Mindframe: Floom Protocol - 2025

Welcome to our first devblog for "Mindframe: Floom Protocol." Here, you awaken in a new form, your consciousness within a synthetic framework. As this being, you're tasked with industrial automation using the Floom language, a condition of the new existence granted to you. This effort is your route to gaining freedom.

What Was Your Inspiration: The inspiration for the language and challenges comes from my early career, where I utilized industrial automation tools to construct instrumentation. I've contemplated developing a language for nearly a decade, occasionally creating small, domain-specific languages professionally. However, larger language projects were elusive, as I lacked a suitable concept for a general-purpose language. With Floom, I aimed to encapsulate the joy found in language exploration.

In its early stages, the development of the language was quite earnest. As we're crafting two interpreters, we're also evaluating Floom's effectiveness with industrial simulators — we may release a build for public testing soon.

Although the narrative is minimal, it adds a layer of ambiance to the complex, open-ended puzzles, enriching the game's depth.

Our game draws inspiration from Zach Barth's creations. I envision Mindframe as the BBQ Chicken pizza of Zach-Like games, distinct from Barth's own varieties. Speaking with Zach Barth, who encouraged me to write a game, was a crucial motivator.

Soon, you'll be able to experience the language of Floom firsthand.

Will You Include Solitaire and A Leader Board: Short answer, YES! The design for the Solitaire game came several years before I started designing Floom, the language. It uses Mahjong tiles. We will be posting rules in the next few weeks, so if you have Mahjong tiles, or can steal them from your grandma, you'll be able to get really good before the game comes out.

Game Mechanics Overview: The main game loop is: learn a new nuance or coding technique, get a fun challenge, write Floom code, repeat. Right now we are really trying to model real Industrial scenarios that are challenging and fun. That part of the game could change radically, in a certain sort of way, it doesn't matter what you are controlling. One of the most-fun non-industrial challenges we've sketched out is controlling a water fountain with a bunch of spouts. However, we want to get done and I'm not a 3D modeler, so in the end, we may produce challenges based around industrial assets that are available to us.

Floom, as a language, most resembles Ladder Logic for PLCs. This shouldn't be a shocker to anyone - PLCs are a core part of the game. I'll give more details about the language later, but the second major feature of the language, which is the use of brackets [({<>})] semantically came from a project I was on where I had to explain some really complex processes to people who didn't always speak my language natively. It's why formal languages like algebraic notation are invented - you have something complex that you want to represent precisely.

Art and Design Philosophy: I want ‘Mindframe’ to be a relaxing experience. It's really designed for late-night coding sessions to wind down from your day. Yes, it should be challenging, but not visually. Right now, we're in the extremely early stages of mock-ups and pre-production, but I'm hoping for a cel-shaded aesthetic. Music is still an open-ended question too. As we get further along, I'll probably look for a composer, or write the music myself. Sound design… we don't even have a concept yet, except that it needs to match the same simple, relaxing, and open experience that we're trying to evoke with the rest of the game. Sure, you're a post-human capitalists' slave, but it doesn't mean you can't have really nice lighting.

Since I'm not really a visual artist or 3D modeler, this part of the game really stressed me out at first. Luckily, I'm friends with an art director for a major gaming studio and when I showed him some early concept art I was putting together, he showed me some simple ways to achieve what I wanted through post-processing.

Challenges and Solutions: We're at the beginning folks. Right now, we won't be doing many updates. I'm juggling a full-time job and the early design and ideation. Everything is a challenge, but now that the basic syntax for Floom is nailed down, the game itself seems like a real possibility.

Future Plans: We're going to finish our testing phase for the language against an industrial control simulator. I think at that time, I'll release the initial language spec with instructions on how to play with the simulator and start a discord. When we get initial game-play (6-months to a year if we're lucky) - I'll start a steam page and get alpha-testers involved.

We can't wait to take this journey with you. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we shape this world. Stay tuned for more updates and deep dives into the making of "Mindframe: Floom Protocol."

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