Welcome, new lab tech!

In CURFEW, you have to manage the Entropy Regulation System in order to prevent the lab from cascading into chaos!

This page serves as a guide for how the game works, and how to operate the ERS properly, and safely.

Reading this guide may get confusing, so read it over a couple times, or come back to places you are confused about to get more information on how the game works if you are ever stuck.

Let's get started! Here's how it works:

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Controls:

Press A and D to move the Entropy Regulation System,

SPACE to collapse feedback loops,

SHIFT to initiate a cascade prevention sequence,

J and K to establish X-SIN and Y-SIN syncing positions,

P to force the coolant to peak,

and ALT+7 to end the experiment prematurely at any time.

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Things to note:

     The ERS is stationed on a parabolic curve within the lab. Moving the ERS will change its momentum, and the farther down on the curve the ERS is, the more momentum it will have. Momentum will slowly decrease, however, so if you return the ERS to the peak of the curve after hanging around on the bottom section for a while, the ERS may seem to move very slow. You can collapse feedback loops to help speed it up, if you ever want to (more on this later).

     Crosses will appear periodically in the lab. When they do, move the ERS with A and D to the correct position on the curve, control your X-SIN and Y-SIN positions with J and K, and sync the cross. To do this, match up the intersection of the X-SIN position with the Y-SIN position to create a sort of "plus", where the intersection of that "plus" touches the cross's core. Doing this will destroy the cross ("syncing" it), and disables the X-SIN and Y-SIN syncing positions, allowing you to keep your uncertainty value down (more on this later). Syncing crosses is imperative to keep the experiment running, and should be done as often as possible.

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The CURFEW System:

The CURFEW System includes 6 values that you must manage throughout the lab experiment. Each value changes in drastic ways based on the other values, and can change even more based on certain factors or by doing certain actions. Please note that the word "value" and the word "level" are used often and interchangeably in this guide.

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C: Coolant Position

     The coolant will position itself at a random point on the curve, every 5 seconds. 

Check its position often when the entropy value seems out of order (more on this later).

If there are more than 10 crosses in the lab, the coolant will be inoperable. 

Press P to instantly bring the coolant to the top of the curve. This comes with certain drawbacks, however. Upon peaking the coolant, the uncertainty, entropy, and recursion values will ALL increase, but the feedback value will be set to 0.

Peaking the coolant lasts 7 seconds compared to the usual 5 second movement interval that the coolant has on the curve.

Peaking has a 1 second cooldown.

U: Uncertainty

     The uncertainty level will increase if the X-SIN and Y-SIN syncing positions are wasting the lab's power. 

If the X-SIN and Y-SIN syncing positions are not active, uncertainty will decrease.

Syncing a cross will decrease the uncertainty level.

Uncertainty will decrease faster when the feedback value (more on this later) is higher. 

The uncertainty level divided by 900 will be added to the entropy value every frame. 

Pressing SHIFT will initiate a cascade prevention sequence, which (if done properly) will decrease uncertainty, with some drawbacks.

More specifically, a successful cascade prevention sequence will:

• Increase:
  • Feedback
• Decrease:
  • Uncertainty

Failing a cascade prevention sequence will:

• Increase:
  • Uncertainty
• Deactivate the coolant for 5 seconds.

R: Recursion

     The recursion value acts as your main goal of the game. If recursion reaches 10, the lab will reach a state of chaos and will be destroyed (you lose).

Recursion is simpler than other values, as well. If the absolute value of entropy is 30 or more, then recursion will increase. 

Recursion also increases when the coolant is peaked.

Recursion is decreased when you sync a cross.

The only other way to decrease recursion is if you've synced all crosses that exist in the lab, and leave none. If no crosses exist in the lab, recursion decreases slowly.

F: Feedback

     The feedback level of the ERS will constantly increase.

It will increase quicker if you have more entropy.

Press SPACE to collapse feedback loops, resulting in a boost of speed to the ERS. 

This will halve the feedback value and increase entropy, so if you do not want to use it, but you also want entropy to stay low, instead peak the coolant. This will still increase entropy, but not by as much if the ERS is already close to the peak of the curve.

Feedback is also increased when you sync a cross.

E: Entropy

     Entropy is probably the most important value to manage and to keep track of in CURFEW. 

Entropy will increase every second, and the amount it increases is based on the amount of crosses that exist in the lab, as well as how many total crosses have been synced.

The cap for the highest amount of entropy is 30, but there is no minimum.

Entropy increases when you collapse feedback loops, and when you peak the coolant.

Most importantly: Entropy will decrease while the ERS is in the coolant.

Making sure you know when to focus on syncing crosses and when to focus on maintaining the entropy level is the key to allowing the experiment to last as long as possible.

Entropy will also decrease faster while you are in the coolant if no crosses exist in the lab.

If the entropy value drops below -30, or increases to 30, chaos will start rapidly enveloping the lab (crosses will seem much more abundant), and it will be extremely difficult to recover from it, and to prevent recursion from reaching unstable levels. 

W: Wave Speed

     Wave Speed is simple. This value simply displays how fast the ERS is moving. 

This can be useful if you want to see if the ERS has hit it's minimum speed (around 6). 

That way, you can tell when to collapse feedback loops at the most optimal time.

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That's all! Good luck in there new lab tech, you're going to need it.

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Extra Info:

All visual assets were created by me, with the help of Desmos Graphing Calculator.
All audio assets were found in the public domain, with the exception of the 2 music tracks:

パワーポイントno - Anonymous420 (Free Music Archive) (CC BY)

Employement hyper agency 失業 - Anonymous420 (Free Music Archive) (CC BY)

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Version Info:

1.3: Released October 4th. Basically out of "beta" or whatever now. I'd call this good. Compared to previous versions (1.0, 1.1, and 1.2), 1.3 has better menu options, fixed transitions, all the sound effects i wanted to add, tweaks to improve the feel of the game, visual effects, and more.

1.3.1: Released October 5th. Fixed an issue where cross effects in the end screen go over text where it shouldn't. Text in the end screen should now be more easily read because of that fix.