https://store.steampowered.com/app/716490/EXAPUNKS/

EXAPUNKS is the latest open-ended puzzle game from Zachtronics, the creators of Opus Magnum, SHENZHEN I/O, TIS-100, and more.

I received it as a gift and started playing and … I have questions. I am playing it on Ubuntu, and it’s working great. I don’t login anywhere else though so I’m hoping I can find people to talk to about it on Lemmy.

Cheers if you have played and can help. Sorry to bother otherwise.

Questions!

  1. How does it know who my steam friends are? Is that just an api or something?

  2. What are size, cycles and activity? It shows me these things but I can’t find an explanation.

Thanks!

  • Genius@lemmy.zip
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    9 days ago

    Size is how many lines of code in your solution

    Cycles is how long your program takes to finish

    Activity is how much you had to interact with the target system.

    They’re measures of your solution’s efficiency. A low size program fits on simpler hardware. A low cycles program can do a hack faster, and do more hacks in the same time. A low activity program is harder for security systems to detect.

    • perishthethought@lemm.eeOP
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      9 days ago

      Oh man, OK, thanks. This is helpful. When I played the first few missions, the game showed one of my Steam friends did it with much lower numbers. I assume I can replay those later when I know more how to do things.

      • Genius@lemmy.zip
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        9 days ago

        I don’t think it has any effect on the story. It’s just for bragging rights. Your friend gets to say they’re a more efficient programmer with a more elegant design.