Hello,
1) New Campaign: A Little Bit of Math
In this update I've added a new campaign about basic math building blocks. (+ the steam achievement)
2) Locked Campaigns / Levels
The campaigns and levels are now locked by default and unlocked according to dependencies / progression. This replaces the previous system of "everything open", which could have been a bit confusing for new players, specially with new and more difficult campaigns coming.
3) Iteration on Metrics
I've added an iteration on the circuit metrics: Instead of global amount of ticks, i've separated the "timing" metric into cycles (C) and ticks within the cycle (T). This makes ticks reset every cycle. Along with that a new line to display critical tick number (ie the cycle with most ticks), so that an eventual metric score could be C x critical_T . I wanted to add an overlay with the path of highest T , but it was a bit complicated to add it so I left it for next patch. Also added the number of NANDs (N) and an improved display of energy (with k's and M's).
Regarding critical path ... I also considered doing a real critical path algorithm integration by analysing the topology, but it seems it can only reliably work for combinational levels (ie without cycles), since the game doesn't have a flip flop / delay primitve. So for now I kept it as "cycle with highest ticks" , ie the empirical critical path delay, as the metric. I might add a real critical path calculation later for combinational levels (with extra constraints for forbidding the use of cycles).
I've also made the campaign levels do not count metrics for the 1st cycle since it's often a "warmup" phase and there are too many things being activated that it can pollute the "critical path" calculation.
4) Font Change
I've changed the font in the game to use ark-font, a pixelated font slightly bigger that has a more advanced charset support. This is an effort to support translation later.
Have fun!