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|-+ the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)

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Read April 14, 2009, 03:30:32 AM #0
the2bears

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the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
I've got a bit of an idea, not too developed yet. 

Update:  Ok, due to massive procrastination I ended up leaving this to the last couple of days.  But I encouraged others to submit whatever they have so I'm doing the same.

The game revolves around a yellow circle that moves back and forth across the screen.  It emits a Darwin Wave at each end, causing "evolution" to occur with those caught in the wave.  Your ship grows options, and the enemy boss (pathetically) grows bigger and subsequently clones itself.

The game is either very hard, or too easy, depending on where things spawn.

I don't grab the mouse anymore!  Yeah! Smiley  However, I thought I had a certain engine bug fixed, but sometimes it still manifests itself here.  On other peoples' machines it seems to occur more often.  You'll know it if you get it, it'll occur before the game specific code is loaded and the screen will go blank.  Thankfully you can now easily grab the dos window and "control-c" your way free.

Download Link



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« Last Edit: April 28, 2009, 05:08:07 AM by the2bears »
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Read April 14, 2009, 03:54:16 AM #1
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
At least it's not overdeveloped.

Seriously, it would take pages for me to try and draw out the entire storyline I've been cooking up for my design. Of course, none of that crap will be coming anywhere near a prototype session. Part of the trick for me is figuring out what I could actually achieve, I guess. Smiley

Ambition kills, folks.
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Read April 19, 2009, 09:50:03 PM #2
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
Hmmm... work's busy, Stanley Cup playoffs are here... and I got nothing so far  Shocked

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Read April 19, 2009, 10:16:52 PM #3
kdmiller3

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
I got nothing either...   Sad

(I can sum up the reason in five words: Mafia Wars and Vampire Wars)
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Read April 20, 2009, 01:05:33 AM #4
hima

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
I'm gonna vote for this just because of the name. Wink
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Read April 20, 2009, 02:39:34 AM #5
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
At this rate, I may just have a chance this round...  laugh

But I'm sure any of you guys could probably accomplish more in two days than I could in two weeks at this point. Haha.
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Read April 20, 2009, 04:20:30 PM #6
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
Quote from: hima on April 20, 2009, 01:05:33 AM
I'm gonna vote for this just because of the name. Wink

Thanks... it seems a shame to waste what I consider a really good title! Smiley

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Read April 27, 2009, 12:18:43 AM #7
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina
I really need to figure out a quick "evolution" scheme for the enemy/boss.  I've got one for the player's ship.  Both that and the enemies are effected by a "Darwin Wave" that evolves all entities it hits.  Or that's the idea.

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Read April 28, 2009, 05:09:11 AM #8
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Done if such a word can be used.  Link in the original post.

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Read April 28, 2009, 02:32:24 PM #9
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Well it worked a couple of times. Tongue
The program still seems to freeze right when the DOS prompt displays "Game Controller Waiting..." I'll also point out that the mouse cursor/dot in the menu doesn't line up correctly with my mouse, and not in a consistent manner; sometimes it starts out pretty much right underneath the mouse, and then moves further and further off as I move the mouse about. In case it's relevant, my laptop's screen resolution is 1024x600, which is kind of non-standard. And I noticed when playing the game that the program suddenly closed-- was it because I died? If so it's no big deal because obviously this was quite the rush job, but I thought I'd mention it because it happened so quickly that I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to do that or not.

As for the game itself, I think it's really an interesting concept. I was kind of surprised that the Darwin wave is a big ring; I expected that it might be something that took more skill to get caught in. I think that would be a good thing to work in somehow. There's no rightful reason to criticize what you have here, but I would definitely like to see this developed more. I think it would be cool if you focused on making the "evolution" mechanics complex and interesting. Perhaps you could think of the "evolution wave" (I know it's actually called "Darwin Wave") as more of a "mutation wave," meaning that the changes could be unpredictable and not necessarily positive. Of course creating too much of a pure randomness factor could only be a bad thing for gameplay, but I bet you could find a way to make it work by studying the mechanics of Darwinian evolution and working some strategy into it somehow that way. And perhaps some risk factor involved with the wave could be exciting, making it into something powerful that should really be respected rather than recklessly abused or taken for granted.

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm always overflowing with ideas, and probably say too much. Tongue Hope it's helpful anyways.

Oh and thanks for submitting yours. At least there are three now.  Smiley
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Read April 28, 2009, 04:02:50 PM #10
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Moosa,

There are definitely some bugs still, so it's not surprising you've found some Smiley  The game *shouldn't* shut down when it's game over, so undoubtedly a bug.  Probably a NullPointer exception, I had a few of those Tongue

I agree that the wave is more a mutation wave (well, I guess that's what evolution is, too Wink ).  I like the idea of negative effects as well.  Though I tend to dislike randomness for something like that... probably have to be predictable (or at least determinant).  I think games should define a set of rules, no matter how crazy, then stick to those rules.  Random seems to break that (not correcting you here, agreeing with your sentiments).

Ideally a game like this might have some sort of genetic algorithms in place.  But I wonder if that takes us too far from the "fun factor"?  A complaint I have with my own attempts at Conway's Life in games.

Bill

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Read April 28, 2009, 08:27:55 PM #11
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Perhaps it makes it more of a challenge to maintain and even enhance the fun factor in this direction, but I don't think it takes away from it by default. Just my thoughts.

You seemed like the type of person who might have an idea of how to pull it off, based on what little I've seen of your works. And I can tell you understood exactly what I was getting at too. All in all it's probably a bit ambitious, but it's interesting to think about if nothing else. Smiley
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Read April 29, 2009, 03:52:14 PM #12
LorenzoGatti

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Another bug:

Exception in thread "GameController Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.the2bears.dem.CollisionHandler.tick(CollisionHandler.java:108)
        at com.the2bears.game.Ticker.tick(Ticker.java:33)
        at com.the2bears.game.GameController.run(GameController.java:140)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

The window disappeared while playing, the console hung.
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Read April 29, 2009, 04:05:29 PM #13
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Quote from: LorenzoGatti on April 29, 2009, 03:52:14 PM
Another bug:

Exception in thread "GameController Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.the2bears.dem.CollisionHandler.tick(CollisionHandler.java:108)
        at com.the2bears.game.Ticker.tick(Ticker.java:33)
        at com.the2bears.game.GameController.run(GameController.java:140)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

The window disappeared while playing, the console hung.



Yeah, I suspected there were a few of these around.  "Control-c" in the console window should stop it.

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Read April 29, 2009, 08:48:43 PM #14
berilium

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
They are back once again!! I really like those ship sprites of you. Perhaps you can apply the same algorithm to create the explosion sprites.  Smiley
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Read April 30, 2009, 03:30:38 AM #15
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
I believe the ship sprites are generated from a separate program created by somebody else... Nope, I guess the credit was to a Dave Bollinger. I was thinking of the Pixel Craft Generator app by Adigun A. Polack.
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Read April 30, 2009, 04:35:01 AM #16
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Quote from: moosa on April 30, 2009, 03:30:38 AM
I believe the ship sprites are generated from a separate program created by somebody else... Nope, I guess the credit was to a Dave Bollinger. I was thinking of the Pixel Craft Generator app by Adigun A. Polack.

I believe AAP was inspired by Dave Bollinger's Pixel Spaceships as well.

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Read May 02, 2009, 09:23:45 AM #17
berilium

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
I know your entry was done in a very short time frame. But I don't know what more design thoughts you gave it.

I was thinking that maybe you could make the yellow circle have different genetic sets sort of. So your ship evolves depending what set you pick up. Then you would need to find a balance or the best set combi to the best evolved ship for a given level scenario.
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Read May 02, 2009, 03:38:58 PM #18
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
That is an interesting idea. Perhaps that could go along with some of my ideas, and create some degree of control and strategy with the different mutations. The negative mutation aspects might somehow come from not balancing properly or not choosing the right genetic set to mutate at the right time, or something.
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Read May 02, 2009, 03:59:53 PM #19
hima

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Though I like the idea, I think the game seems to be too random at the moment. Also, I don't understand how player ship evolved, though the enemy part is pretty obvious.

Maybe it'll work as a puzzle shmup? Like, different types of enemies have their own certain forms after each evolution. Then, the players somehow need to use that information to pass the level. I guess this sounds really random, eh? lol. But just my two cents Smiley
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Read May 02, 2009, 04:01:40 PM #20
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
What might be interesting is if the level's environment contained instances of "radiation", or mutation points.  Think of different coloured kryptonit Wink  Your ship will mutate differently if you expose yourself differently.  Where it becomes a challenge (and far more interesting) is that your flying/playing behaviour can influence where the enemy waves travel.  Thus you can steer them into or try to steer them to avoid different mutation areas.

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Read May 02, 2009, 04:02:57 PM #21
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Quote from: hima on May 02, 2009, 03:59:53 PM
Though I like the idea, I think the game seems to be too random at the moment. Also, I don't understand how player ship evolved, though the enemy part is pretty obvious.

Side options are added... each time you're exposed to the "wave".

Bill

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Read May 02, 2009, 06:02:24 PM #22
moosa

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
Quote from: the2bears on May 02, 2009, 04:01:40 PM
What might be interesting is if the level's environment contained instances of "radiation", or mutation points.  Think of different coloured kryptonit Wink  Your ship will mutate differently if you expose yourself differently.  Where it becomes a challenge (and far more interesting) is that your flying/playing behaviour can influence where the enemy waves travel.  Thus you can steer them into or try to steer them to avoid different mutation areas.

Bill

Or, recycle your fluid dynamics simulation as some kind of "mutation gas?" tongue1
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Read May 02, 2009, 08:28:05 PM #23
the2bears

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Re: the2bears' entry: Darwin Ex Machina (done)
All my games use 100% recycled bits Wink

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