Sorry about the stupid reference in the post title, couldn’t help myself. Also sorry about the text-brick post, I’ll make a cooler one when I have new things to show.

It seems some people are enjoying my game (yay!) but I’m not quite happy with it as it is far from what I wanted it to be and as they’re pointing out there are numerous things that could be a lot better. I will start working on a newer, better, shinier version of Dojo (I’m gonna come up with a cooler name too) right after this post but first an explanation of what I was going for and what I’ll probably change.

Original Concept
Luckily I just learned about the Fly Room, a fruit fly breeding room run by Thomas Hunt Morgan to study genetics and heredity. His original technique was pretty inefficient but I liked it, breeding flies in a bottle when he saw one with traits he wanted he would place another bottle on top of it letting them fly up. He’d separate the bottles when his fly got in and repeat, again and again until he segregated the one he wanted. I wanted to make a game with a similar idea, only hopefully more fun. It was to be about mass production and then segregation and feeding your lesser creations to the predator as fodder to stave off his attack, building up your super-being to destroy him.

Why I Didn’t Achieve This (yet)
I started with a push control, shoving your creations (students of your dojo) away from the cursor and when they collided they mated. I was hoping this would give a frantic feeling, which it seemed to, but unfortunately mating on collision made mass production a pain in the ass. As a result I wound up sticking to two children per couple, the population never grows your just stuck with what you got. The game still works like this but I think it would be a lot more fun if I got it closer to the original concept. Unfortunately I didn’t think of a good alternative control scheme until it was too late, that’s Ludum Dare for you I suppose.

New Plan
The controls will still use the circle indicator but no longer to push. Sorry to those who liked the push controls but I think it may be necessary to get rid of them. The circle will now be used to select every student within it and where you drag it to is their destination. If any students are in the destination circle the originally selected group will commence procreation with them.

As mass production will probably result in getting a lot of the goal creature I will likely make predators travel in packs so you need more to take them out. I’m also thinking about having jail cells around some levels that if the predators get to they free a different type of enemy so the player will have to keep on their toes and have a few types ready for action. Either jail cells or other groups slowly breaking into the dojo, if you don’t beat the first group in time you’ll have a lot more to deal with.

mottmatt mentioned having some way to asexually reproduce when you’re in a pickle. I agree, not sure what I’ll do yet maybe some sort of fertility idol or radiation chamber. Just wanted to let you know I’m thinking about it, hopefully I can get a good idea that doesn’t break the game. Oh, and I may simplify the three traits I have now to two if it becomes necessary. That should make it easier to read and when there are a lot of them not too painful to find the one you want.

Finally This Post Is Ending
I can’t say for sure when I’ll be done the new version as I’m getting busy right about now. Going to try and have something playable for those who are interested before judging ends so you can actually hear about it. Anyway, I shall return with a cooler post full of pretty pictures and more colorful wording when I have some stuff to show off.