Genvaders by celeron55

[raw]
made by celeron55 for LD24 (COMPO)
Your goal is to shoot as many aliens as you can.

After you get rid of one bunch, an evolved bunch of aliens will appear.

The aliens evolve based on how well they hit you and how long they stay alive. You can prevent the aliens from taking too much advantage of it by killing the nastiest ones first and dodging their bullets.

Windows: Completely self-contained zip; no installer; just extract and run.
Linux: Executable python file. Requires pygame.

I'll put the links here in the description too because for some reason they keep disappearing from their regular places:
Windows(py2exe): http://minetest.net/packages/misc/genvaders_win_py2exe_05.zip
Windows(cx_freeze): http://minetest.net/packages/misc/genvaders_win_05.zip
Python: http://minetest.net/packages/misc/genvaders_py_05.tar.gz
Timelapse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDBGpFPWFOk

Ratings

Coolness 37% 767
Overall 2.83 449
Audio 2.33 395
Fun 3.06 235
Graphics 2.61 482
Humor 2.00 396
Innovation 1.81 732
Mood 2.31 538
Theme 2.88 380

Feedback

馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 10:10 UTC
Apparently the Windows version fails to work on some computers - if it doesn't work for you, leaveing a note here with some general system info would be of great help.
Krise20
27. Aug 2012 路 12:40 UTC
by pausing the bat I got to see the errors:

its looking for python files in C:\Python32\lib

im running win7 x86 and don't have any python installed
Krise20
27. Aug 2012 路 12:40 UTC
x64*
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 12:46 UTC
Hell, for some reason half of my description and all the links keep disappearing from this site... does anyone know what is going on? I'm re-adding them again...
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 12:48 UTC
Krise20: It does not require python; it is a cx_Freeze build - it is referring to the original file names of data it copied to the package from the original system. Anyway, win7 x64 - that is useful info.
munchor
27. Aug 2012 路 13:05 UTC
Could use some background music. I scored it 1 on innovation, I think you know why ;)
madpew
27. Aug 2012 路 13:24 UTC
Encoding Error (UTF char 90) on windows version, please fix
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 13:32 UTC
madpew: It is not a trivial fix; the error happens in a built-in file of python or pygame - I can't do anything about it other than use a different python-to-exe utility. I'll try py2exe instead of cx_Freeze once I get home.
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 13:55 UTC
I have thus far a few reports of it working on Win7 x64, so don't hesitate to try despite of it not working for some people. :-)
MaximSchoemaker
27. Aug 2012 路 13:58 UTC
I can't play it :/ I get this error:
"UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0x90 in position 2: invalide start byte.
I run windows 7 32bit
samoojamies
27. Aug 2012 路 14:08 UTC
Nice retro remix :D. Extra star for the timelapse!
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 14:55 UTC
My high score is 5778. Anyone beat that? 8)
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 17:37 UTC
py2exe-generated package added - which hopefully works on the remaining computers.
SecondDimension
27. Aug 2012 路 18:27 UTC
The links don't work for me, can't download it?
fruitfly
27. Aug 2012 路 18:35 UTC
Score: 3360
For me, you cannot do anything wrong with a space-invaders clone. liked it.
madpew
27. Aug 2012 路 18:36 UTC
now it worked. 2564 points. nice spaceinvaders clone. pretty hard on level 3/4. enjoyed it.
badlydrawnrod
27. Aug 2012 路 18:37 UTC
I played it several times in different ways. I saw evolution, and different alien types and behaviours, but I'm not sure that I saw much adaptation to my game play. How did you judge fitness?
馃帳 celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 19:08 UTC
badlydrawnrod: You may have stumbled upon the small amount of genes and variable properties - the aliens only have a couple of major killer combinations to evolve into.

Basically the genes of the aliens that managed to hit the player are mixed with the genes of aliens that were not immediately killed, plus some mutation. Of a new bunch, 2/3 of aliens are those inherited ones, and 1/3 in a bunch are randomly generated. The first bunch contains easy aliens in place of the ones that would be inherited.

A bit ago I managed to get 16660 points by continuously avoiding all hits and always killing the nastiest aliens first - it will give you very easy time for long - until you get hit by a very nasty random one - then the hell begins and you are basically doomed. Theoretically you could play infinitely with aliens like the ones in the first group.
Uberi
28. Aug 2012 路 05:08 UTC
It was real fun until the invaders started getting a bit too wise. I put 'em down for good, though, with a quick Alt + F4 to the shins.
SecondDimension
28. Aug 2012 路 20:09 UTC
Got the link to work, glad I tried again. Nice take on evolutionary space invaders
Jedi
02. Sep 2012 路 19:11 UTC
Awesome, game! It's really addictive! I like how you managed to blend *actual* evolution with an arcade game! Great job! 5*'s for Innovation, Fun and theme.

It just needs a little tweaking. When choosing the next generation, I suggest putting more weight on the survival time and less weight on how well they damage the player. As it is, the player isn't able to affect the breeding that much, and the aliens quickly converge on tearing the player to pieces.