marble-machinations/README.md

# marble machinations
(working title)

logic mostly like https://git.crispypin.cc/CrispyPin/marble

## todo
- accessibility
  - background colour setting
  - hotkeys for everything
- more levels
- make direct power (comparator -> machine) work, (needs storing power direction in machine tiles)
- cut selections, copy to system clipboard
- timestamps in solutions and blueprints
- multiple input/output sets
- tooltips
- show level info in editor
- lock tile types for early levels to make it less overwhelming
- display tool variant more clearly (it's not obvious there are more states)
- option to use 8-bit marbles?
- blueprint rotation?

# physics
- find direct bounces (todo consistency)
- execute direct bounces
- mark tiles as Claimed, ClaimedIndirect, BlockedIndirect, Blocked
- direct movements can move to any but Blocked tiles
- indirect movements can only move to ClaimedIndirect
- Claimed + ClaimedIndirect = BlockedIndirect
- ClaimedIndirect + ClaimedIndirect = BlockedIndirect
- Claimed + Claimed = Blocked
- BlockedIndirect + Claimed = Claimed

## file hierarchy
```
- assets/
- levels/
  - 01_intro/
    - 01_output.json
    - 02_cat.json
  - 02_lists/
    - 02_parse.json
  - sandbox.json
- user/
  - solutions/
    - output/
      - solution_0.json
      - solution_1.json
    - copy_input/
      - solution_0.json
      - solution_3.json
  - blueprints
    - blueprint_0.json
```
## formats
### level
`00_zeroes.json`
```json
{
  "id": "output",
  "sortorder": 5,
  "name": "Zeroes",
  "description": "learn how to output data",
  "init_board": null,
  "inputs": [],
  "outputs": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
}
```
### solution
`00_zeroes/solution_0.json`
```json
{
  "level_id": "00_zeroes",
  "solution_id": 0,
  "name": "unnamed 1",
  "board": "oo\nP*\n|-",
  "score": {
    "cycles": 8,
    "tiles": 6,
    "area": 6,
  }
}
```
### blueprint
`blueprints/blueprint_0.json`
```json
{
  "id": 0,
  "name": "zero_printer",
  "board": "o -B I\n> * < \n"
}
```

## levels
### intro, basic mechanics
- output a zero (marble, io)
- output multiple numbers in sequence (digits)
- output zeroes forever (looping, button, silo output)
- copy the input (input)
- copy only odd input numbers (comparator, math,   flipper)
### 0-terminated list processing
- copy the second list
- calculate list length (math, silo input)
- count instances of 5 in a list
- reverse a list (bouncing)
### user-friendly numbers
- convert a number to decimal ascii
- parse an ascii number
- convert text to lowercase
### advanced list processing
- index a list
- search a list
- add two lists element-wise
- sort list