Blocks and Pips Minor Update

 I noticed that students didn't know how to get started.  They placed the blocks in odd places, but not the boosters.  So now, when a block is picked up, the booster object fades-in a ice-colored square to draw the eye and suggest a connection.  I did something similar with Water Drop Function Machines.

 Water Drop Function Machine Updates:

I noticed that students were putting the panels in the way of the water drops, but not in the machines, so I updated the graphics.

At first I was just going to give the socket and the panels octagonal corners.  But then I decided to use the style from a few of my other puzzles and make the panels look like crystals by making them transparent sky blue. I think the new crystal panels are move visually interesting than the previous metal ones.

A few things had to be adjusted.  Notably, I have an object that displays the default x at a certain depth, but it doesn't have a sprite.  I forgot that in order to use instance_place (which I was putting in) an object has to have a sprite to use as a collision mask, even if you don't display that sprite.

I'll need to fix the intro screen to match the current graphics.

9/26/2026

Update.

Name mode has been added to Water Drop Function Machine.  All the corresponding updates, including the victor sceen have been made.  I eliminated the outdated example machines in the intro screen since they don't match anymore.  I should do something to make that screen more interesting.

 I noticed a student spamming solution in Algebra Cyphers, so I changed the solution verification.  Before it only ejected incorrect tiles.  But this made it so someone could put in tiles until they had the solution.  For now it ejects all the tiles in the solution row if any are wrong.  I would like to have some better sort of feedback, but I don't know how to do that yet.

I need to figure something out for Hexagon Functions, because that has a similar issue.  I was thinking about a temporary slowing during each error or having a danger element like Venn Diagrams has (with a reroll of the random elements).  Maybe there is another idea that would be better.

 Bug fix for Projectile Motion 1.  The Left Click and Enter weren't being consistently cleared, and so the simulation would skip step 3.

But including these lines in the create event solves this:

mouse_clear(mb_any);

keyboard_clear(vk_enter);

I also solved an issue where the button to open the Desmos Graphing Calculator didn't open in a new tab, but changed the old tab.

This was needed:

url_open_ext("https://www.desmos.com/calculator","_blank");

 Minor update to Impulse Control.  The tiles and the buttons now how mouse-over opacity effects.  I think this is important for making the puzzles more figure-out-able.

 All the puzzles are currently in good shape.  The next thing to do is to add small mouse-over changes to the tile elements.

 I made a mistake with version control and deployed a partial new version of Blocks and Pips.  This broked the game at level 2.  It's fixed now.

I somehow also broke Venn Diagrams.  Looking at this now.

Same issue with Venn Diagrams.  The working version was halfway through a major change, and by updating a cosmetic issue on that version, it broke the sequence.

 More Interactivity.

Things that can be dragged should react to the mouse being there.  So I'm starting to put that in each of my puzzles.  

Right now the process is simple:

Create: mouse_in=false;

Mouse Enter: mouse_in=true;

Mouse Leave: mouse_in=false;

image_alpha=1-mouse_in/7;

This was users can discover the interactivity a little more obviously.  Hopefully.  The effect is subtle, like I like, but noticable enough to suggest that the tiles are, in fact, tiles.

I also need to work on my older buttons.  They don't have a mouse-in effect yet.  Same reasons.