Frequently asked questions

Purchase

I've already bought the game, but I lost my download link. Can I get it back?

Yes. Just go to the download page and enter your activation code or email address.

Can I install the game on more than one computer?

Yes. Each purchase can be used to install the game on up to 5 different computers per month. This should be more than enough for reasonable personal use.

Do you have a privacy policy? If I buy the game, what data will you store?

For each purchase, the web site stores the customer's name, email address, date of purchase, and country of residence, as recieved from PayPal. This data is used to provide customers with their download link, to allow it to be recovered if they lose it, and for tax records. For each install, the game also sends a unique identifier for the computer it's running on (a list of its MAC addresses) to the web site, which is used to limit each purchase to a maximum of 5 installs per month. No data will ever be disclosed to anyone, except where required by law. The web site does not use cookies.

After buying the game, will I be able to use it forever?

Yes. The game and web site will be maintained for the foreseeable future. If at some point it becomes uneconomical for me to continue doing this, I will release the game into the public domain.

Do you offer a discount for schools?

Yes. Email me if you would like to use Lucifer's Atoms in your school.

Hints

I can't solve a level. Can you give me some hints?

• Try different things and see what happens.
• Look at things in the real world to see how they work.
• Energy comes in different forms and can be transferred between them.
• Gravity can be harnessed as a free source of energy.
• Use motors when you need a controllable source of energy.
• Power is useless without control.
• Take a break – sometimes ideas need time.

Network multiplayer

My computer says Windows firewall has blocked some features of this program. What's happening?

When you ask Lucifer's Atoms to start a network multiplayer game, it needs to talk to other computers over the internet. By default, Windows Firewall allows through the outgoing traffic, but blocks the incoming traffic. So if you want to use the network multiplayer mode, you'll need to click on Allow access.

Speed problems

The game runs slowly.

Lucifer's Atoms uses OpenGL for its graphics. Check that you have the drivers for your graphics card installed. These can be downloaded from your graphics card manufacturer's web site (NVidia, AMD, Intel).

Bugs

I've found a bug in the game.

I'll try to fix any bugs you find. Email me with a description of how to re-create the bug, and the level that causes the bug, if applicable. It would be helpful for me if you could simplify the level so it demonstrates the bug using the fewest objects.

Copyright

Can I make and distribute videos of your game?

Yes. In particular I have no objection to people indirectly gaining advertising revenue via videos of my game.

Can I distribute the levels I've made?

Yes. You own whatever you create with the game (as long as it is your own work) and you can do whatever you like with it.

Other games

Are there any other games similar to Lucifer's Atoms?

I don't think anything else is quite the same, but these are all physics-based construction games.

RigidChips	2005	Triangle chip-based vehicle building. The simple building primitives can be combined in arbitrary ways, rather than restricted to being block-aligned, as in many other games. Building requires editing text files.
Rigs of Rods	2005	Soft-body vehicle simulation.
Armadillo Run	2006	2D stick-based puzzle game.
Laputan Blueprints	2011	The sequel to RigidChips. Unfortunately the download link has been down for a long time.
Robocraft	2013	Block-based vehicle building, with multiplayer combat.
Scrap Mechanic	2014	Block-based vehicle building.
SimplePlanes	2014	Aeroplane building.
Besiege	2015	Siege-machine building. Players have made some impressive things with it.
TerraTech	2015	Block-based vehicle building, with combat.
Kerbal Space Program	2015	Space-ship building.
BeamNG	2015	Soft-body vehicle simulation.
Scraps	2015	Block-based vehicle building, with combat.
Fantastic Contraption	2016	Virtual-reality stick-based puzzle game.
King Machine	2016	Machine-building. Probably the closest in spirit to Lucifer's Atoms.
Autocraft	2017	Block-based vehicle building.
Lucifer's Atoms	2018	Stick-based machine building design-puzzle game.
Gear Blocks	currently unreleased	Vehicle building. The most interesting and unrestricted building primitives of all the vehicle building games.

Miscellaneous

Is your game Satanic?

No. Lucifer means light-bearing – the planet Venus (the evening/morning star) is called Lucifer, and animals that glow in the dark use a chemical called Luciferase. Light is associated with knowledge. Lucifer's Atoms challenges players to combine simple objects together to create more complex mechanisms and I hope it gives them a feeling of enlightenment.