Howdy

Welcome to Glyph Factory! The goal of this game is to build a factory which produces glyphs (letters, digits, punctuation) from the Noto Sans font.

The game may be hard to figure out. Hopefully this manual will help out. Don't feel like you have to read the whole thing. Clicking the button in the lower-right corner will re-open it.

This prototype consists of eight rounds. Each round, select a glyph to produce:

Then, build an assembly line for that glyph:

The green inkwell in the middle of the map is your only source of ink. Each side produces one item per second. Each goal requires one glyph to be delivered per second, so with eight goals you should aim to use each source item to produce two glyphs.

Movement

You can move the camera using your WASD keys, or by dragging with the middle mouse button. The scroll wheel can be used to zoom in and out.

Previews

Configurable machines include a glyph preview:

Use the first button to select a glyph from the set you have selected to produce. It is automatically set to your new glyph each round.

The "Move" button is a toggle which allows you to move and rotate the preview.

The "Reset" button resets the preview to its initial position and rotation. Completed glyphs must match this initial preview, or they will be rejected!

Machines

Machines are placed with left mouse and deleted with right mouse. Select the orientation of your machines be pressing the R key. Most useful machines need to be configured by pressing the E key on them.

Belt

Belts move items at three tiles per second. You can click and drag to place a long run of belts. When an item reaches the end of a belt, it will be destroyed. Don't worry, this is not penalized and is often useful when building.

Distributor

Distributors are belts that can split outputs in multiple directions. They will try to balance outputs evenly. Honestly, they are not super useful in this prototype gamemode.

Crossing

Crossings allow two belts to cross each-other. Items will move through them in straight lines. When placing a line of conveyers through another, crossings will be generated automatically.

Slicer

Slicers slice shapes out of glyphs. They have several shapes to choose from, and a choice between cut and void settings. Cut is shown in the top of the video, and will cut small lines, usually around the perimeter of the shape. Void is shown in the bottom, and will delete the shape entirely. Note that using a line cut will shift everything over the line in the direction of the arrows.

The machine is configured by dragging the two handles. Holding SHIFT will move the entire shape, and holding CTRL will snap to 45 degree angles.

Adjuster

Adjusters can move and rotate shapes. A shape is a chunk of connected black pixels. The machine has three modes:

• Edit modifies a single item by moving a shape within that item.
• Transfer modifies two items by moving a shape between them. The shape is moved from the facing side to the opposite side.
• Split / Void will either move the part to a new item if there is a belt on its opposite side (shown bottom), or it will delete the shape if no opposite belt is present (shown top).

Like the slicer, this machine is configured by dragging two handles. The left pane selects an input shape, which will be highlighted blue. The right pane selects an output position and rotation. Drag the ring to change the rotation, and hold CTRL to snap to 45 degree angles.

Tips

• The first two rounds are hardcoded to provide easy glyphs. After that, you're at the mercy of the RNG. Pick simple glyphs with straight lines to life easy for yourself, or challenge yourself with hard glyphs like B, G, S, or @.
• You can use multiple machines on the same belt tile, but use caution. You may get unpredictable results if one machine depends on the results of another.
• You only get one source of ink. One useful strategy is to cut parts for one glyph, then use an adjuster to split the remaining material into a new item for a second glyph.
• Glyphs need to be centered on the default preview to be accepted!
• The judging algorithm tries to be forgiving. It doesn't deduct any points as long as edges are near where they should be. The stars shown by the goals don't do anything right now.

Scoring

Currently, you are scored on two different metrics: time and machines used. They are displayed at the top of the screen. Try to minimize both!

Scores are recorded, but a public scoreboard has not yet been implemented.