Microbe Stage Final Draft

We're getting off topic, I would reccomend posting a new thread in the welcome section if you haven't already and continue applying for a position there, in the meantime, you could always help with conceptual work which is for the most part where this project's at.

If you really want to discuss how the game will work in microbe stage, beyond the conceptual and down to the actual mechanics, go to the appropriate thread.

Tenebrarum wrote:

I believe engulfmeant should be fairly easy to depict in a both ways, amoeboid and standard.

I think it would be fun if mistaken identity could have the player end up trying to engulf things they can't digest, rock particulates and the like, once they get large enough.

How will shape be handled?

For this stage, I can think of two posible options:
A particle based model, as if it was a big bag full of marbles, or a 2D animation stuck on a plane.

The advantages of the 3d model is that particles can float around the inner part of the cell, and they can interact with those elements out of it, so the shape would be distorted on movement and contact.
Also, the 3D particle would allow you see the elements you have engulfed without making new 2d pictures, just changing textures.

On the other hand, 2D pictures can be more detailed.

I like the 3D idea better, it seems to have more benefits.

Yeah I agree, I'd rather play a 3d environment.

The environment will be top-down but 3D. In this way, we can preserve simple gameplay while having a simple environment setup.

~sciocont wrote:

The environment will be top-down but 3D. In this way, we can preserve simple gameplay while having a simple environment setup.

I know, you know what I mean when I say 3d environment.

so is there any exact date for thrive release or we're just going late 2012 ?

Rorsten594 wrote:

so is there any exact date for thrive release or we're just going late 2012 ?

Just whenever we have something playable done. The time until a stable & playable release is rather like the predator population in the population dynamics thread - all we can say is that it's currently rather high, and is dependant on many variables.

But it will probably be late 2012 (i.e. now) to early 2013.

btw, Has anyone made a NEW prototype, that is playable?

Its been a while...

MeowMan1 wrote:

btw, Has anyone made a NEW prototype, that is playable?

Its been a while...

Unfortunately nope. There is a lot of background stuff to do, and not many people to do it.
Although, if you regard Spore as a sort of incredible yet rubbish prototype, you could play that while you wait…

Concept for Cooker Microbe:

Gawbad wrote:

Concept for Cooker Microbe:

Good concept!

Now i'm not 100% if this would be the right thread for this but since its the "Final Draft" thread I would like to share an idea that I got.
Maybe its too much, maybe not.
When our cell absorbs something (exmaple a sugar) and since cells are very small and transparent can we see the process of the 'thing' that is being absorbed go through the process of (for example) being turned into glucose? As in going through the organelles changing etc. Or will this be too much? (Maybe added in the future?)

D4RK_VOID wrote:

Now i'm not 100% if this would be the right thread for this but since its the "Final Draft" thread I would like to share an idea that I got.
Maybe its too much, maybe not.
When our cell absorbs something (exmaple a sugar) and since cells are very small and transparent can we see the process of the 'thing' that is being absorbed go through the process of (for example) being turned into glucose? As in going through the organelles changing etc. Or will this be too much? (Maybe added in the future?)

I hope so, but at the start when you absorb something it will just disapear and be added to your invisible reserves.

So i don't know how far along the team is with the actual designs of the microbe parts but, I was looking at some cells under a microscope and online and drew the most extreme parts.
Pieces 1 and 2 are for protection
Piece 3 is for attacking predators (or prey)
I know they decided that the cells would not have mouths but i drew one anyway, that's number 4
pieces 5,6, and 7 are all for movement

Spoiler:

Here's a picture of a few drawings of cell parts I made based on real cells, I wasn't sure how far along the team was with the actual design of the cell parts, but i drew some anyway.
number 1 and 2 are for your cells protection
part 3 is for attacking your enemies, predator of prey
I know they were planning not to have any mouths but, I drew one anyway, that's number 4
numbers 5, 6, and 7 are for movement.

And how is the transition from a single celled organism to a multicellular creature going to work?

Spoiler:

Wow, that's great concept work Reklaw.

The transition will be a shifting of the camera from a 2D top down view to a 3D view. In the process the individual cells of your creature will become indistinguishable and instead you control a whole multicellular organism. However, this is just a brief description, I'll try and find the full one and give you the link.

Just be careful with double-posting, since you posted mostly the same stuff both times. I put your pictures in spoilers to reduce the size of the posts.

For the transition from microbe to multicellular gameplay, we came up with the ‘Early Multicellular Stage’, in which your cell has developed the multicellular gene but is still a countable number of cells big. It has a top-down perspective, like cellular stage, but you control a colony of cells, and certain gameplay features give the impression of a more 3D environment. Over time, gameplay gradually becomes like like cellular, and more like multicellular. When the number of cells reaches a certain point, the stage ends, and we fully switch the camera to a 3D perspective, and your colony of cells is converted (from the game's point of view) into a single multicellular-stage organism.

The current concept is here, and much, much longer and more detailed.

Sorry for the double post I didn't think it posted the first time.
Do you get to decide when you change from a single celled organism to a multi celled one? Could you stay a singled celled creature as long as you like, or will it force you to move on? And how far along should you get in the first release of the microbe stage? Will it end as soon as you get more than one cell, or will it end after you are a simple multi celled creature and ready to become a complex organism?

First release will look like a sphere representing your cell moving around, with some spheres representing other cells around. Nothing else.

And you can decide not to go to multicelular ever.

Wait, so the microbe stage that is planned to be released at the of the year is just going to be circles and dots? I don't think that will have the desired effect to bring in more programmers and such. To bring lots of new people we need something more than that. and how far along is it currently? do we have our base program yet?

Basically, we are going to release each tiny part as soon as it works. Actually, the first release is going to be much simpler than what i said, just a background. As we very recently gave up on some things we wanted to get working before doing anything else (namelly MyGUI), i expect that this first release with only one background will be done really soon. If we had something playable prepared, it would be out.

Actually, that plan on releasing something at the end of the year was planned for last year, but it didn't happen.

Oh, ok I see. If we can code were should I go to help for that?

So instead of releasing something like a full stage, we release a background and perhaps moving circles around it?
I think there are enough programers, we lack in the artistic point of view. If I weren't so busy I'd help. For now, I can try to make a similar GUI to the one I made for the editor, you know status and all that.