Richard Dawkins' Magnificent Microcosm of Mechanically Mutational Evolution! by JMRante

made by JMRante for LD24 (COMPO)

Richard Dawkins' Magnificent Microcosm of Mechanically Mutational Evolution!
(Not Actually Endorsed By Richard Dawkins' or the Man Who Came Up with Alliteration...)

A GAME MADE(thrown together) FOR THE LUDUM DARE 24

Let us cut through frills and get to the important stuff...

Platforms
+========+
RDMMMME is Windows only. Sorry Mac and Linux people, that is what happens when I am lazy
and use Game Maker (the cheap version which can't export to Mac or HTML5).

Story/Goal
+========+
You must evolve in order to take on the more dominating predators of your epoch. Once you
have reached the top of the ladder of evolution by defeating the most powerful being in
your entire mircocosm you are then declared winner and given special treatment

Controls
+========+
Arrow Keys = Directional spacial change.
S = Hold this key to display the stats.
Keys 1-9 = Load game in one of these slots.
Shift Key + Keys 1-9 = Save game in one of these slots.

Game
+========+
Collect the upgrade thingys to evolve yourself.

Red = Health Upgrade
Yellow = Defense Upgrade
Green = Strength Upgrade
Blue = Speed Upgrade

Windows	https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1oreiuk71qfq15/RDMMMME.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=12095

Ratings

Coolness	37%	767
Overall	3.15	270

Audio	2.95	184
Fun	2.74	399
Graphics	3.42	186
Humor	1.85	456
Innovation	2.89	350
Mood	2.85	262
Theme	3.26	230

Feedback

Kayelgee

28. Aug 2012 · 15:54 UTC

I'm confused that the only way to see if you're strong enough or not is to try to kill the enemies or die trying :/

Cell

28. Aug 2012 · 15:55 UTC

Confusing, but fun.

DaviDeMo

28. Aug 2012 · 15:57 UTC

great idea, I liked the stats stuff. but, controls are not so smooth :-(

JaJ

28. Aug 2012 · 16:00 UTC

I liked the visual style of the backgrounds and tiles, but the main character and enemies lacked character in comparison. The music was nice. My main problem with this game was that there was no way to know how much damage something does before crashing into it. That is what made me quit eventually.

Benjamin

28. Aug 2012 · 16:04 UTC

This looks a lot like the pc classic "tower of the sorcerer". And that's a fantastic thing to do in my opinion because this game is gold. The problem is... How can I choose which monster to fight if I can't see their stats ? I can only guess them by save, fighting monster, dying and reload ? Maybe I missed something. The leveldesign looks captivating, and I really would like to play this further...

morganquirk

28. Aug 2012 · 16:08 UTC

I like this a lot! I actually enjoy the trial and error nature of it, honestly.

morganquirk

28. Aug 2012 · 16:24 UTC

I won! It took a while :D

pythong

28. Aug 2012 · 16:32 UTC

instead of number keys you could have used spots marked with 'continue' because, at first i played, after that i read the description (because tl;dr)

Ithildin

28. Aug 2012 · 19:42 UTC

Great game! The trial and error nature of the game makes it, rather than frustrating, quite fun, actually. You end up memorizing which creatures you can start to take down, which are the best routes to gather upgrades while avoiding encounters and so on.

The graphics and music are nice, too. They add up to an entertaining, relaxing experience.

🎤 JMRante

29. Aug 2012 · 05:36 UTC

Benjamin, yes, this is definitely inspired by "Tower of the Sorcerer". Unfortunately I was too lazy to develop the proper algorithm to display the amount of damage enemies would do, but I feel everyone's pain in that regard. I think the trial and error nature is numbed by the save system though (might be wrong). Has anyone been experiencing crashes when fighting enemies.

BumpkinRich

29. Aug 2012 · 18:36 UTC

Liked exploring around in the world you created here. Nice puzzled too. Thanks.

BrothersT

29. Aug 2012 · 18:50 UTC

hmm, I think this game would be really good if you didn't have to die to find out which way to go, and then have to do it all again. the art is fantastic!

Benjamin

30. Aug 2012 · 08:11 UTC

@JMRante you don't need to compute the battle result for player, with just monster starting value he can do it by himself. Anyway I'm glad you made a game like this, I guess that leveldesign took most of your 48h, isn't it ? :)
( I had no crash by fighting enemies )

🎤 JMRante

31. Aug 2012 · 00:46 UTC

True, I actually did code that feature into the game but then removed it. Now that you point it out I don't really know why. Stupidity works wonders and all. Actually, funnily enough the level design was basically the last hour of development. It is not nearly as finely balanced as I had wanted; I was planning to have 3 extra hours of development but instead I had decided to sleep in.

Jiggawatt

31. Aug 2012 · 18:35 UTC

Like others have said, the main problem is that the player doesn't have enough information to make good decisions. It still has pretty solid production values though.

SecondDimension

17. Sep 2012 · 21:48 UTC

I liked the exploration nature of this, it was a strange place full of interesting things. Like others I was a bit put off but a lot of deaths early on, but the quicksave thing does help with that. Music was good and added to the feel of the game as well