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Thaumaturge
02-03-2008, 09:41 AM
(... or, "Entering a Competition at the Very Last Minute" ;))

Download! (http://gamedev.openhazel.co.za/filecloset/download.php?id=370)

As I mentioned in the competition thread, given the extension, I have decided to enter - presuming that dislekcia will allow an entry so late in the competition, with the thread started after the original end date, that is. In my defence, the idea came before the original deadline, if by less than a day, as I recall. ^^;

Inevitability is a game whose goals are not immediately obvious, aside from the simplest: left-click on the glowing "creatures" to feed them and make them grow, and right click on them to destroy them, accompanied by particle effects. However, the score displayed on the right is not the only measure of achievement in this game (as one of the included screenshots might indicate).

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6428/prettylightscg1.th.png (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prettylightscg1.png) http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/874/prettylights2jt8.th.png (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prettylights2jt8.png) http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3830/achievementgf2.th.png (http://img184.imageshack.us/my.php?image=achievementgf2.png)

Naturally it's not likely to be my best game - I started work on it on Thursday night (Friday morning, technically), if I recall correctly. However, I quite like a few elements of it.

(I suspect, however, that the achievement requirements are probably unbalanced - to be honest, I'm not even sure that all are, well, reasonably achievable. ^^;; )

I like to think of it as a mini- (okay, micro-) allegory for life: You don't start out knowing all the rules, besides some of the basics, you have limited time, you sometimes find out only after some time whether you have achieved something, and obvious scores don't always last.

But then, perhaps I think too much of my little idea. ^^;

While I rather like the overall idea behind it, the game does, I think, suffer from its lack of time devoted to its gameplay concept: it could really use something more interesting for the player to do while playing, I think, than the current "target practice" gameplay...

Oh, and finally: As the splash screen indicates, I have finally settled on a name and logo to use for my (now long-) planned website - does anyone have any thoughts on either?

I know that the name is a little uninspired, but it does at least tie in with my user name (which I use in a few places), and, as dislekcia pointed out, this is, for now, just a personal web page.

Fengol
02-03-2008, 10:18 AM
excruciatingly arb, how about at least a little guidance?

FuzzYspo0N
02-03-2008, 11:29 AM
yea i dunno wtf i was doing, but i kept my mouse in front , just in front of one entity, and clicked lots and got to 1039 really fast, and then it said something else, i entered my name, and then i clicked the rest of the menu, guide etc, and it says fuzzy was a and thn a few lines down a ~ and thats it

Dunno if thats a game, even :D it looks nice,tho :)

i dont know what its meant to be so i cant comment on whats lacking or whats not :)

01DT!m3r
02-03-2008, 11:58 AM
I dunno I thought it was okay to just click around ,but what are we supposed to do?

Thaumaturge
02-03-2008, 05:24 PM
Heh, fair enough - I'll admit that I was intentionally vague. There are a number of things that you can go for - the obvious score being a fairly minor one.

As the third screenshot above shows, it's possible to earn titles, based on what you achieve - again, these are intentionally left unspecified. Some aren't too difficult to reach (I've managed to reach them without specifically attempting them, as I recall), others are more difficult, while others are... well, let's leave it at "more so".

The idea is that you don't know what you might achieve, or even whether you've achieved it, until it's all over.

Perhaps I should have created one or two very easy-to-achieve titles to indicate this...

Thank you for trying the game, however. ^_^

Gazza_N
02-03-2008, 05:47 PM
Now that I understand what you're going for here, Thaum, I love it. Throw the player into the game, then leave them to work things out for themselves and discover their own conclusion. It's an awesome concept! :)

Thaumaturge
02-03-2008, 05:59 PM
Heheh, exactly, and thank you - I'm glad that you like it. ^_^

As I said in the first post, it could really use something more engaging for the player to do during the game - preferably something that is fun in and of itself (in lieu of that I currently have particle fireworks ^^;; ).

FuzzYspo0N
02-03-2008, 09:31 PM
ill play it more, to understand. and ill edit this post :)

Thaumaturge
03-03-2008, 03:40 AM
Thank you, FuzzY - I look forward to your comments. ^_^

At the moment I'm trying to come up with alternative gameplay systems for a future version - as I said, I quite like the basic idea.

The best that I have thus far (in my opinion, at least) involves something very similar to what I already have, but featuring "creatures" with more complex behaviour, and which the player can affect in more ways (if, probably, using a similarly simple interface to them - I don't want to have a number of keys or buttons involved).

The creatures would be generated using a genetic algorithm (or algorithms, I suppose): each would be described by a set of features (what it can perceive, how big it is, how fast it moves, what it can eat, and what decorative emitters it has), and reactions to available perceptions.

I imagine having at least some relationships between creatures be depicted via connecting lines, both for visual interest and to convey information.

As you can see, this is still rather inchoate at the moment... That said, has anyone any thoughts on this? (Once you've recovered from the competition, of course! ^^; )

FuzzYspo0N
03-03-2008, 11:16 AM
I like the genetic algortihms, they can be interesting even in the smallest of settings. You can also make environments, where the environment affects the growth or modifications, and then have special ones that might spawn but be able to affect the environment, in turn modding all the existing ones and spawned-from-then ones. Also considering that they can affect each other is a cool idea, like the more there are in the same environment can make them agitated, and some can "fight", or perhaps they can learn from each other as they grow and the environment affects "who they become" as well as how they respond.
Then you give the player "situations" to choose from? like situations that could affect the entities but to teach them to grow, liketo become violent, or to become placid or to become fast thnking etc... where how you interact with them determines how they respond, based on what they go through and what they are...

lol random rambling, i just woke up btw..

Thaumaturge
04-03-2008, 05:08 PM
Heh, my apologies for not replying earlier - I had meant to, I think, but forgot. ^^;

I like the idea of environments, but I think that I want the playfield to be fairly inert in this case - for one thing, I want the gameplay to remain fairly simple, and, perhaps more saliently, I want there to be a separation between backdrop and gameplay - I think that this is because I like the idea of the backdrop showing the march of time (I intend to keep the time limit), and that march seeming to be something distant and implacable.

I had another idea last night:

A puzzle game, involving one very big puzzle, composed of many smaller puzzles and sections, organised into several layers. I envisage the overall form being symmetrical, although the specifics might vary by layer (some may be cubic, others spherical, for example).

I'm in two minds about keeping the time limit in this case - on the one hand, I rather like it, and it would chunk up the gameplay nicely, but on the other, it could be a nuisance to players.

I think, on reflection, that this might be better made as a separate game.