Game Of Life by feizenbara

[raw]
made by feizenbara for LD28 (COMPO)
A relaxing logical game based on the Conway's Game of Life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life).

You must keep alive some cells in a cell culture where viruses appear from time to time. But you can only add 1 cell at a time to save them all.

The game features several customisation tools, allowing you to play in a very easy environment or even only watch your cells develop by themselves.

Note: some cell patterns can survive indefinitely, meaning sometimes the game has no end.

Detailed rules (you should try the game without reading this :-)):
- a cell stays alive if it has 2 or 3 neighbours. Otherwise, it dies.
- a cell appears in an empty spot if it has 3 neighbours.
- a virus spawns on the oldest cell after 5 turns where no virus was in the whole cell culture.
- a virus dies if it has no healthy neighbours.
- a virus spreads to its oldest neighbours if it has 3 or more healthy neighbours.
- you can only add 1 cell per turn.
- game ends if no more healthy cells are in the culture.

Ratings

Coolness 69% 3
Overall 2.86 616
Audio 1.78 720
Fun 2.30 857
Graphics 2.93 499
Humor 1.65 742
Innovation 2.98 450
Mood 2.47 699
Theme 2.20 851

Feedback

TheThirdOne
15. Dec 2013 路 23:59 UTC
very well made, but too easy. On auto I haven't had it kill me and I have 3000 points.
vinull
16. Dec 2013 路 05:37 UTC
Really nice graphics and I love the use of Conway's Game of Life.
馃帳 feizenbara
16. Dec 2013 路 08:48 UTC
Thanks for the feedbacks
@vinull: I'm happy that you life the simple look.
@TheThirdOne: you are right, I put mostly stable designs at start, and virus do not spread that much, so it's quite easy. I might add a customization tool to set the level of virality of the viruses.
ThatGuy
16. Dec 2013 路 09:32 UTC
The Game of Life has been my 'Hello World' when learning a new language for years. It's cool seeing a unique take on the game that's pretty fun, even if it is a little too easy. I think you should explore this idea a bit more and try and expand on it. Great work!
alcorrius
16. Dec 2013 路 09:39 UTC
I liked how it is made but I didn't find it fun or interesting like a game. It's a good demonstration of Conway's Game of Life. But maybe I'm just not interested in Games of Life.
Anyway, nice game!
BraindeadGeo
16. Dec 2013 路 10:21 UTC
Nice idea! A bit too easy though but a good concept!
maxim
16. Dec 2013 路 10:38 UTC
Bit confusing but a nice concept
ParaPup
16. Dec 2013 路 11:03 UTC
Nice Graphics and good concept to the game it felt weird but good.
crockid5
16. Dec 2013 路 11:03 UTC
Somebody elses game, remade, doesn't match the theme, did you even make this for LD? or was it just lieing around you thought you'd submit it?
馃帳 feizenbara
16. Dec 2013 路 11:10 UTC
Well crockid5, it's not somebody elses game, go look on wikipedia, game of life is not even a game at first... I used the basic mecanism, but everything else that makes a game (you know, player inputs, win/lose conditions, feedbacks, audio, graphs...) comes from me, and was started from scratch on saturday.
The theme interpretation is "You only get 1 cell to save them all", and I agree it's not very straightforward... like almost every other entry here, because this theme sucked big time (well, it's not even a theme, it's just a random sentence that gives no restriction on the game).

But I think you should warn now Richard Garriot that Blizzard just stole and remade Ultima with WoW.
DST
16. Dec 2013 路 11:50 UTC
Really nice use of conways game of life, well implemented and nice looking, good job! :)
Dry Tree
16. Dec 2013 路 12:11 UTC
nice job, good graphics too :)
ponk
16. Dec 2013 路 13:52 UTC
Very cool game !
Good application of conway's game of life
It give me ideas for my own entry (based also on automata cellular)
Coblynau
16. Dec 2013 路 14:36 UTC
I thought I had found a way to beat the viruses but they came back; just like life. ;) Good job!
dqmhose
16. Dec 2013 路 16:39 UTC
I didn't really get it. Couldn't figure out how and why cells appeared and disappeared, still fun to mess around with, though. Really nice graphics!
zorfmorf
16. Dec 2013 路 16:48 UTC
Nice take on the game of life although I think in its current form its a little bit broken. The virae seem to have basically no influence on the game itself, for me it runs in auto mode up to several thousand points.

Idea:
Make the virae a lot more deadly, give the player the ability to set more than one cell per turn and disable hints.
Udell Games
16. Dec 2013 路 16:56 UTC
Clever idea, I really like the execution and the graphics. Didn't get any sound even though I turned audio on though.
馃帳 feizenbara
16. Dec 2013 路 16:56 UTC
Right zorfmorf, I should have put a setting for making viruses more lethal.
I can't really allow player to put more than one cell, it's the theme of the LD.
And you can disable hints with the "Tips" auto button. I should have labelled it "hints" instead, but the wrong word came to my mind :-(

@others: thank you for the feedbacks, I'm really happy to see so many enjoying graphics, it was supposed to be my worst speciality but simple is neat :-)
馃帳 feizenbara
16. Dec 2013 路 16:57 UTC
@Udell: what browser are you using? It works for me on Chrome, but maybe not elsewhere.
ricklesauceur
16. Dec 2013 路 19:56 UTC
A classic !
soy_yuma
16. Dec 2013 路 23:47 UTC
Nice version of the classic :)
CaptainKraft
17. Dec 2013 路 00:28 UTC
Look great and enjoyed experimenting with it.
Enneract
18. Dec 2013 路 10:07 UTC
The visuals were great.
jacklehamster
19. Dec 2013 路 13:39 UTC
I feel it would be visually more appealing if the cells didn't animate.
Xavier
19. Dec 2013 路 18:27 UTC
Nice idea. Only I would change the typography: it's annoying me! :)
theholychicken
19. Dec 2013 路 20:28 UTC
Very interesting puzzle game!
I did get a bit confused why cells appear and disappear between turns, perhaps the cells are moving around?
As it is right now it's very difficult to lose, but many people already mentioned that. The concept is very interesting though, and once it's balanced I'd love to try it again!
dylanwolf
20. Dec 2013 路 00:40 UTC
Interesting take on a classic concept.

Trying to add cells to starve off viruses was tough to wrap my head around (since there are a lot of rules in play), yet I scored over 1500 points. I felt like I should have died far earlier than I did.
Giovanni Cappellotto
20. Dec 2013 路 16:01 UTC
Nice application of the "game of life" concept.
Mlle Eole
20. Dec 2013 路 20:57 UTC
Nice and interesting. :)
iiechapman
28. Dec 2013 路 01:07 UTC
I really like the look, color pallet is great. Don't see the theme but good job on making a complete game.