ComPressure

Three years ago I got my master's degree in chemical engineering, but only now do I feel like a qualified plumber. You can literally use steam and pipes to calculate the Fibonacci sequence. We definitely need more games featuring ANALOG circuits! One issue: the game encourages you to build custom modules to reuse in future levels, but this inevitably increases pipe length, which slows down the system's response time and ultimately lowers your score.

I played through the entire campaign and really enjoyed exploring the concept of pressure-based computing and learning to master the mechanic. I tend to enjoy games that present a simple mechanic and explore it in increasing depth (e.g. The Witness), but the hardest part from a developer's perspective seems to be introducing new challenges at the right pace to keep exploration rewarding, yet giving the player a clear goal at each step. The level buildup of ComPressure does just that. At some points the learning curve was quite steep. There can be some confusion and - as others have written - a tolerance for frustration is required. But this increases the reward :) I was very surprised at how much can be done "natively" with the very basic/atomic components provided in the game. The game Turing Complete has a similar approach (the classic computer science task of building CPU components from scratch using NAND gates), while ComPressure uses transistor-like valve elements. This creates different challenges to those previously seen with NAND gates, giving the game a fresh feel with much to explore. Unlike e.g. Turing Complete, ComPressure sometimes requires you to refactor previously …

Saying that Compressure is a hidden gem is an understatement. It is unlike any other puzzle game I have played. While it has many similarities to the Zachtronics games, There is one thing that sets Compressure apart. Compressure forces you to improve. It isn't merely a suggestion. Every level you complete becomes a component in future levels. At first it's pretty easy, but as you progress, it becomes apparent that your old designs simply aren't good enough to meet the strict time and accuracy requirements of the later levels. Just when you think you have the game figured out, the next level completely destroys you. Beating this game means continuously studying its mechanics and improving your designs. It is incredibly rewarding. It is also hard. Really hard. Sitting at around 1.6% of players who finish the game, it is one of the hardest puzzle games I have ever played, and I loved every second of it. All of this is saying nothing about the actual puzzle mechanics, which are deceptively deep. Everything in this game is made from only 3 components: pipes, valves, and inlets. From those, you construct more advanced components, one level at a time, all the way up to a simple comput…

The criteria aren't clear and I have to understand the nonsense about the story. I inverted the pressure and it continued to reject me for no apparent reason, I'm doing output=100-input, just let me pass The game seems like it is a cool idea, there does exist digital circuitry games but not analogue as far as I'm aware. It's just not clear why it's failing when I'm doing what it's told me to do, and the game looks hideous and I don't want to look at it for hours The UI also sucks, so much of the screen is wasted space but I have to have different tabs for different things when they could all be visible at the same time

Extremely frustrating to play. The test UI is inconsistent. Inputs are not marked as inputs. Expected output values are not clearly distinguished from actual output values. Debugging efforts are constantly interrupted by the game auto-playing through the test phases.

Have you ever wondered how we went from plumbing to computers? Wires are, basically, pipes for electricity. If you assume electricity to be a fluid weighing nothing. But that's sort of hard to imagine. ComPressure will sate your curiosity... While making you thankful for the fact that we invented ones and zeroes. It's a game (a Zachlike, specifically) that uses a simplified model of fluid dynamics to present you with the kind of problems early electronics engineers had to solve in order to invent the first computers. There won't be any programming or algorithm selection (at least, I haven't got to them), because those things haven't been invented yet. In ComPressure, the kind of challenges you'll face are along the lines of "adding two numbers" and "making ROM". If this sounds appealing to you, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try. You'll come out with an appreciation of how far our field has come. Or you'll tear your hair out trying to figure out why your buffer is inconsistently off by 1-3 PSI for any value that isn't 50. Probably both.