Primeval Labs by BMacIntosh
Requires XNA Game Studio 4.0 Framework Redist
"Primeval Laboratories" is a shootemup or "bullet hell" game in which you must fight sets of generated enemies. However, each generation adapts and learns from the previous one, and the enemies continue to become more difficult through this process.
The biggest feature of the game is the procedural, genetic creation of the enemies. Every stat, behavior, and weapon is coded in a genome that is manipulated by a genetic algorithm to create the subsequent generation. Hopefully you will see many interesting and amusing generations as you play!
You can export enemies to a text file in the pause menu, then share them with others or breed them from the main menu.
In theory it plays better with an XBox controller, but that's completely untested.
Have fun!
"Primeval Laboratories" is a shootemup or "bullet hell" game in which you must fight sets of generated enemies. However, each generation adapts and learns from the previous one, and the enemies continue to become more difficult through this process.
The biggest feature of the game is the procedural, genetic creation of the enemies. Every stat, behavior, and weapon is coded in a genome that is manipulated by a genetic algorithm to create the subsequent generation. Hopefully you will see many interesting and amusing generations as you play!
You can export enemies to a text file in the pause menu, then share them with others or breed them from the main menu.
In theory it plays better with an XBox controller, but that's completely untested.
Have fun!
Ratings
| Coolness | 91% | 2 |
| Overall | 3.35 | 185 |
| Audio | 2.12 | 470 |
| Fun | 3.07 | 229 |
| Graphics | 3.10 | 307 |
| Humor | 2.45 | 245 |
| Innovation | 3.26 | 188 |
| Mood | 2.97 | 203 |
| Theme | 3.45 | 166 |
Really interesting evolution mechanic with the enemies. This game has much potential if you spent time working on it more.
There seem to be some very conflicting opinions on the difficulty - probably due to the random nature of the enemies :). The enemies always get harder as the rounds progress (due to the genetics), but the first round is completely random, so it could start off at any difficulty. Perhaps this is a problem.
@kevin: If it crashes on startup, do you have the XNA Framework installed? I may try to add some exception logging if others have problems.
Had a lot of trouble at first getting anything to happen before I realised I had an xbox pad plugged in - seems to cause keyboard and mouse controls to stop working which wouldn't be a problem except that the pad controls don't work - there's no way to fire and the y axis movement is inverted!
Once I unplugged the pad it was quite good fun. :-)
I only wished i could evolve too :(.
Yeah, XNA means Linux and Mac get left out, sorry. It's what I'm most familiar with, so it seemed like the thing to do for my first LD. In the future, I should move to a more portable engine.
I'm glad someone got the reference, thanks dj :D!
Seeing IA evolving is really challenging.
Pretty addictive too. It reminds me the robot in the animated movie : The Incredibles.
Else, at start, i didn't understand where was the enemy's life bar because i thought it was just a kind of red light.