LudumData

Life Alive by ClaytonRumley

[raw]
made by ClaytonRumley for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Screenshot3.png

An online multiplayer (no limit to players) 3D variant of Conway's Game of Life, where human players control special cells that can move around the game of life board between the generations and influence the surrounding cells. The goal is to keep your cell alive for as many generations as possible. Despite having the magical ability to move around the board between the generations your cell is bound to the same rules as the other cells in the game; it will die if it is not alongside exactly two or three neighbouring cells when the next generation is computer.

To add to the challenge your cell has a finite amount of energy that can only be replenished by occupying a space with an energy bolt when the next generation is calculated, so you can't just sit around on a stable part of the board.

There is an additional option to have a bird's eye view of the board if you'd like to watch the magic unfold.

Screenshot.png

This is my first submission to Ludum Dare. I'm not an artist so I just used very basic primitives and tried to do my best. I wanted to do more with the audio but this was my first time using Tone.js and it was a bit of a learning curve for me.

The backend is a node.js server running on an Ubuntu server, but was developed on a Windows 10 PC using Visual Studio 2019. I started the code on the morning of Saturday, April 18th, 2020 and put the final version up on my server around 5:30pm CST on the 19th. I was considering submitting this as Compo but I did use Bootstrap and FontAwesome for the UI overlays which might disqualify me from Compo.

NOTE I am hosting the game on my own server https://wip.digifi.ca:8869/ with a self-signed certificate so you'll likely get a security warning you'll have to go through to play.

Version 0.9.1

  • Fixed server to regenerate the board after 300 generations (so the board doesn’t die out completely over time)
  • Added transition between moves so you can easily see what direction you’re moving in
  • Added small death melody
  • Fixed issue where unnamed players were showing empty string instead of “Guest” in event log
  • Fixed bird’s eye view camera orientation (it was upside-down)
  • Fixed issue when connecting and simply watching bird’s eye view without first joining the game
  • Lowered the sound effects volume
  • Added version number to splash screen

Version 0.9 - Initial release

Youtube https://wip.digifi.ca:8869/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/life-alive

Ratings

Overall 427th 3.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 623th 3.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 28th 4.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 30th 4.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1995th 2.925⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1205th 3.056⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1818th 2.25⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1891th 2.971⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

DevParty
21. Apr 2020 · 00:55 UTC
great game! My highScore is 51. I wish that I could download it to play it more! Keep it up!
tri11paragon
21. Apr 2020 · 00:59 UTC
wow thats pretty neat and innovative!
Blake Freer
21. Apr 2020 · 01:11 UTC
really enjoyed this game. never seen anything like it and it fits the theme perfectly
mmason
21. Apr 2020 · 01:47 UTC
I love Conways game of life, this is a very clever adaptation of it
kara
21. Apr 2020 · 10:22 UTC
Truly innovative and good adaptation of the game of life. Coincidentally I chose the same inspiration for this jam!
thebreakfast
23. Apr 2020 · 00:06 UTC
Really innovative. Having working online multiplayer is a huge accomplishment for a game jam. Great work!
graebor
23. Apr 2020 · 03:35 UTC
Congrats on your first LD submission! Your twist on Life is cool and comes across well even with "simple" visuals :)
MattWoelk
24. Apr 2020 · 04:02 UTC
Makes a networked multiplayer game in a weekend ... how!?!
:) Well done.
Junebug
25. Apr 2020 · 04:42 UTC
Great work! Having the extra mechanic of needing energy to keep players moving is a good addition to the game of life formula. It runs out quick enough that you need to keep looking for it, but not so quick that one or two unlucky generations makes you lose right away, so good job for striking a good balance there. I appreciate that they always spawn somewhere safe for the player so you don't get baited into letting yourself die by the game of life rules.
Tesseract
08. May 2020 · 23:13 UTC
Loved it. I'd like to see how it plays out with many players at once.
staircase27a
11. May 2020 · 14:47 UTC
Really unique and interesting game! Only one other person on when I was on but can imagine it would feel quite different depending on how many people were online at the same time.

Hmm also just managed to get a weird glitch where I had a large object in front of my view and so couldn't actually tell what blocks there were around me. Moving seemed to cause the object to move in and out of view but not in any simple way.
fabula_rasa
11. May 2020 · 14:51 UTC
Interesting concept - I saw some games based on the Game of Life this jam but this is the first multiplayer one.

The graphics are indeed very basic but they are informative. Although I once spawned in a completely empty area and died before I even saw any other cell. And I was moving but with no other cells as a reference point, I wasn't even sure if I am moving at all. What I am getting at is that maybe some simple move animation would be nice (like jumping delicately up and down).

I felt like the sounds are somewhat too loud in comparison to the background music. But soundscape was well-created otherwise. Well done overall!

Here is my lonely board.

![Screenshot_5.png](///raw/732/a2/z/33fde.png)
zondarg
12. May 2020 · 16:30 UTC
Nice interpretation of the theme, and a really interesting twist on the game of life. Found it sometimes hard to find the next power jolt (and died on the way) - it would be better to have some kind of movement indicator when crossing the empty fields, otherwise it is not obvious a movement takes place at all.
Good work! :thumbsup:
🎤 ClaytonRumley
12. May 2020 · 16:54 UTC
@fabula-rasa Thanks for the feedback! One of the things I didn't build into the server was a "reset after X generations" feature so I need to manually restart it every few hours to reset the game board (it didn't come up in testing naturally as I was restarting the server every 2 minutes :P). Thus the board can get empty if I forget for a day or so.

You have a great username, btw!
Sinci1
12. May 2020 · 17:35 UTC
I don't really understand Conway's game of life, so this game on a personal level didn't really click with me, but I have to say even though as a player it didn't click for me, as a dev I have to say this gmae is really polished, first of all I love how it's multiplayer, I mean it's difficult making a multiplayer game already, but making a multiplayer game for a jam is amazing! not to mention some of the other polished elements, such as allowing the player to watch what's unfolding from a bird eye's view. Or how when the player moves it plays a sound effect. Stuff like that makes this game a nice expirience, even if you're not familar with Conway's game of life :)
monkeyDvrus
12. May 2020 · 18:51 UTC
Great game. I love it. The background music goes well with the game. Great idea for multiplayer.
🎤 ClaytonRumley
12. May 2020 · 19:22 UTC
@monkeyDvrus thanks! Assuming your name was "monkey" I think I briefly ran past you in the game! :)
monkeyDvrus
12. May 2020 · 19:48 UTC
@claytonrumley Exactly, that was me. I had my doubts too when I saw you passing by... :grin:
🎤 ClaytonRumley
22. May 2020 · 05:34 UTC
Updates since the end of the jam:

Version 0.9.1
- Fixed server to regenerate the board after 300 generations (so the board doesn't die out completely over time)
- Added transition between moves so you can easily see what direction you're moving in
- Added small death melody
- Fixed issue where unnamed players were showing empty string instead of "Guest" in event log
- Fixed bird's eye view camera orientation (it was upside-down)
- Fixed issue when connecting and simply watching bird's eye view without first joining the game
- Lowered the sound effects volume
- Added version number to splash screen

Thank you to everyone who played, ranked, and commented on this game! It was great fun!