LudumData

The Exigent Ecosystem by coatline

[raw]
made by coatline for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

Goal: keep the ecosystem alive by not letting the population of any species get to 0

Controls: WASD to move the camera around, scroll wheel to zoom in, and r to restart. By clicking anywhere on the screen, (that is viable) you place down the current object selected. To select different objects, press 1-4, 1 being plant, 2 being bunny, 3 being fox, and 4 being bear.

About animal behavior: animals have 6 different states. Searching for a need, chasing/going that need, consuming that need, running from a predator, and in labor. The animals will do what they need to do the most. EX: if they are more thirsty than hungry, they will look for water. This does not always apply for the reproductive urge as they will not look for a mate unless the bar is filled to the brown line. This is just so that they do not have a ton of babies. Obviously they will not reproduce unless they are of opposite sex (determined by fur color: darker = male; lighter = female). The number of babies is random and can range from 1 to 5.

*Bears will only eat bunnies if pretty hungry

*Sorry about the cruddy music there is a toggle to turn it off

Visit help screen for more information

*Version history - fixed scrolling speed

Gameplay.png

Youtube https://proto.pixelbytestudios.com/other/bc/ExigentEcosystem/
Youtube https://proto.pixelbytestudios.com/other/bc/LD46-coatline-src.unitypackage
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/the-exigent-ecosystem

Ratings

Overall 802th 3.104⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 966th 2.604⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 597th 3.196⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 592th 3.604⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 904th 2.75⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 746th 2.458⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 626th 2.5⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 780th 2.87⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Cobear25
21. Apr 2020 · 19:26 UTC
Really cool idea. The camera controls were a little difficult to use, and the bright colors were a bit jarring. I love the concept, and it seems to work well. I think with some improved visuals this could turn into something great.
Baconinvader
21. Apr 2020 · 19:36 UTC
Nice game, very chill. It's fun to try and get your population as high as possible. I wish there was some way to block or redirect animals though.
ChristianAufiero
21. Apr 2020 · 19:44 UTC
What an awesome idea, a virtual ecosystem you can just interact with, I loved this!
My favorite part was just going crazy and spawning everything possible and watching the system fall to shreds, I love that you can do that.
This could go further, make win conditions for more well balanced ecosystems, make more maps for us to play with, add FISH, there is so much here for you to do, I loved this.
43sam
21. Apr 2020 · 19:46 UTC
Relaxing game that makes for a peaceful experience :)
VerttiXPertti
21. Apr 2020 · 19:59 UTC
It has a lot of potential. I think the biggest thing that's missing is a win condition. I got bored, because there didn't seem to ever be an end. Keeping the animal populations alive didn't provide to be too difficult either so I was just kind of idling there when playing. I also never felt the need to check the individual stats of the animals, because it was easier to just follow the total amount of the species. But if you keep adding features, it could become a great game. The theme was also used well.
scott.redrup
21. Apr 2020 · 20:05 UTC
Hey what a great achievement to make a virtual ecosystem in just a few days. Agree with Christian I just went crazy and placed everything I could at once. I'd love to see this expanded with more creatures and foliage! Maybe watch it evolve over time. Very neat job.
alex457
21. Apr 2020 · 20:05 UTC
Cute game. I actually liked the sounds and the atmosphere :) The concept is very interesting, but I think some information was missing to make conscious choices. Sometimes my foxes just would die without any bears around and I couldn't figure out why. Some way to compare different runs would cool too (like time). Great job!
KungKras
21. Apr 2020 · 20:35 UTC
Probably one of the most ambitious gameplay ideas I've ever seen in Ludumdare.
It got pretty stressful once I've figured everything out and had to keep everything in balance but it had a nice god-game feel to it.
Not much else to say. The graphics, allthough simple also fit it really well.
🎤 coatline
21. Apr 2020 · 23:35 UTC
Thank you guys for the feedback!
Rhiz
24. Apr 2020 · 17:23 UTC
Very ambitious! It's impressive, especially for the time limit.

It wasn't clear to me what the limiting factor was in creating things, I think it has something to do with the bars in the bottom, but I never figured it out. Plants don't seem to reproduce, which made managing my bunny population quite difficult, and they are the corner stone of the carnivore system.

At first I tried to keep my resource distribution homogeneous, but then I ended up just focusing on keeping everything working in one area, but I couldn't make plants fast enough and my ecosystem collapsed.
candlesan
25. Apr 2020 · 21:23 UTC
Like: Music was actually fine I didn't think I needed a music toggle. The game is ambitious and I like the simulation. The generation of the terrain was organic and made sense, I could tell you jusn't did tell every tile on the map to be something random, there was shape and guidance to how the terrain generated itself.

Would wish for: Visual feedback on screen which animal (or plant) I had selected to place. Fox and bear were a bit hard to tell apart for me.
LeviDSmith
26. Apr 2020 · 00:48 UTC
Nice game. The pixel art critters are really cute, and it was fun watching the bunnies multiply. :smile:

Noticed that this game was hosted at Pixelbyte Studios, so I was wondering if you work with Recursor (fellow Tennessee game developer)?
Laura del Pino
26. Apr 2020 · 09:12 UTC
I like the idea of an ecosystem simulator, but I add some hints and/or tutorial explaining what are the elements in the scene and the goal of the game. But Good job ¡Congratulations!
🎤 coatline
26. Apr 2020 · 20:54 UTC
@levidsmith actually I'm his 13 year old son! :smiley:
Natwomb
04. May 2020 · 21:10 UTC
Cool simulator game!
marcusnystrand
06. May 2020 · 15:21 UTC
Nice and relaxing game, although a bit difficult. But that is good, I think this game is all about figuring out what strategy works.

Well done!