{"author_link":"\/author\/bmacintosh\/","author_name":"BMacIntosh","author_uid":"15030","comments":[{"author_name":"pjchardt","author_uid":"13158","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:41am","epoch":1346045760,"text":"Nice.  I like the art direction, especially the soft gradients.  I guess I don't see thematically how the in game art and the story\/UI matches up though.  Really like the opening screen and the gameplay is pretty solid."},{"author_name":"dalbinblue","author_uid":"13960","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:48pm","epoch":1346089380,"text":"Very fun and cool use of theme.  The difficulty did ramp up faster than I thought it would (I would have hoped I would have survived to the third generation)."},{"author_name":"kevincorrigan","author_uid":"15028","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:49pm","epoch":1346089440,"text":"The game crashes on me without an error report, i'm on windows"},{"author_name":"Nickolai51","author_uid":"14348","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:57pm","epoch":1346089920,"text":"Really cool! Really difficult too... The graphics were cool, but I felt that the audio was a bit lacking. Good Job!"},{"author_name":"Vordux","author_uid":"15280","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 9:42pm","epoch":1346103420,"text":"That was a really fun game, especially for a shmup fan like myself. The only thing I will say is that I felt that the game was too easy for myself, in respect to the amount of damage that I was taking.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Really interesting evolution mechanic with the enemies. This game has much potential if you spent time working on it more."},{"author_name":"BMacIntosh","author_uid":"15030","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 10:16pm","epoch":1346105460,"text":"Thanks a lot for your comments, guys.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>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.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>@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."},{"author_name":"thewiseguy99","author_uid":"14421","time":"Aug 28, 2012 @ 12:42am","epoch":1346114220,"text":"Cute game. I love the 3D simplistic look of the spheres. Admit it gets a tad repetitive but technically very good, it's got AI, nice controls, and really good lighting.  thanks for the game B."},{"author_name":"RARoadkill","author_uid":"13308","time":"Aug 28, 2012 @ 8:55pm","epoch":1346187000,"text":"Really enjoyed it, wished it had some music and more sounds though"},{"author_name":"Arkazon","author_uid":"6492","time":"Aug 28, 2012 @ 9:12pm","epoch":1346188020,"text":"Good use of the theme, nice one.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>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!\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Once I unplugged the pad it was quite good fun.  :-)"},{"author_name":"Benjamin","author_uid":"2952","time":"Aug 29, 2012 @ 8:04am","epoch":1346227140,"text":"Nice fx ! The boss battle was fun, I enjoyed playing your game. I was unsure of the meaning of the product panel. I know it was bout boss habilities but didnt know how to read it. The texts add a lot to the ambient of the game."},{"author_name":"Rex Peppers","author_uid":"4914","time":"Aug 29, 2012 @ 4:34pm","epoch":1346257740,"text":"Nice, I expect my next of kin will get reimbursement.  :-)"},{"author_name":"golex","author_uid":"14989","time":"Aug 29, 2012 @ 11:16pm","epoch":1346281860,"text":"Enjoyed the obvious inclusion of the genetic algorithm, since I did something similar in my entry :)"},{"author_name":"quill18","author_uid":"7862","time":"Aug 30, 2012 @ 5:24pm","epoch":1346347140,"text":"Easily the best game I've tried so far.  Definitely a little hard, but great concept and execution. Loved the flavor\/humor."},{"author_name":"Dracir","author_uid":"8048","time":"Aug 31, 2012 @ 9:03pm","epoch":1346446680,"text":"Really well made ambiance and mood! IT would be nice to see the stats of each product, because right now, we don't really know what's happening. With the exception of the projectiles. The game goes smootly :). You're right on the theme :)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I only wished i could evolve too :(."},{"author_name":"creative630","author_uid":"8156","time":"Sep 2, 2012 @ 12:09pm","epoch":1346587440,"text":"Very interesting Idea, great job"},{"author_name":"Cake&amp;Code","author_uid":"10976","time":"Sep 4, 2012 @ 3:27am","epoch":1346728920,"text":"Wow, that was awesome. The enemies really felt like they got more and more deadly as time went on. Being able to export\/import was a definite plus, really cool feature :)"},{"author_name":"someone","author_uid":"1207","time":"Sep 4, 2012 @ 9:32pm","epoch":1346794020,"text":"Can't play XNA games in Linux. Sounds interesting though."},{"author_name":"dj_pale","author_uid":"9921","time":"Sep 4, 2012 @ 9:34pm","epoch":1346794140,"text":"Fun concept, liked the portal reference. But the game felt way too easy, didn't feel like it became more difficult with more generations. Just start by peppering when the enemy, and then do a few rounds around while holding down the mouse button, and I felt like I always won."},{"author_name":"lekochen","author_uid":"12928","time":"Sep 5, 2012 @ 3:30am","epoch":1346815500,"text":"Very smooth. Nice one."},{"author_name":"demonpants","author_uid":"531","time":"Sep 5, 2012 @ 6:12am","epoch":1346825220,"text":"Bleh, XNA means no Mac version."},{"author_name":"BMacIntosh","author_uid":"15030","time":"Sep 6, 2012 @ 5:31am","epoch":1346909160,"text":"Thanks again, guys. Your feedback is very appreciated!\r<br\/>\r<br\/>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.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I'm glad someone got the reference, thanks dj :D!"},{"author_name":"repstyle","author_uid":"11700","time":"Sep 7, 2012 @ 12:17pm","epoch":1347019920,"text":"Nice game and use of the theme.\r<br\/>Seeing IA evolving is really challenging.\r<br\/>Pretty addictive too. It reminds me the robot in the animated movie : The Incredibles.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>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."},{"author_name":"YSelf Tool","author_uid":"10854","time":"Sep 8, 2012 @ 9:05pm","epoch":1347138000,"text":"Good art, enough sound, witty humor, and BULLETS!"},{"author_name":"PaulSB","author_uid":"1626","time":"Sep 12, 2012 @ 10:27pm","epoch":1347488520,"text":"Finally finished by a Moose Warrior thing! Really like the evolving difficulty, though for me the curve is indeed a bit too slow. Had a nice look and atmosphere to it. Fun game!"},{"author_name":"RawBits","author_uid":"5167","time":"Sep 16, 2012 @ 9:53pm","epoch":1347832080,"text":"Nice idea! It was worth waiting until generation 5 for some actual challenge. Totally replayable and has good controls too. :)"}],"images":["ld24\/15030-b514d39e321ec834215b7c416cc795c4.jpg","ld24\/15030-b4ad5cd6aa62416015f327ecc4422327.jpg","ld24\/15030-344d586249197f6fdccfe5e43a94da82.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.brianmacintosh.com\/primeval\/PrimevalLaboratories_1-1.zip","text":"Windows"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.brianmacintosh.com\/primeval\/PrimevalLaboratories_Source_1-1.zip","text":"Source"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"29247","g_author":"15030","g_event":"LD24","g_eventkey":"12","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"29277","g_title":"Primeval Labs","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"185","g_commentcount":"25","g_site2_node_id":"0","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":[],"node":null,"orig_images":["http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15030-shot0.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15030-shot1.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15030-shot2.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"Requires XNA Game Studio 4.0 Framework Redist\r\n\r\n\"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.\r\n\r\nThe 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!\r\n\r\nYou can export enemies to a text file in the pause menu, then share them with others or breed them from the main menu.\r\n\r\nIn theory it plays better with an XBox controller, but that's completely untested.\r\n\r\nHave fun!<\/p>","title":"Primeval Labs"}