is no cap on the speed boost you can obtain from Electrons in Cyclotronica, and we pledge that there never will be. Stay negatively charged, Friends!

The Isotope Chamber Minigame is in full service, less the online Leaderboard Stats [which we plan on doing for sure, and we'll sync all top scores when that happens].

The Isotope Chamber is a simple Clicker Minigame where you fire subatomic particles and antiparticles at Atoms you have created to try to discover as many different Isotopes as you can. We already had it out with version 1.0.1, but our Atom system wasn't fully fleshed out and we only had a measly 1,200 out of the now nearly 3,200 Isotopes known to Science. (I hit the books and made sure we had every Isotope discovered).

Now that the Isotope Data Set is COMPLETE, you can start from a simple Hydrogen Atom and bombard it with Neutrons until it becomes Helium, then Lithium and so on up to the very heaviest elements, or go from the heaviest elements and get chain fission reactions and mayhem in the chamber that would absolutely kill you dead in Campaign Mode. Chip away at Atoms a bit at a time and watch them fall to pieces or detonate with the Antiproton and Antineutrons.

All of the Isotopes have real half-lives calculated in real time, so theoretically you could leave the game running for millions of years and never get some Isotopes to decay unless you shoot them.

Isotope Chamber now keeps track of your stats, showing:

• How many unique Isotopes you've Discovered,
  
• The number of Atoms you manually Created,
  
• The number of Particles/Antiparticles you Emitted in the Chamber, and
  
• Elapsed Time.
  
• Top Ten Scores as you continue playing. It weights scores by Discovered Isotopes over Time, with a minor portion being from Atom and Particle Spawns

We have more ideas on score weighting and future plans for how the Isotope Chamber works. Meanwhile...


Atom Catalog has been overhauled to work more with our vision going forward where it will be a sort of Atomic Spellbook. Atoms to be awarded to the Player through mission interactions stack up in Queue and are issued when a Player beats a level if so, and then Players can choose to exchange their spare Particle Inventory for additional new Atoms.

General UI Upgrades everywhere as we march through and refactor bits of code and optimize it going forward. Lots of basic things like text highlights and colors for selected or unselected interface objects, tightening up copy editing throughout the UI, implementing beta tester feedback.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Gun Interface updated with better messaging and priority functions as you gather enough particles to use the gun, or after you've exhausted your ammo. Players get HUD messages and button instructions for switching Weapons when they first get enough Particle ammo as well. Messages happen once for each, etc.

Weapon switching priority likely optimized - I know people have opinions about that stuff. I made it so that if you had a weapon selected and run out of Particles, when you get enough Particles again, you'll automatically switch back to your last used Weapon.

Player Weapons updated with tracers.
Weapon burst code updated for Neutron Salvo and Gamma Ray Burst.

Neutrons now add +1 to maximum cycle damage [although they don't repair damage], in addition to their mass and use as "ammo".

Antimatter upgraded with its own Chemical Symbol notation similar to Atoms, showing you a rough idea of its "Hit Points" i.e. Antiparticle Score you're trying to zero out with the S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Gun in order to destroy them. The notation also shows ionization charge as well so you know how many Positrons it may spawn when destroyed.

Downstream Interactions like collisions with Alpha Particles now result in the creation of a deionized Helium-4 Atom [after they damage your GyroCycle and remove some of your Electrons, that is], which floats away innocently, mocking you. Things like that are necessary as I head toward implementing Fusion. Spare change has to be able to turn into Atoms and vice versa.

Campaign Levels 1-6 have all received various upgrades:

• Level 1 - Upgraded hazards, adjusted ramp mix of particle types, improved the Inset messages. Awards Hydrogen to Player on Completion.
  
• Level 2 - Implemented full Isotope system on the Fluorine Atoms spawning. Lithium Bullet visual adjustments. Awards Fluorine-19 on completion. Careful with the Neutrons...
  
• Level 3 - Boss fight containment improvements. Antimatter Boss firing rate nerfed (still hurls dangerous three round Antiparticle bursts from both sides, often). Players are locked in the boss room after Entry. Separate Chamber from which the Antimatter Boss enters. Boss floats in before beginning attack.
  
• Level 4 - Isotope System fully implemented on all Atoms in Mobile Chernobyl. Awards Uranium-238 on Completion. Fission Blast damage radius adjusted. (Still balancing...)
  
• Level 5 - Z Align on all Sector Placards with Game Camera. X-Ray Flash stats updated.
  
• Level 6 - Gamma Ray Burst adjustments.

1. Bulkhead Doors not opening in Level 3.
   
2. Shader Opacity Persistence on Particle FX bug on MacOS/HDR issue.
   
3. Weapon Controller deselect errors fixed.
   
4. Stuck Key inputs now Scrubbed by any GetKeyUp event of the same type.
   
5. Fix New Game function not zeroing out all parameters.

Really we have a ton of plans for this game. Been sending myself a list of what I can remember off the top of my head today while writing this. Let us know what you want to see, but here's what we're thinking about:

We are working on the 7th Campaign level which will focus on Graphene nanolayers, nanotubules, Bucky Balls, and Skyrmions. Coming soon! New Beam Weapon to go with ;-)

• Chemical Bonds, starting with applicable 2-Atom molecules first.
  
• Fusion, between the right kinds of Atoms with known Fusion pathways.
  
• Multiplayer, we need time and funding to develop a fast headless server so Players can host their own games and broadcast them efficiently. Derbies, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Anti-King of the Hill where you have to hold the center but everyone is being sucked into a Singularity at the same time, CTF Modes, adaptations of some campaign levels as well as other ideas we have like The Diamond Anvil.
  
• Full Weapons Cache cycling i.e. unlock new weapons and use them in every level and see what happens, not just Primary and Auxiliary Weapon.
  
• Elemental Abilities, quickest example would be: Select Helium, spend 2,2,2 from your Particle Inventory every X seconds to make your Cycle float. While the Cycle does Wallride, many locations in Arena levels can still be inaccessible without a lot of luck and a fluke airborne stunt. Abilities for both offense and defense, as well as utility and movement, 118 of them. Probably a Hotkey or Favorites system for that.
  
• Camera Rig improvements like cinematic position locks and reset to default cam target on the fly.
  
• Leaderboard stats of all manner for Steam Network / Social / Etc. Weekly/Monthly best numbers for stats.
  
• New Weapon Modes including: Charged Bursts where holding the button adds more projectiles and spends more Particles, True Laser/Particle/Maser Beams i.e. made from the Particle System engine and not stretched objects from point to point, Cluster Bomb type deployments such as an unstable Isotope, purely physics force based weapons, etc.
  
• More Custom Track Builder Prefabs, probably integration with Workshop. Special edition or mission specific parts for cheap as a microtransaction, etc. New Prefab types like Spark Gaps so you have a "dangerous stunt jump" class of Track Section, Centrifuges etc.
  
• Violent Disassembly of Mr. Big and his GyroCycle when your damage is maxed.
  
• Relativistic EFX of various kinds, not just ye olde 1 shift/2 shift redshift/blueshift.

Basically buy the game or talk about it or post a link about it anywhere where anyone who likes Nuclear Physics and Gaming is going to look at it!

"These two guys made a game about Nuclear Physics where you are a little robot that races around in Particle Accelerators and Nuclear Reactors," is all you have to tell those Jehovah's Witnesses on your doorstep at 10:00am on a Saturday. It's easy and fun.

We're going to start a Patreon Channel and try to get feedback from you and see what users want to see next, plenty of stuff above, tons I haven't covered, even more I want to cover. Will do an interview soon with Lead Dev as well and talk more about it. Gollee

Anyway thanks!!

Added Sandbox Mode, with our first Lab Bench Item, the Isotope Chamber!

Spawn and observe any Element on the Periodic Table. Bombard it with Neutrons and watch it change or transmute. Bombard it with Antineutrons and watch it fall apart.

• Hydrogen through Calcium.
  
• Tellurium, Iodine, Xenon, Caesium, Barium.
  
• Everything from Mercury up to Oganesson.
  
• All major Radioactive Decay Chains.

There are now

Radioisotopes in Level 4 "Mobile Chernobyl" now much more varied and flexible.

• Specific sounds for when Protons repair damage on collect, and when your Damage is fully repaired.
  
• Damage repair from Proton collection when Damage < 10 now sets Damage to 0 outright.

• Atoms model their exact nucleon counts as they absorb or emit neutrons, increment or decrement elements.
  
• Baked lighting on projectiles in flight.