Spores and Pores
| Spores and Pores | |
|---|---|
 The level in Random mode, with the ring of signal lines around the arena and the pore at the center | |
| Developer(s) | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Engine | Phaser 3.87 |
| Platform(s) | Web browser |
| Release | May 7, 2026 |
| Genre(s) | Arcade action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Spores and Pores is the first level of Maxine's Quest, the browser game and instrument interface of Molecular Reality Corporation, and the level the game opens on. Of the two levels on its menu it is the one with monsters in Random mode, since the other, Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant, holds a single wall. The title sets the spores that the level's mushrooms fire at the player beside the pores of the company's instruments.[1]
Layout
The level has no walls and no rooms. Its arena is an ellipse centered on the pore, a red disc 64 pixels across, and a ring of 300 short lines marks the ellipse's edge. Maxine cannot leave the ellipse, and touching the pore makes her explode. When the level loads, the status bar shows its name, and it shows the name again after every restart.[1]
Two scores sit in the top left corner, each headed with a first name. The upper row gains 100 points whenever Maxine is hurt, by the pore, by a spore or by a SpinShroom. The lower row gains 100 points when she catches a pink oyster, and in principle when a DoomShroom bounces into the pore, which Random mode never produces on this level. Both rows stop at 1,000. In Random mode a round is therefore a race between ten oyster catches and ten injuries.[1]
Monsters
In Random mode the first monster appears four to eight seconds after the level loads, and each later one follows after a delay drawn evenly between two and six seconds, which averages four. A new monster is a pink oyster with a probability of 0.67 and a SpinShroom otherwise, so a minute of play brings about ten oysters and five SpinShrooms.[1]
A pink oyster is born on the ring and travels inward along a spiral that takes about 15 seconds. Every 2.5 to 5 seconds it fires a spore, but only if Maxine is more than 300 pixels away. An oyster never fires at a player standing close to it, and catching oysters is what the level asks of her. A spore is a pale pink disc with a net of red hexagons, drawn at a quarter of its image of about 171 by 165 pixels and animated in three frames. It is aimed once, at the spot where Maxine stands when it is fired, and flies straight on at 180 pixels per second. It does not follow her if she moves.[1]
A SpinShroom enters from either end of the arena's long axis and crosses it at the same speed, over the pore. Touching one adds 100 to the upper row.
Variants
The menu's source holds a second level, "Mostly SpinShrooms", behind a comment. It runs the same code with the proportions reversed, one oyster in three. In Live Signal mode the level number does not matter. The monsters come from spikes in the current of a nanopore on the company's bench, and any of the three kinds can appear on any level, so a DoomShroom can arrive on Spores and Pores and score for the second row.[1]
Restarts
When a row reaches 1,000 the status bar reads "Slightly less successful" if it is the upper row and "You win!" if it is the lower. Five seconds later the level restarts and both scores return to zero. The restart removes no monsters, spores or SpinShrooms that are on the screen, so a new round begins with whatever the last one left.[1]
Name
Fungal spores are particles a few micrometers across, and sizing and counting particles of that scale as they pass through a hole is the Coulter principle, on which the company's instruments rest. The game's art folder holds an image of a sample chat in which a character named Brainbot asks for "more fungal reproduction agents" and for a paper "describing fungal spore monitoring techniques". No script loads the image, and no company text says why the monsters are mushrooms.[2]