The spirit of competition is in the air! As athletes around the world push the boundaries of speed and precision in the Winter Games, we felt inspired to bring that same energy to ChipWits, with the Giant Slalom!
We know that for many of you, “solving” a puzzle is just the beginning. The real game is optimization: shaving off those precious cycles and using the fewest chips possible to achieve the perfect run.
Today, we are thrilled to release ChipWits 1.4, which implements one of our most requested features: in-game cycle counts and in-game chip counts!
Here is a look at what’s new.
New Mission: The Giant Slalom
Inspired by the Alpine Skiing events in the Winter Games, we’ve added a brand new puzzle to test your bot’s agility.
In Giant Slalom, your ChipWit must navigate a series of 8 slalom gates in as few cycles as possible. We’ve made an upgrade to the game engine to enable missions to randomly modify tiles, so the gate positions are randomized for each run.
You must code your ChipWit to complete the 8 gates in as few cycles as possible. Your code will be tested on 32 different runs and your average cycle time will be taken.
The Giant Slalom Challenge runs the remainder of February, but the earlier you play, the greater your chance of holding an early World Record, at least for some period of time…
The Optimizer’s Toolkit
To help you master the slopes of the Giant Slalom, and every other mission in the game, we have delivered on the community’s number one request: in-game cycle and chip count metrics.
Instead of waiting for the leaderboard to see your score, we’ve added three new ways to track your stats without breaking your flow:
1. Radial Menu Cycle Counts
The Radial Menu now shows the cycle count of each available chip, before you place it, so you don’t need to consult the online ChipWits IBOL documentation.
2. “Quick Peek” (Ctrl Hotkey)
For power users who are constantly iterating, simply hold down the Ctrl key while in a mission. The game will immediately overlay your current Cycle Count, so you can see where your precious cycles are going.
3. Live Chip Counts
Some challenges require optimizing for number of chips instead of number of cycles. We have added a Total Chip Count display directly to the main UI, allowing you to keep an eye on your chip “budget” as you build.
Community-Driven Development
We want to give a huge shout-out to our players on Reddit and Discord who suggested these features. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us prioritize what to build next. These new tools will make it easier than ever for you to refine your designs and build the ultimate ChipWit.
Update 1.4 is available now on Steam, as is our new Giant Slalom challenge (which ends at the end of February). We can’t wait to see your solutions. Head over to the Discord and post your lowest cycle counts. Let’s see who sets the world record!
Happy Coding,
The ChipWits Team