imagens da revista Nintendo World.

Cockroaches Evolution Run!

Is finally published.

Download at Gamejolt:

http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/cockroaches-evolution-run/596/

See the game in TigSource

http://www.tigsource.com/features/adultedu/index2.html

or

Playground game releases list

https://developer.playfirst.com/publishedgames

(that one actually made me proud)

DEMO AVAILABLE (END OF POST)

Gotta love them cockroaches!

Who’s the one that said that the Education on an educational game can only go one way? Why should we be the only ones who learn something? To show them we are bigger than this, here comes:

Cockroaches Evolution Party!

Videos:

How they Start
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01W8Spq8NPM

Damm Sppiners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdeF_H4a8A

Energy Savers (With the moonwalkers bug, now fixed)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMMGGxj4Ld0

Takes no Shit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4kQNivJDVs

Small sense of smell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4qDGg0zn8Y

Status and Fitness configuration windows made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSbefr0beCg

(name subject to change..sugestions?)

Screenshot of the day:

You can configure what is important for the roaches now.

Game Concept

The game is about learning and teaching. You learn by uncovering information about these marvelous and beaultiful beings that are those cockroaches,  and you teach, well, kinda hard thing to do, since them can’t learn anything in life, all they have is instincts and almost direct conections between their antenas and legs, no brains interpreting, deciding or even a heart to love. So, how can this game be Two-Way Educational one?

In one word : Evolution.

Cockroaches don’t learn in life, so, they will learn by dieing.

Older screenshots:

You can now interfere with roaches in real time, by creating theyr world.

Nothing special, second generation roaches

This game is based on evolution (genetic algorithm), roaches begin knowing nothing, just a bunch of random simple actions, activated by 2 antenas and a mouth, and, as they die (out of starvation, poison, crushed, trapped, etc) the ones that are dead, wont be able to reproduce (in this design, ONLY one will be able to reproduce with all the others, always the most suited one).

You learn, they learn.

The game will consist on cicles, each cycle will be a different generation of roaches. Between each cycle a given number of generations will be simulated, this number will be defined by the level of difficulty (The simulations should be very fast). The cycles in wich the player can interfere will be timed, this time has yet to be defined (maybe 2 minutes, I don’t know yet).

The player interferes with the roaches mostly indirectly by laying obstacles, poison, food, traps (roaches sees them as food)  and, by weaving the mouse cursor, after all, roaches sense the air movement most than anything.

I have some ideas on how this game will progress,  I think the best way is making the player need to uncover all the pieces of information about cockroaches. In the form of achievements, like:

-Trap 30 roaches;

-Poison 100 roaches;

-Get 90% of the roaches to survive one cycle;

-Kill all the roaches in one cycle;

-Kill all the roaches in one cycle without interfering;

-Trap 10 roaches in one cycle;

or some harder ones:

-Create one immobille roach (I could do it twice on todays version)

Etc.

They will evolve after each cycle, so the player will have to correctly “Time” the achievements, or they will be too hard to acomplish (ie: trap to many roaches at first, and they will run from food, since the traps are poisoned food, making it too hard to get the roaches not dieing from starvation); Each achievement complete will reveal one very nice piece of information about roaches, preferably one that has to do with the achievement completed.

All the roaches are able to sense is: Poison, Food, Obstacle and Air Direction. In both antenas, they sense those, and they act according the theyr evolution.

I really think that is my best shot at making this a nice game. New ideas will always be welcome.

(improvement needed)

I am implementing it in C++, using Playfirst’s Playground SDK (very fast-start engine, suitable for this quick compo I guess, its Open for Everyone)

(07-03-09)

I think I have the whole engine implemented, except for the air movement caused by the mouse (Think I found an easy way to do it, but not implemented yet) and the pheromones sensitive (also thougth on a Very easy way to simulate, but yet to implement). The roaches are evolving OK, but there are still some wierd behaviour occuring if there is only food on the field (like spining roaches, or SHAKY-ones… i really hate the latter, makes me sick, really)

Developement history (Will post what I do from now on)

July 08, 2009, 10:03:17 PM

Today I took another step on “gamemaking”, by adding a gameplay. I had no time to work on the game last week, what put me behind on schedulle.
So far now you can edit the level, save it, and watch the roaches evolving on it (and the roaches genes are also saved). The main gameplay will be based on this (now I just need to implement a way to delete the parts you already placed  )

log
-Stoped with all the wierd behavious (very rare now)
-level maker working in game
-save/load, profiles, etc
-sense of smell
-roaches creation order and location
-removed the auto-food creator (was there for testing)
-some code optimizations
-game NEVER pauses

here is another vid with the roaches now bearing a sense of smell (but taking too long to evolve, need to balance, 5000 gens were needed for some effects to appear)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4qDGg0zn8Y

Next step is to make them sense the mouse movements, and I am done with features.
I decided to cap the ability to sense other roaches and all my other “desires”, since it would add nothing to the game.. and this is not supposed to be a simulator..

I..can’t… stop.. adding stuff.. 

July 19, 2009, 1:25:17 AM

One step closer to a DEMO (or beta) I should have one ready this week (hopefully). I could work a LOT on this game this week (meaning 10-15 hours), in a way that I think the Genetic Algorithm, and the evolution now doest need Any Adjustments, its all on the player hands now (and I mean it, see the latest vid for the fitness window)

Video
Status and Fitness configuration windows made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSbefr0beCg

log
-implemented delete
-implemented statistics manager, not being used yet
-inter turns window (simples stats window)
-faster and better simulation
-Fitness window (you can set what is important for the cockroaches)
-improvements on the level
-game-like progression
-organized tilling for the level editing

Next steps:
-a way for the player to directly interact with the roaches (maybe generating air currents with the mouse movement, I dunno)
-Achievements (or statistics) window
-come up with some dummy achievements
-achievements feedback
-main title screen
-button and dialog art(?)
-let the player choose the champion roach(?)
-alpha release!!
-Choose a final NAME!
-!!!! Sound!!!!!!

July 28, 2009 at 2:12 am

Engine Demo, somewhat playable (called it an alpha, but that is a lie)

DOWNLOAD : cockroachesevo

There are still a Lot of bugs that are being fixed (some levels impossible to complete), most of the gameplay still needs to be implemented. The game has nothing to do with achievements now (for now at least, the feedback from you people who plays it, may change my mind), now its all about making a roach fetch the radioactive Shit.  Everything is unlimited, and there is no education so far.

GET THAT RADIOACTIVE SHIT!

btw, to play custom levels, just place them on the customlevels folder, but it have to be named level0.xml [levelZERO.xml] so far, sorry

Game is not saving anything automatic yet.

(in-game, press esc to open the quit menu, 1 to simulate 10 gens, 2 to 20, etc…)

ZStatic Charge is a Physics/Puzzle/Platformer (yes, kinda experimental) I’ve made for the GameJolt’s Shocking Competition.

The goal is simple: Reach the end of the level

The concept is : You are a little robbot that can harvest ElectroStatic power from red carpets on the floor by rubbing yourself on them, and them use this power to complete your goal. The powers available to the robot, all in cost of his electric charge are:

Attract Objects

Repel Objects

Any loose object in game can be attracted or repeled by the robots electro-static energy

Fly

At the cost of a big ammount of energy, the robot can fly for small periods, or jump in the air

Run

Uses energy to run faster

Overcharge

The robot’s greatest power, overcharge is his only way to directly destroy objects, at a cost of a least 60% of his energy reserve.

Notice that the robot’s only way to defeat his enemies for good, is by using overcharge, but that is a expensive way to do it, you need to be creative with the other powers to defeat most of the enemies without expending much power.

The game is not quite ballanced yet, its still to easy (I’ve placed to many carpets for instance) but is playable, and gives the fell intended. It has some simple puzzles, but its yet to short!

Wish me luck on the compo.

Download it HERE or HERE

Leparlon

Note: Made on Construct, you may need to install scirra’s construct, or the latest DIRECT-X drivers for this game to work

Armed with laser guns!

Yet another simple game on Construct (a gameplay prototype, I actually made this game to learn how to make a  scroll camera for 2d coop games so it could to focus on the players and on the action, regardless of theyr distance to each other. I liked the result very much), another multiplayer game, but this time, cooperative, each player plays a different role on a vehicle, one controls the machine-gun, the other controls the guidded-missiles for example.

The main goal is to elliminate the big black underwear demon boss located at the end of this level, but to do this, you must sucessfully defend your base from the lesser black underwear demons.

Call a friend and have fun (can be played alone, if you like of them hellicopters with missiles and big guns)

The link to get it is here:  defend

Remember, you may need to instal Construct, or update your Direct X to the latest for it to work (the game is made on Construct)

The source and all that is on the same policy of the other games (ask me)…

Controls:

Player 1:

W      -     Jump

A       -     Move Left

S       -     Enter Chopter

D       -     Move Right

SPACE - Shoot  (out of chopter shoots normal bullets, in the chopter, the shots are much more powerfull)

Player 2:

Up Arrow            -     Jump

Left                     -     Move Left

Down  Arrow       -     Enter Chopter

Right  Arrow        -     Move Right

Right Ctrl - Shoot  (out of chopter shoots normal bullets, in the chopter, shoots a guided missile that can be guided with the left and right arrow keys - hard as hell)

(beware that the final boss defends himself agains those)

Chopter controls:

Mouse Wheel up and down controls the engine power

Mouse Left and Right Buttons rotates the chopter front or back.

Cheats made so I could drive this chopter:

Q

navens gameplay screenshot

yeahh.. the name is in portuguese.. so.. in english it would be something like Shipuns.. I dunno, I promise to change it when I get to it again

This is a prototype (but playable, made on Construct) of a battle space game based on a game I used to play with my brother a long time ago, it consists basically of killing your opponent, or forcing him out of the screen.

The game has no IA, so it needs another player to be of any fun (and has no start menu also, the battle starts with the double-click).

If you are interested on downloading this, and letting me know what you think (Oh yeah) the link is here: navens_shippuns, but be aware that you may need to install construct (for the right Direct X libs) for it to work, but, that is no Time wasted at all if you ever thought of making a game… (ask me for the source if you did)

Controls:

Ship one (purple shit)

• Arrow keys:  move
• Ctrl: shoot plasma marble
• Ctrl with a plasma marble already out:  Explode the marble (can be used for defense)

Ship two (white wierd)

• WASD keys:  move
• Space: shoot (guidded missiles)

So far, the create part was easy, since I’ve got help from an specialist (my fiance), now for the maintenance part…

Well, the games will be made using C++ (using the Playground SDK, usually used to make casual games, but I’ve noticed great potential on this sdk) and my new friend: Scirra’s Construct (GREAT for fast prototyping, and fast development).

Now, let’s see how this turns out..

Have fun