"Primeval Laboratories" is a shootemup or "bullet hell" game in which you must fight sets of generated enemies. However, each generation adapts and learns from the previous one, and the enemies continue to become more difficult through this process.
The biggest feature of the game is the procedural, genetic creation of the enemies. Every stat, behavior, and weapon is coded in a genome that is manipulated by a genetic algorithm to create the subsequent generation. Hopefully you will see many interesting and amusing generations as you play!
You can export enemies to a text file in the pause menu, then share them with others or breed them from the main menu.
In theory it plays better with an XBox controller, but that's completely untested.
Nice. I like the art direction, especially the soft gradients. I guess I don't see thematically how the in game art and the story/UI matches up though. Really like the opening screen and the gameplay is pretty solid.
Very fun and cool use of theme. The difficulty did ramp up faster than I thought it would (I would have hoped I would have survived to the third generation).
That was a really fun game, especially for a shmup fan like myself. The only thing I will say is that I felt that the game was too easy for myself, in respect to the amount of damage that I was taking.
Really interesting evolution mechanic with the enemies. This game has much potential if you spent time working on it more.
There seem to be some very conflicting opinions on the difficulty - probably due to the random nature of the enemies :). The enemies always get harder as the rounds progress (due to the genetics), but the first round is completely random, so it could start off at any difficulty. Perhaps this is a problem.
@kevin: If it crashes on startup, do you have the XNA Framework installed? I may try to add some exception logging if others have problems.
Cute game. I love the 3D simplistic look of the spheres. Admit it gets a tad repetitive but technically very good, it's got AI, nice controls, and really good lighting. thanks for the game B.
Had a lot of trouble at first getting anything to happen before I realised I had an xbox pad plugged in - seems to cause keyboard and mouse controls to stop working which wouldn't be a problem except that the pad controls don't work - there's no way to fire and the y axis movement is inverted!
Once I unplugged the pad it was quite good fun. :-)
Nice fx ! The boss battle was fun, I enjoyed playing your game. I was unsure of the meaning of the product panel. I know it was bout boss habilities but didnt know how to read it. The texts add a lot to the ambient of the game.
Really well made ambiance and mood! IT would be nice to see the stats of each product, because right now, we don't really know what's happening. With the exception of the projectiles. The game goes smootly :). You're right on the theme :)
Wow, that was awesome. The enemies really felt like they got more and more deadly as time went on. Being able to export/import was a definite plus, really cool feature :)
Fun concept, liked the portal reference. But the game felt way too easy, didn't feel like it became more difficult with more generations. Just start by peppering when the enemy, and then do a few rounds around while holding down the mouse button, and I felt like I always won.
Thanks again, guys. Your feedback is very appreciated!
Yeah, XNA means Linux and Mac get left out, sorry. It's what I'm most familiar with, so it seemed like the thing to do for my first LD. In the future, I should move to a more portable engine.
Nice game and use of the theme. Seeing IA evolving is really challenging. Pretty addictive too. It reminds me the robot in the animated movie : The Incredibles.
Else, at start, i didn't understand where was the enemy's life bar because i thought it was just a kind of red light.
Finally finished by a Moose Warrior thing! Really like the evolving difficulty, though for me the curve is indeed a bit too slow. Had a nice look and atmosphere to it. Fun game!
Comments25
Really interesting evolution mechanic with the enemies. This game has much potential if you spent time working on it more.
There seem to be some very conflicting opinions on the difficulty - probably due to the random nature of the enemies :). The enemies always get harder as the rounds progress (due to the genetics), but the first round is completely random, so it could start off at any difficulty. Perhaps this is a problem.
@kevin: If it crashes on startup, do you have the XNA Framework installed? I may try to add some exception logging if others have problems.
Had a lot of trouble at first getting anything to happen before I realised I had an xbox pad plugged in - seems to cause keyboard and mouse controls to stop working which wouldn't be a problem except that the pad controls don't work - there's no way to fire and the y axis movement is inverted!
Once I unplugged the pad it was quite good fun. :-)
I only wished i could evolve too :(.
Yeah, XNA means Linux and Mac get left out, sorry. It's what I'm most familiar with, so it seemed like the thing to do for my first LD. In the future, I should move to a more portable engine.
I'm glad someone got the reference, thanks dj :D!
Seeing IA evolving is really challenging.
Pretty addictive too. It reminds me the robot in the animated movie : The Incredibles.
Else, at start, i didn't understand where was the enemy's life bar because i thought it was just a kind of red light.