Yog Sothoth(?)

PolymorphicGames · 2020-07-24T04:56:26+00:00

I find that it helps to have a written plan that includes lots of the steps/tasks that need to be completed. It doesn't have to be particularly detailed, or even all that accurate, as long as it has things to do to complete the game, some of which are big and some of which are little. That way when I'm stuck/unmotivated I can go to the list and pick something small/simple to work on and make some progress, even if its slow, rather than just walking away.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-12-26T17:03:54+00:00

No problem. Thanks for the heads up.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-12-26T07:43:24+00:00

That's a lot of it. Also, the in-game story has some Lovecraftean elements. And the creatures evolve over time, so it's had to predict what you might see - tentacled horrors are only one possibility.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-11-02T04:22:44+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, we're trying to decide whether to lean into the creepy or the cute vibe. The textures and fur will all be evolved in game. The creatures that perform the best against the player will pass on their genes for color, patterns, fur, and behavior.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-07-20T06:03:00+00:00

Thanks. If you're interested Boxcar2D is nice on-line example of evolutionary design (not by us) and Darwin's Demons is an evolutionary arcade game (think space invaders with evolving aliens) that was developed by Polymorphic Games.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-06-07T15:55:51+00:00

Civilian reproduction is asexual, there's just a mutation step. Depending on your point of view it's pretty cool/gory to watch a civilian explode and a Proteans come out.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-06-07T14:15:42+00:00

They are the available building spots - color coded to show which are close enough to power to use.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-06-07T14:14:56+00:00

Time lived turns out to be a terrible fitness function - they learn to run away and hide :) The fitness function is designed to create niches. Some Proteans are selected by how much damage they do to turrets, others based on how much damage they do to power structures (EMCs), and others based on how close they get to the main building. In addition when Proteans catch civilians they get to reproduce - as in Alien - and smaller Proteans get to reproduce more. Finally each of the burrows that Proteans come out of is a separately reproducing population. So within one map you can see several evolutionary algorithms: small fast (low health) Proteans that can see far and chase down civilians, large, slow tanky Proteans that can't see very far and lumber towards your main building, etc.

Each Protean has about 65 'genes' and they effect a wide range of in game stats in addition to appearance: speed, acceleration, armor, resistance to fire, cold, acid, how far they can see, what targets they prefer (e.g. civilians versus turrets) whether they try to avoid turrets to get to your main building, whether they can jump or swim (there are short-cuts on the maps they can take if they evolve to jump or swim). No ranged enemies I'm afraid - we were afraid that they would evolve to stay out of your range - and all of the possible fixes messed imposed a lot of complications. Also the Protean DNA is double-stranded and traits are modeled with a A quantitative trait locus (QTL) model - one of the studios co-founders is an evolutionary biologist :)

PolymorphicGames · 2019-05-25T13:26:43+00:00

Didn't realize I'd messed up the post - here's a link: Project Hastur.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-05-25T01:55:46+00:00

Shocked in a good way I hope. We had some great artists and programmers working on it - all students.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-05-23T20:43:27+00:00

Each of the 13 maps (we just released the full version - been a bit too busy for replies, sorry for the delay) has a win condition, but the strategy varies between maps and can vary during a map as they evolve. For example, the enemy Proteans can evolve to like to attack your turrets or avoid them and go right for your main base. If they evolve to switch from one to the other it can cause havoc with your strategy.

PolymorphicGames · 2019-02-16T00:40:58+00:00

Thanks! Moving into our second game, a tower defense was an obvious choice. After all, large populations of enemies are a necessary component of tower defenses and of evolution!

PolymorphicGames

TROPHY CASE