Microbe Stage Concept Animation

Just a quick update on the progress of the animation. It's coming along nicely, if slowly. So far, all I've got is a loading screen, introduction and a few seconds of actual gameplay, but I can say this:

EVEN AT ONLY 2FPS AND 10 FRAMES OF GAMEPLAY, THE ANIMATION AND MOVEMENT OF THE MICROBES MAKES ME WANT TO PLAY IT MORE THAN I CAN DESCRIBE. :affraid: 

Seriously, even the incredibly simple way I've animated one cell's flagella (reflecting the image back and forth) makes it work brilliantly. I've added currents similar to those in Untrustedlife's prototype to add to the effect, but not much else. Also, can someone give me a link to the specification? I can't seem to find it.

Oliveriver wrote:

Also, can someone give me a link to the specification?

Here you go.

Nimbal wrote:

Oliveriver wrote:

Also, can someone give me a link to the specification?

Here you go.

Thanks. :) 

Jacob's posted some screenshots of the animation-in-progress on the Thrive Subreddit, so I'll post them here as well: https://imgur.com/a/klRDA

Oliveriver wrote:

Jacob's posted some screenshots of the animation-in-progress on the Thrive Subreddit, so I'll post them here as well: https://imgur.com/a/klRDA

That's looking so cool. I love how smooth it looks, if the final game replicates this in some way that would be awesome. Good job.

This makes me excited. I feel like its a step forward to have concept art like this.

Looks great
BTW I am back.

Gawbad wrote:

Oliveriver wrote:

Jacob's posted some screenshots of the animation-in-progress on the Thrive Subreddit, so I'll post them here as well: https://imgur.com/a/klRDA

That's looking so cool. I love how smooth it looks, if the final game replicates this in some way that would be awesome. Good job.

OMG THAT NEEDS TO BE ON THE MODDB PAGE NAO!...,,hype aside, it looks incredibly cool i almost imagined i was playing. i hope we have something similar in the first prototype.

I don't think anything should go on ModDB until the actual animation (for which these are single frames) is finished. Otherwise, we'll just be buffeted by people saying, "This concept art is all well and good, but are you actually making any progress?" We've already seen people on Reddit, where the screens have been posted, saying that. If we were to put the animation on ModDB, it would be something new and novel and would actually prove that we are progressing substantially.

@Untrustedlife
Welcome back! I was wondering where you'd got to. :) 

@untrustedlife:
Welcome back Untrustedlife :D 

Oliveriver wrote:

I don't think anything should go on ModDB until the actual animation (for which these are single frames) is finished. Otherwise, we'll just be buffeted by people saying, "This concept art is all well and good, but are you actually making any progress?" We've already seen people on Reddit, where the screens have been posted, saying that. If we were to put the animation on ModDB, it would be something new and novel and would actually prove that we are progressing substantially.

 

yeah i guess it makes sense

I quite liked the idea of the colorful version, really.

If you think about it, Cells aren't a mix of brownish gray colors, if you see the world from a Cell's eyes rather than a Microscope that zooms in in Monochrome, I'm sure a Cell's universe would look like the picture you posted under your "Gallery" Index on your Thrive homepage.

Obviously this post will be ignored because you guys already have a concrete idea of what you want to do with the Microbial stage, I was simply imploring you to think about your future audience, not to the people speaking to you now. They will probably be nose-deep in XBOX Two where the DRM is shoved right up the wazoo and they pull people in with promises of "Pretty Lights" and "Advanced AI" that has been around quite literally since Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.

I understand you want it to be realistic and, from what I've seen, nothing is allowed to be "Cute," but I'm simply asking you to focus on how people may be in the future.

I am sorry if I have bothered anyone as I seem to do with every post I make. :| 

(I could not post the link because I haven't been online for Seven days.)

Thrive is based upon science and it always has been - from its conception it's been intentionally fighting against Spore and its deviation from evolutionary theories, not to mention the cute cells with eyes and sub-par gameplay, especially in particular stages. To go against all of that now would be crazy, considering how much planning, thought and work has gone into making Thrive what it is. To put it frankly, I don't think anyone here really cares how popular Thrive becomes in the long run. We have an audience at the moment - people want a more realistic Spore, which is the reason Thrive exists in the first place. How have we come to have almost 1000 members of the forum (and that's just the people who want to help development) if we don't have an audience? Who cares about the people who just want to play Xbox all day? If we have no hope of enticing them, we have no hope of enticing them. All we really want to do is make a game. Get the microbe stage done and everyone we want to be happy will be happy. If we go the way Spore did and introduce colourful, childish graphics, I'm pretty sure they won't.

TheFellowWithTheHat wrote:

Obviously this post will be ignored because you guys already have a concrete idea of what you want to do with the Microbial stage, I was simply imploring you to think about your future audience, not to the people speaking to you now. They will probably be nose-deep in XBOX Two where the DRM is shoved right up the wazoo and they pull people in with promises of "Pretty Lights" and "Advanced AI" that has been around quite literally since Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.

I understand you want it to be realistic and, from what I've seen, nothing is allowed to be "Cute," but I'm simply asking you to focus on how people may be in the future.

Okay, so you are imploring us to think of our audience. But think of them for what? What's your point? Are you trying to say the cell stage should be more colourful? If that's so, just look at ~scio's post on this page, which shows the whole spectrum of cell colourations.

I think the colours mentioned in in scio's post are sufficient enough. It doesn't need more than that.

yeah the palette shown there has enough colors. maybe allow the player to change the brightness of the tone but nothing more. this puts me to think, do the organelles have their own colors? or are they the same color as the cell?

Well it was posted in the Microbe Stage Progress Report, one of the Announcement threads stickied on the Microbe Stage subfoum and one of the main threads organizing the development efforts.

TheFellowWithTheHat wrote:

You misinterpreted me, I do not want adorable Cells with huge eyes either, I was only saying that on the main website of Thrive, under the "Gallery," I saw a colorful but realistic representation of a cellular environment, I thought that was a very good idea.

I'm not sure what the final product is, I have limited knowledge of what it looks like now, but the point I'm trying to make is that even the tiniest things have colors, things see in Monochrome, Ultraviolet, and in Colors, the Universe has an unrelenting palette of colors that exist on every planet in every organism, including microbes.

Oh, sorry. :oops: 

The thing about microbes (and all organisms, to an extent) is that their colour affects how well they survive. Plants are specifically green because it allows them to make the most of yellow/white light. Microbes are the colours ~scio specified for usually the same reason. However, that does give me an idea - what if a cell's colour determined how much it could photosynthesise, and consequently how much ATP it could produce? Those that are the wrong colour to collect enough sunlight will die out, leaving only those that are the correct colours via natural selection.

That also depends on the intensity of the sun.
I have a diagram of the possible colors with each intensity.
However, I'm on my phone, as ussualy.
So I can't post it now.

Well ~scios color wheel is almost the whole spectrum i think, he used it to suggest colors.
@Oliveriver the photosynthesizing ones are the chloroplasts and they are green(btw mitochondria appear to be brown 'cause of the cytochromes) otherwise good idea but the game starts at a later stage of evolution the proteins are already perfected cyanobacteria and rickettsia are wandering for millions of years now even eukaryotic organisms have appeared, what the player starts with, at least that was the concepts when i last looked at it, i don't know things may have changed.
Btw as this thread is already spammed and flooded any news on the microbe stage? I haven't seen post about development in 2 months, last i read that the game engine is coming nicely and the fluid system was discussed.

Whatever coding has been going on has not made it to Github yet, because the last activity on GitHub was early June. I do hope to hear more in-depth from the programmers soon, as I PM'd them recently and they said that they were currently working on the GUI. However, I think the best thing to do right now is to make a Game Design Document outlining all of the in-game features and mechanics. What we have on the Microbe Stage entry in the old wiki is good, but is missing info on the different types of agents and the effects of organelles, as well as compound processes. I'll start a thread on organizing this soon, so keep an eye out.

TheFellowWithTheHat wrote:

Oliveriver wrote:

TheFellowWithTheHat wrote:

You misinterpreted me, I do not want adorable Cells with huge eyes either, I was only saying that on the main website of Thrive, under the "Gallery," I saw a colorful but realistic representation of a cellular environment, I thought that was a very good idea.

I'm not sure what the final product is, I have limited knowledge of what it looks like now, but the point I'm trying to make is that even the tiniest things have colors, things see in Monochrome, Ultraviolet, and in Colors, the Universe has an unrelenting palette of colors that exist on every planet in every organism, including microbes.

Oh, sorry. :oops: 

The thing about microbes (and all organisms, to an extent) is that their colour affects how well they survive. Plants are specifically green because it allows them to make the most of yellow/white light. Microbes are the colours ~scio specified for usually the same reason. However, that does give me an idea - what if a cell's colour determined how much it could photosynthesise, and consequently how much ATP it could produce? Those that are the wrong colour to collect enough sunlight will die out, leaving only those that are the correct colours via natural selection.

I wonder why the pinkish flesh of humans keeps us alive, if someone is in the wild and they have their pinkish red or white or whatever color human skin is, they'll stick out like a sore thumb in a Rain forest.

I may have interpreted the "Oh, sorry" by mistake, thinking it was sarcasm, my apologies.

Will the skin colours of creatures also have some sort of effect on how well they may hide? If your cell is green and it is among green matter, is it hidden if it doesn't move?

I personally think that is more something for the multi-cellular stage, and possibly beyond.
But I would think just sitting still would be a better way, because you then don't make the water vibrate.
Thus they don't know where you are.
Or do they have eyes (Ascended-creature no), SPOOOOOORE.
Btw ascended-creature = god, think about it, it is nearly equal.

Greetings Siebren.