Hey Devs, I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but i'm really looking for a game that captures the feeling of watching an ecosystem grow from infancy to full on death. I guess the best way to describe it is The SIMS meets SPORE (PC), minus the intense micromanagement. NOT Farmville, though... I want to be able to create a creature (or simply have my choice of pre-selects), define how long i want a given cycle to be (ie, 5 minutes or twenty days), and roughly define the world through pre-selected variables (harsh environment, easy environment, etc), then simply watch my 'creature' grow and evolve over time. Does it develop social structure? Does it become nomadic? Does it bond and multiply with another creature? Does it live off the land? Almost like letting an RTS game play itself on Cinema mode. That's FUN to watch!! I guess the AI for something like that would be pretty complex, but sometimes I'm sitting at my desk and I'd love to just sit back and enjoy a graphically detailed relatively complex simulator that I can check in on. I'd totally purchase in-app IAP for new species or something... But ultimately, I want to watch my tamogotchi dude/creature/spore - grow, evolve, fight, and die in a fairly detailed world. I like The Sims or Sim City, but sometimes the joy is in just watching what you've created 'live' on its own. I don't want to micro EVERY five minutes, but i WOULD love to interact every once in a while just to screw around with the variables GOD-style, just to see if it changes the world. Also, by WORLD, i don't just mean my creature, but the others around it. Do the creatures get religion by erecting some icon? what would happen if I threw in some totem or something? There just arent' enough cosmic simulators on the iPAD, which is wacky considering that the device would be awesome for it. I just enjoy watching little creatures do their thing.... Is there anything like this in development by any of you, or does anything like this currently exist on the iPad?? I guess the CLOSEST to this would be the 4x Space strategy genre... ...but i want to be a little closer to the 'people'. I love the seriousness of tone of the 4x, though...
It's less SimCity and more a competitive Moo2 (4x TBS) experience: Starbase Orion SpaceSector.com Feature
Both of those games look fun, and I'll absolutely purchase them when they're available. However, I think that I'm looking for something that "looks" more like Gratuitous Space Battles as detail and on-screen mayhem goes, but plays more like an RTS (or tower Defense game) with *less* input. I literally want to be able to alter a couple of things occasionally and watch tiny men or ships battle, evolve, battle some more, expand, etc... I guess i just want THE SIMS with a lot less micromanagement. THE SIMS meets Gratuitous Space Battles, meets the app Artificial Life HD, meets Spore, meets Land Air Sea Warfare... That's a tall order, I guess, for a big old digital galactic aquarium. Somebody's GOT to be working on that, right?? If somebody makes a cool looking RTS game that focuses on civilizations instead of just armies, and adds a feature that lets you pit computer v computer and allows you to watch --- and/or jump in at any point - THAT would be a winner on IPAD.... like watching an ANT COLONY!! That's awesome!! SIDENOTE: I've already begged Cliff of Positech Games to make Gratuitous Space Battles for iPAD, but i don't think he's sold on the viability of the platform yet. More emails urging him might not hurt...
+1! Artificial Life HD is a cool little game/app/sim/whatever.. I like letting it run in front of me sometimes while I am at work. I would love a similar experience in another context.
If you fly in our air combat game without shooting anything, you can watch the AI dogfight going in the air space, quite primitive though. Anyway I understand your interesting idea and may start a lunch project for this. Maybe a large group of AI Rome soldiers in battling.
I know exactly what you're talking about OP. I would love something like that on the iPad and pay good money for IAP to spruce everything up. Would save me buying sea monkeys!
You can sort of do this in LASW, its very cool to watch. Simply set the AutoPlay game setting to true and the AI will play itself allowing you to build what you want and queue units, it will automatically attack each other, research technologies, etc. Set it to Robotic difficulty for best results. Before buying the iPhone or iPad version of the game you can download a free demo for Mac or Windows and try it out. I am also doing a promotion right now where if you but the Mac or Windows version you get the iPhone or iPad version for free.
thanks for the tip, Rasterman. i bought LASW the day it came out, and have loved it since. LASW is actually what gave me the idea of the life simulator for the iPad. LASW is one of my fave games on the platform. I've emailed Cliff from Positech Games who makes Gratuitous Space Battles, and I use LASW as an example of how his game could work out on the iPAD. What I REALLY hope is that the one-man LASW dev makes a sequel with campaign mode and/or online multiplayer.
Hi there This topic is of great interest to me. My academic background is is the field of Artificial Life. Now that I am developing iPhone games, I would like to bring across some of what I learned. Things like genetic algoriths, genetic programming, morphogenesis, neural nets, reaction diffusion systems, cellular automata, genetic regulatory nets, etc. However, I am a small 1 man startup at the moment so the time is not right. But that is my vision, my direction, my goal. I am glad other people are interested in this kind of thing. Cheers!!
Hey! Looks like they're making it! This is pretty the type of game that I was hoping somebody was making! this is awesome!! Topia: http://youtu.be/3ciY0Nm_Vhw
