You Are Bactera by w84death

[raw]
made by w84death for LD30 (COMPO)
# About

It's a connection between the player, the cellular automaton Conway's Game of Life and a world of a simple bacteria.

Don't know what the Game of Life is?
Read about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life

== This is a zero-player game. This is not a causal game for kids, it's casual game for geeks :) ==

# Rules:

* Each bacterium has it's own "brain".

* The brain is a simple simulation of Conway's Game of Life

* Player can modify it by adding active cells. Player can add 10 cells at the beginning. Each 10 game cycles is given another cell.

* In the brain if active cells extends 45% the bacterium will multiply - new bacterium will show.

* If the brain has no active cells bacterium dies.

* The "movement" of cells in brain cause movement of the bacterium. So if there is no movement the bacterium will stand still.

Have fun :)


# Tools used:
- Pyxel Edit
- SublimeText
- GitHub (more like service not tool)


More games: http://p1x.in
Follow me @w84death


<3 Make indie games not war!

Ratings

Coolness 52% 3
Overall 3.15 618
Audio 2.39 720
Fun 2.55 966
Graphics 3.62 251
Humor 2.22 630
Innovation 3.80 133
Mood 2.94 596
Theme 2.46 1009

Feedback

Hyoga-3D
25. Aug 2014 · 13:00 UTC
I could not play the game, it did not loaded to me, but the graphics by the pictures got my attention.
falcon11445
25. Aug 2014 · 13:01 UTC
Little but hard to understand and i am not sure how this connects with the theme
INC$D021
25. Aug 2014 · 13:02 UTC
Game of life within game of life... Life-ception. I Like it :)
Mali
25. Aug 2014 · 13:03 UTC
Great concept! Love the use of a game within a game. Well polished, nice sounds interesting idea. I'm betting this will easily make it into the top 100 ;)
Not too sure how to win, if there is a way but the idea and the idea behind the AI is great and so original. Love it.
zapaman
25. Aug 2014 · 13:03 UTC
Highest score in inovation I gave during this LD!
Riocide
25. Aug 2014 · 13:04 UTC
Cool little game. Playing is a bit strange, even if you know the ruleset of conways game of life. But it was a nice and novel way of approaching the theme. Well done!
2HitMatt
25. Aug 2014 · 13:04 UTC
Pretty cool. I feel like there could be quite a deep level of depth here to play if I put more time into it. Very nice :D
PunyOne
25. Aug 2014 · 13:05 UTC
Nice graphics - I was missing a gameplay element a bit, but I like simulations and this one was nice to look at :).
pxlcoder
25. Aug 2014 · 13:06 UTC
This was surprisingly fun!
The graphics suit the gameplay very well.
PTSnoop
25. Aug 2014 · 13:06 UTC
An intriguing little simulation. Not sure what aim it has, if any (does that make it a toy rather than a game?), but still fun to play around with.

One thing worth saying, though, since it was annoying me - "bacterium" is the singular of "bacteria". One bacterium, two bacteria. Not "a bacteria", not "bacterias". (Sorry for being a pedant!)
dhargan
25. Aug 2014 · 13:09 UTC
kinda hard to understand to play even if you understand the rules.
Steve
25. Aug 2014 · 13:11 UTC
This is really cool.
Quick to pick up and play.
The sounds are simple but fit perfectly.
And the graphics, same there.

Some notes: When placing cells in a brain, I wish the spot I'm pointing at would be highlighted, because sometimes I was sure I'd place a cell in one spot only to have the cell end up next to it instead.

And maybe newly placed cells should be allowed to be removed (consider them 'committed' after one turn/only while paused) in case you misclick or change your mind.

Overall though, 4/5.
Zupoman
25. Aug 2014 · 13:17 UTC
Nice idea, I like it. Could be more interesting though - I think it could use to have some obstacles? Enemies? Because losing all bacteria is kind of impossible.
🎤 w84death
25. Aug 2014 · 13:26 UTC
PTSnoop: thanks for clarification. English is not my main language. I will hotfix the translation.

Steve: you're right! I will add this feature for misclick (after the compo)

Thanks You all for the kind words. I was afraid that no one will understand how this game works :)
hungyg
25. Aug 2014 · 13:26 UTC
Very interesting concept taking Game of Life to the next level.
ittlebit
25. Aug 2014 · 13:36 UTC
Interesting game within a game!
chriskdev
25. Aug 2014 · 13:58 UTC
Nice graphics, but I didn't get how to play it :/
🎤 w84death
25. Aug 2014 · 14:21 UTC
All the people who don know how to play: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life

You MUST known what the Conway's Game of Life is. This is not a causal game for kids, it's casual game for geeks :D
Lokiman
25. Aug 2014 · 17:34 UTC
Nice little "life" simulation. Description fits this game perfectly (casual game for geeks :D
Techblogogy
25. Aug 2014 · 19:23 UTC
Great approach on the theme
Arowx
25. Aug 2014 · 19:28 UTC
Liked it great idea. Do the bacteria next to each other join up in the game of life so the meta picture of bacteria is simply a zoomed out view of the game of life?
uvwar
25. Aug 2014 · 19:30 UTC
Didn't quite get what I was controlling, and not being able to take away brain points (at least I don't think?) made it hard for me to make desired shapes, but otherwise pretty darn interesting!
Robinerd
25. Aug 2014 · 19:32 UTC
Cool concept with programmable game of life, but I'm sorry, to complicated mechanics for me to enjoy it. Graphics and sound effects are nice though! Also the theme relation seems a bit far-fetched
🎤 w84death
25. Aug 2014 · 19:35 UTC
Arowx: I was thinking of that but don't have enough time. And It would not work because the "brain" part is what moves/kills/borns new bacterias.

But You can think of it as You are the next layer. It all the bacterias dies You will loose. You must take care of them to maintain alive.
phi
25. Aug 2014 · 19:36 UTC
You already won me when I saw that this game was about Conway's Game of Life. I love watching stuff evolve, and this is quite fun. However, I have some points of criticism:

-The tutorial is good but too long and extensive.
-The play/pause button is inverted, which is mildly irritating.
-Sometimes, it gets stuck or repetitive quite fast.
-The font is not pixelated.
-Reading the title I assume you chose the plural form of "bacterium" on purpose to tell me that I'm not alone, now I'm slightly creeped out.
renatopp
25. Aug 2014 · 19:42 UTC
It is good idea, not very well connected to the theme though. Good job anyway
🎤 w84death
25. Aug 2014 · 19:45 UTC
phi: Yes the tutorial part was done in the last hours and it's lacking the "skip" button. Well can't change that now.

With the font it's the same story: to little time, I don't have the engine for pixel art text - this is in my to do list for this game engine (it will be used in some other hackathon games)

Overall thanks for criticism. I would like to change all of this after the judging is done.

p.s. Yes, the bacteria is the third layer ( game of life -> bactrium -> player ) as we all have in our bodies thousands of (good nad bad) bacteria. We will die shortly withou them (the good ones for sure).
🎤 w84death
25. Aug 2014 · 19:47 UTC
renatopp: I think it is but that's the "problem" with interpreting art - anyone have their own version.

I was trying to thing out side the box: connecting "worlds" as computer science (cellular automation), biology (bacteria) and the player (play/live as long as he take care of the bacteria).
Berail
25. Aug 2014 · 20:20 UTC
Nice it's like Game of Life simulation :D
Alexandre Szybiak
25. Aug 2014 · 20:22 UTC
Really awesome idea, I love conway's game of life. I didn't really managed to do anything, but with some work it could make a really interesting game. Amazing job !
sneeuwpopsneeuw
25. Aug 2014 · 20:31 UTC
a realy nice game based on Conway's Game of Life, I Love Math in games
DragonXVI
25. Aug 2014 · 21:37 UTC
It's like Game of Life Inception here :p Tricky but interesting idea. Utterly forgot the rules of Game of Life but still managed to produce a good chunk of Bacteria before they all died :p
SaintHeiser
26. Aug 2014 · 01:48 UTC
Concept is looking interesting but kinda strange and something weird.
Tanner
26. Aug 2014 · 12:17 UTC
Really good game. Nice graphics. Nice music. Your pixelart is awesome.
ClownAround
26. Aug 2014 · 21:59 UTC
Great idea. Graphics are really good. A little too little interaction, but great concept.
John Drury
27. Aug 2014 · 08:14 UTC
Brilliant game! Really enjoyed watching the evolution of bacteria!
Romko Pidstryhach
27. Aug 2014 · 12:01 UTC
Smart idea!
ripter
28. Aug 2014 · 05:25 UTC
interesting idea- did not understand how the two scales of action are related. If the goal is infinite survival, one should be able to input a simple methuselah pattern and do well. maybe you could provide stamps for glider shapes and have a demolition derby?
runvs
28. Aug 2014 · 08:19 UTC
Hi there, nice idea to create a second order game of life! Some background music would have been nice as well as a "one step" function.
43iscoding
28. Aug 2014 · 14:21 UTC
Very interesting idea!
Elemental Zeal Games Studios
31. Aug 2014 · 02:09 UTC
Very neat that you turned the game of life into more of a real game. :P Nice entry. :)
DSalles
01. Sep 2014 · 05:45 UTC
Mesmerizing. Not entirely sure what is happening but enjoyed it anyway.
twintrite
01. Sep 2014 · 13:23 UTC
Not my type of game but a cool idea and nice style.
swistakm
01. Sep 2014 · 21:06 UTC
Very innovative game. For geeks indeed.
I found a gamebreaker:
http://i.imgur.com/xYwcrSm.png
grayhaze
02. Sep 2014 · 11:20 UTC
Interesting game that could do with a slightly deeper tutorial to tell you how to get the bacteria to move without needing to read up on a subject on Wikipedia. Seems like it could be a fun little casual game for mobiles.
vividhelix
07. Sep 2014 · 06:32 UTC
Great great great idea! I love all things with a life of their own, great how you took the game of life and made it work like this!
mechabit
07. Sep 2014 · 15:30 UTC
nice game within a game theme. could have done with more gamey mechanics like rival bacteria or target to reach like some animal's throat cells, maybe enemy white blood cells. Maybe some evolution upgrades like bigger game of life play area.
Moosefly
11. Sep 2014 · 18:40 UTC
Cool implementation of the theme, makes for a nice toy to pass the time with! The game froze for me after playing for a while though, don't know what caused it as I wasn't doing anything special.

Anssi@MooseflyGames