ĐiệnWorlds Windows game

NOTE: I will no longer be posting updated versions of ĐiệnWorlds on indieDB (the last version here is v1_0_3). For the latest version, please visit my webpage:

Theta.freehostia.com

ĐiệnWorlds is a freeware management/sim/strategy game in which you place wires and other components to power houses and businesses, to (in turn) make money from them and (hopefully) make a profit. At its core, ĐiệnWorlds follows the rules of the cellular automaton Wireworld (created by Brian Silverman in 1987). For flavor and for gameplay purposes, other rules and overarching mechanics have been added.

The game has a general "goal" of making money and avoiding high debt, but other than this, it invites the player to discover strategies, arrangements, and setups that work best in their situation. As the developer, I don't even know what kinds of strategies (if any) are "optimal" - but I think that an important element of what makes these types of games fun is this kind of exploration. The underlying Wireworld-like simulation is fun to interact with as well. In general, testers have found both the game's micro- and macro- mechanics to be addicting and engaging.

IMPORTANT: This game has no tutorial. I would highly recommend reading the ĐiệnWorldsInstructions PDF, found in the main download .zip (or viewable at the link below) to learn how to play (at the very least, consult the "In-Game Controls" and "Starting your first game" sections).

Instruction Manual PDF

Soundtrack: The soundtrack album Electric Flora (by myself and F.T. Wyn) can be found at the following places:

SoundCloud
YouTube

Other notes: ĐiệnWorlds is now mostly finished. Of course, bugfixes will warrant additional patches, and there may be future versions of the game if I think of additional features to add.

Also, the genre marker "Real-time-strategy" doesn't really fit this very well (I would label it as more of a simulation/tycoon/management game), but I feel as it was the closest IndieDB option to what this is. When unpaused, the game runs in real-time, but you can pause at will to place components (you usually want to do this while paused anyway), and even advance the game's simulation frame-by-frame.

For those with slower connections, I've uploaded a version without any music (which cuts the filesize from 97 MB to about 1.5 MB). For this version, click the "no music" download link.