Val and Boris from Loveapple Games present our latest game: Cyto Killer: Save our Cells! It is a realtime strategy game. We tried to base the game on actual cell biology, and each unit has a background story!

This was a very productive Ludum Dare for us. Beside the game, we did a Ludum Dare rating search engine and 3 warmup games: Reflections, The Gnome, and Ludum Dare: The Game.

This was the first time we did a realtime strategy / tower defense game, and we found it tough to actually turn it into a game with interesting strategic gameplay. But, as time progresses, and the game started taking shape, we became quite excited about the behaviour and dynamics of the different units and enemies, and we ended up creating 7 unit types and 4 enemy types. The game isn't quite balanced, in particular, player doesn't really get a lot of time time to learn how the different elements of the game work. All the levels are winnable though! We did put in a lot of interesting behaviours, and it seems a lot of people enjoyed the game, and some showed they completed it. Thanks everyone for your great feedback!

ENEMIES:

Our VIRUS is inspired by INFLUENZA 1918 (A/H1N1) aka SPANISH FLU, which killed up to 40 M people, outperforming WWI in deadliness. Some claim the death toll was even higher, some think the then recommended (over)dose of aspirin (newly off-patent in USA) as a treatment may have caused some deaths. We also considered Polio, Marburg and Influenza A Hong Kong viruses, but they are a bit complex for 14x14 sprites.

The tiny freshwater SNAIL represents the tropical disease SCHISTOSOMIAIS, aka BILHARZIA or SNAIL FEVER. The snail is not the pathogen but plays host to it (a parasitic flatworm SCHISTOSOMA, aka blood fluke - YUK!) for part of its lifecycle.

Our BACTERIUM started life (in LD46!) as a tapeworm-like intestinal parasite, but ended up as a bacterium that seems to be a crossover between bacillus (rod) and spririllum (spiral) forms. Let see what that mutates into....

SUPERBUGS (Level 5 upwards) are two rare new strains which are proving difficult to eradicate. SUPERBUG1 is a mutation of the distinctive orange rod baccillus salmonella typhi which has developed long yellow flaggelli. SUPERBUG2 is a novel parasitic form of P1V1 resembling Avian flu. Both are difficult to pin down directly but much has been learnt from examining the trails of destruction they leave in various channels.

DEFENDERS:

MACROPHAGES attack invading bacteria by swallowing them up and killing them in an acid bath. Our MACROPHAGES look a bit like monocytes.

The MAC (Membrane Attack Complex) goes after invading bacteria and kills them by penetrating the bacterium's outer and inner membranes (it pops it like a balloon).

Our BACTERIOPHAGE is inspired by Enterobacteria phage Lambda (λ), a bacterial virus which infects the bacterial species Escherichia coli. E-coli - your fave kind of food poisoning!

APOPTOSIS (programmed cell death) is one of the immune system's mechanisms for zapping defective cells (eg pre-cancerous cells) and virus-infected cells. Kill your own cells to survive...

MARKER ANTIBODIES detect and point to pathogens such as bacteria, so that immune system destroyer cells can home in on them and go in for the kill. Marker antibodies grass up other cells - the body's very own snitches :)

Play our game here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmW64nVnOk