Factory Page - 0.5
Assembly Line
Fancy a change of career?
Become a FADE!
That's Factory Automation Design Engineer for Pixall Manufacturing, the world leader in pixellated products.
We give you product designs from our R&D department, and you design and build factories to manufacture them as efficiently possible. Make a good profit and you'll earn big bonuses and a huge salary!
Awards
Scores
Ratings (show detail)
Overall: 4
Fun: 4
Production: 3.5
Innovation: 4.5
Files
| File | Uploader | Date |
|---|---|---|
|
AssemblyLine-0.8.2.zip
Post-Pyggy bugfix release |
gcewing | 2009/02/16 10:31 |
|
Documentation-0.8.1.zip
Tutorial update |
gcewing | 2009/02/01 04:52 |
|
AssemblyLine-0.8.zip
— final
|
gcewing | 2009/02/01 00:31 |
|
AssemblyLine-0.7.zip
— final
|
gcewing | 2009/01/31 10:14 |
|
AssemblyLine-0.6.zip
— final
|
gcewing | 2008/12/14 06:06 |
|
FactoryPage.png
Factory Page - 0.5 |
gcewing | 2008/11/05 02:31 |
|
AssemblyLine-0.5.zip
— final
Assembly Line 0.5 |
gcewing | 2008/11/05 02:21 |
Diary Entries
Assembly Line 0.5
gcewing on 2008-11-05 02:37
I've uploaded the latest version of Assembly Line. It's substantially expanded since the PyWeek version, and I hope to make some more improvements during the Pyggy.
Version 0.6 Released
gcewing on 2008-12-14 06:36
I've now verified that it's possible to manufacture all the
products, and set their recommended prices to something reasonable.
Also fixed a few bugs and made some enhancements:
- You can now click on any part in the factory with the Inspect tool to examine it, without having to get it to a QC Station.
- The Assembly Robot can flip and rotate one of the parts before assembly. Also its footprint in the factory is smaller, so it can be placed a bit closer to other machines.
- Supply Hoppers can be placed against the right wall of the factory as well as the left.
- Various kinds of chute are now available for transferring parts from one conveyor to another. In particular, horizontal-to-vertical conveyor transitions can be made much more effectively.
- Supply and Storage Hoppers now have Reset buttons in their configuration dialogs.
- You can place crosshairs on the blueprint in the Products page to measure positions and distances more easily.
- There is now a Reference Manual covering all the features of the game.
Assembly Line 0.7 Uploaded
gcewing on 2009-01-31 10:19
Lots of new features and improvements. Highlights include:
New machines: Transverse Saw, Milling Machine, Laser Cutter
Parts can be transferred from one factory to another, so you can reuse your offcuts, build assembly lines that span more than one screen, etc.
Infinite replayability! Once you've got through all the built-in products, turn on Special Orders and you'll receive orders for randomly-generated products that you have to work out a price and tender for.
Assembly Line 0.8
gcewing on 2009-02-01 00:34
One more last-minute feature. If you're running short on cash,
you can now take out a loan to tide you over.
Assembly Line Doc Update
gcewing on 2009-02-01 04:55
Uploaded some minor updates to the tutorial and ref man to make them match the current state of the game more closely.
assembly Lines feedback
claxo on 2009-02-12 14:52
Forgivme Greg, if this feedback is too much long.
And, I fear the wording can feel too pushy, but thats not the intention. Blame this to my low english skills.
Theres a lot that the game does, but I dont get engaged.
The basic problem is the unclarity factor, at various levels:
top level: What is the game about ?
The readme.txt gives a description for a 'Assembly Lines: The Engineer'; the first look at the game is more like 'Assembly Lines: The Manufacturing Tycoon'.
Decide what, and put the relevant description in a intro screen.
second level: ui design
The current design has too much top level elements, and probably too much info at all.
Make the ui design show the conceptual hierarquies involved, make it hint a reasonable workflow.
By example, if going with 'the engineer' variant:
Note: in the variant 'Assembly Lines: The Manufacturer Tycoon', one could think as the player fulfilling two roles: CEO and Enginer. To acomodate this, the left pane can be tabbed, with tabs CEO and ENG. While selecting the ENG tab, you see the previusly designed interfase, selecting CEO must show a right pane designed for the CEO tasks)
third level:
tmove content from the manual to the apropiate controls ( tooltips, news channel, help's buttons if any. )
fourth level:
Examine player activities from a new player point of view. Asume it will not read the manual. Detect problem points and revamp.
Problem examples in the factory, and posible solutions ( assuming the design is like outlined )
Machines orientation is not evident while moving (show an alphaed machine at the mouse position)
The rotation control is not intuitive. ( use mouse wheel and or add the item 'rotation' to the 'configure part' pop up window, )
align with other machines is not evident ( incorporate the apropiate conveyor parts to each machine )
parts flow can be not inmediate ( incorporate the apropiate conveyor parts)
While editing a factory, theres much mouse displacement from the factory map to the toolbar. Also, the need to select 'add' before clicking into the map area, or 'delete' or 'move' is a) not near the way other software works b) too tiresome. I sugest to aproach the behavoir of vector art editors ( Corel, Inkscape ) like:
five-th :): after al the activities are streamlined, identify wich remains not clear. Add help elements to clarify those.
Examples:
the inspection pane can have a 'question mark minibutton', pushing it will pop up the hint 'drag here a part from the assembly line an one from the product spec pane to compare'.
At entering a new game, send the 'news element' 'Congrats, you are working now for xxxlll company and have assigned a project. Select a project by clicking one of the Current projects buttons. When you are done with the project, commit it'
And, I fear the wording can feel too pushy, but thats not the intention. Blame this to my low english skills.
Theres a lot that the game does, but I dont get engaged.
The basic problem is the unclarity factor, at various levels:
top level: What is the game about ?
The readme.txt gives a description for a 'Assembly Lines: The Engineer'; the first look at the game is more like 'Assembly Lines: The Manufacturing Tycoon'.
Decide what, and put the relevant description in a intro screen.
second level: ui design
The current design has too much top level elements, and probably too much info at all.
Make the ui design show the conceptual hierarquies involved, make it hint a reasonable workflow.
By example, if going with 'the engineer' variant:
-- begins design --
The game consist of fulfilling a series of orders from the company management.
Example orders: design an assembly line for a new product,
adjust existing Assembly line to product upgrade,
adjust product volume,
adjust to custom batch
All the company, financials and product sales ui elements dissapear.
Left Pane:
projects pool : button list, each representing a job to be done.
Pressing a button will select the project in the project area.
Each button hints about completion ( mark or color ).
The world model adds or deletes projects.
history button: will pop up an scrollable history for the 'news channel' ( new
technolgies announcements, promotions, bonus, help hints )
save,load, time flow buttons.
Right Pane (project area):
Top Pane (Collapsabile Area Control): job - task description
Medium pane: basically like the current factory screen, empty if the job
is 'new design', loaded with the base design for a 'modification order'.
Added a 'commit button',
added a mark to the 'last machine selected' button that hints it will expand
all the buttons with tool tips
Bottom Pane:
Left Pane: Product Spec ( assembled product and pieces, scrollable bitmap array )
Right Pane: Inspection Tool (drag a piece from the product spec pane and one from
the assembly line to compare )
Compare area
Adjust position buttons ( to control offset of one of the pieces )
Clear button.
Real state is under pressure here, the best probably is breaking the medium
pane ( factory) in left pane ( scrollable area, the factory map) and
right pane ( the toolbar). As an alternative, or aditionally, the bottom pane
can be made collapsabile.
The current top level Machines windows must disappear.
In the 'last machine selected pop up window' add text to each bitmap.
The current top level Inspection windows disapears, ( inspection now is
into the bottom pane)
The notification channel will pop up a window with the last new.
-- ends design --
Note: in the variant 'Assembly Lines: The Manufacturer Tycoon', one could think as the player fulfilling two roles: CEO and Enginer. To acomodate this, the left pane can be tabbed, with tabs CEO and ENG. While selecting the ENG tab, you see the previusly designed interfase, selecting CEO must show a right pane designed for the CEO tasks)
third level:
tmove content from the manual to the apropiate controls ( tooltips, news channel, help's buttons if any. )
fourth level:
Examine player activities from a new player point of view. Asume it will not read the manual. Detect problem points and revamp.
Problem examples in the factory, and posible solutions ( assuming the design is like outlined )
. rclick over a machine brings up the configure or properties pop-up window . use mouse drag to move machines . lclick into the 'machine selection pop up miniwindows' adds the machine to the map . Eliminate the '+', 'move', 'configure' buttons. Change the icon for delete to trashcan or eraser (behaving as del key). key 'Del' would erase the current selected machine . eliminate the inspection icon. Inspection will be done by draging the product part to the inspection pane ( or selecting the product part and lclicking in the inspection pane )
Examples:
the inspection pane can have a 'question mark minibutton', pushing it will pop up the hint 'drag here a part from the assembly line an one from the product spec pane to compare'.
At entering a new game, send the 'news element' 'Congrats, you are working now for xxxlll company and have assigned a project. Select a project by clicking one of the Current projects buttons. When you are done with the project, commit it'
Great game! One possible bug?
HanClinto on 2009-03-01 04:29
Great job! Thoroughly enjoyed this game when it was entered into Pyweek, and have been enjoying the post-Pyggy bugfix release.
However, I'm trying to output a 4x4 panel of Phrisbees, and running into trouble. I put Phrisbees on a QA machine, and they're being rejected, but when I inspect them, they look perfect. I can't figure out what's wrong.
I saved the game file to see if you might find it helpful:
http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/4x4PhrisbeeBug.alg
Thanks!
--clint