My pairs and Me

This Ludum Dare 24 was my second participation to this great event. I totally love the principle of the LD compo. I think it’s all about find a simple and effective concept, that we can lead as far as possible, and polish at maximum to provide players a lovely little sincere and fun experience. We shouldn’t go into something too complex, ‘cause 48 hours is kinda short. So find a concrete idea and go for it !

The fact is this time the theme was Evolution. Not a bad theme, I think instead it’s a word that speak a lot and bring many ideas quite easily. Maybe too much and too easy. I wouldn’t do anything too obvious about evolution, especially since I was already working on a project on this theme outside the Ludum Dare. So when the theme went out I was like AOW NO, NOT AGAIN…

Finally, I started coding without knowing where I was really going. I wanted to do something about evolution in society and in environment, and about religion and leadership, with humor and things… Gradually I went on something finally too complex, with random behaviour in ten guys who tend to evolve differently depending on a number of features and action YOU messiah do. In fact it was really not concrete, and it became a sandbox experience, I think.

Sandbox here I mean there is no goal, exept the goal you want to reach. And regardless what your goal is, you have to experiment, try, restart again and again. Then, you’ll begin to understand, maybe, how it works. It’s an experience for curious and patient gamers, and I wish the players have fun trying to understand what the huck is happening.

Reading the first comment on my games, I understand the side “WTF happens ? But I laughed !” is working. And I’m happy to see that the overall incomprehension can provide some kind of fun. On the one hand, evolution is not something very “square” and concrete, obvious, so the incomprehension in the game could be a part of the experience. But I don’t want people to think that all this game is about random events you cannot influence, and that’s why I’ll try now to explain how some secret mecanisms in the game work.

To summarize the game first, you control sort of prophet holding a stick that can throw lightnings to dig or punish. You live on a small island with 10 of your pairs, who’re not holding a thunder stick but who live their live on this small randomly generated world. Each of them have somme kind of personality, with different value of violence and fear. All of them tend to happyness, but violence and fear decrease the happyness. In the game, more people have free place to move (that means a dirt block with 2 free block above), more they are happy. Plus, more big they are, more happy they become.

So ok but what happyness is about ? Happier they are, more the guys have chance to find a job. There are 3 job in the game : Farmer, lumberjack and fisherman. The farmers plant wheat that can be eaten by other guy who become bigger (and happier, you follow me ?). Lumberjack go choice a tree and they huh, turn around it. Fishermen go to a water point and begin to catch fish.

Other points…If a guy stay too much time in water, he becomes a fish. If a guy stay too much time in air, he becomes a bird. When you destroy the house of a worker, or a tree of a lumberjack, the guy becomes a rebel, and start to follow you and beat you to death. If there is not enought space in the island, there’s a chance that some people become rebels too. More a guy is violent, more he has chance to hit a pair. When a guy is beaten, he becomes more violent. A lightning in the face decrease the violence but increase the fear.

I realize that it can still a bit confuse, but hey, that’s how is the evolution, maybe…I just want you to understand a bit more the not-concrete system of this sandbox experience. The goal still yours. Do you want to make a peacefull place with golden wheat fields and happy lumberjack ? Or an oasis with fish family ? Or a bird colony ? OR PUT ALL THIS WORLD ON FIRE ? In fact you can do lot of things. If I had more time, I would have added more jobs and animals, and behaviours and things, like a rebel master stuck in a bunker and shooting around everything that moves, lava blocks that throw fire particle, meteor shower and all…I think this is a kind of experience, like most of sandbox experience, that becomes better with more content and polish.

Anyway, sorry for my broken English, I hope you’ll have fun playing this crazy game/experience/sandbox thing, earing the crazy sound and enjoying the crazy bugs, and thank you and I love you all awesome people =3

My pairs and Me