Mycelium

by nsun
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.90
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.78
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.39
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.10
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.80
Audio★★★★★★★★★★1.67
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.16
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.59
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%
[Game rule]
Drop mushrooms on mycelium, and help generations to reach every space. Try to find efficient or profitable patterns.
Rules: A mushroom need 2 other mushrooms around him to stay alive. A mushroom will grow at next generation if 3 mushrooms stay around an empty cell.

[Controls]
Mouse Left: Drop/remove mushrooms
Escape: Pause / Menu
Key G: next Generation
Key F: Fast generation
Key R: Restart level
Key H: Highlight empty cells

[Credit]
Inspired by Conway's Game of Life

[Story] (Beneath the surface)
Mycelium can be viewed as mushroom's roots. In fact, the mushroom is the fruit of a mycelium, the visible portion. Mycelium spreads for miles beneath the floor. It breaks down dead organic matter, and enriched the soil.
In a way, mycelium kitchen for any vegetation.
Help mycelium to feed mother nature.

[Developement]
I was very sick with the theme "Beneath the surface", and I could'nt start something saturday. I found idea of mycelium, but I was not very confident, and I tryed to find something else. I lacked of motivation. Finaly (Saturday night), I found that Mycelium were a great idea, so then I lacked of energy, and then lacked of time...
I post this game as Jam Entry, but I did it alone.

Comments27

bitserum2 May 2014, 09:34
This was cool, anyone who appreciates the game of life will like this. Good job.
jomomomo
jomomomo2 May 2014, 13:35
Good graphics, interesting that you included both story and creative mode...
Nizar892 May 2014, 13:37
The idea seems cool, but I have to admit, I didn't not completly understood how the generation works. I think there is a lack of feedbacks.

Stiil, great job!
Nichii
Nichii2 May 2014, 13:38
I love seeing the mushrooms grow, its so calming in a way.
ArcturusDeluxe3 May 2014, 20:06
Interesting idea, cool way of making Conway's Game of Life into more of a game. Good presentation.
hanoth3 May 2014, 20:20
Pretty neat. You must be a fun guy in real life.
Zerkruemler4 May 2014, 09:59
Nice implementation of the game of life. But since the playfield does not wrap around at the borders it is hard to get the borders finished.
Benjamin
Benjamin4 May 2014, 10:03
Most of the time, adaptation of the game of life makes bad or unplayable/aimless games. But this one was pretty fun, the conquest mechanic + mushroom limitation add a lot of strategy. You could make it even more strateigc by limiting move... Let's say 5 move per turn ( cumulative ). Some sfx on add/remove mushrooms + expansion would add a lot.
nSun
nSunauthor4 May 2014, 10:08
@Zerkruemler : Actually, warping edges is a feature in creative mode (free play). I just thought that this effect might make the game too easy, and make it almost useless ship's patterns.
BlazingFanfish
BlazingFanfish4 May 2014, 10:24
The mechanic is interesting enough. With some polished resources, this sure will be a great game!
Muciojad4 May 2014, 15:42
Very original idea, I see game about mushrooms first time in this LD ;) Art is matching to gameplay, very solid entry. ;]
Katamori5 May 2014, 11:08
Game of life! Hahaaaa, I see what you did there!

Solid game BTW.
jujule7 May 2014, 10:34
Very interesting take on the theme. I'm dumb so I don't really get how the mushrooms grow but I enjoyed trying different patterns and watching them grow. Maybe try to add music and sound fx. Good work for such a short time.
strong99
strong997 May 2014, 11:48
As addicting as a Game of life could be, joy.
Ryan up in here
Ryan up in here7 May 2014, 17:00
Thanks for making me feel dumb. I'll go back and figure it out eventually though.

And I see what you did there, hanoth.
JokerDen
JokerDen8 May 2014, 10:28
I like the concept of this game. Gameplay is addictional and not boring. And you know, all things about mushrooms are always interesting.
HybridMind
HybridMind10 May 2014, 14:33
Well, I am not good at Conway's game of life apparently. Wasn't able to get past the first level. I didn't feel like looking up the rules of Life, so I just tried to mess around. Had some mushrooms growing Ok for a little while, but eventually they died out.
mark.goetz
mark.goetz10 May 2014, 14:36
This is a really innovative concept - I'm not sure I've seen anything like it before! It is a bit tricky to predict the course of your actions, which is more of a difficulty with Conway's game of life than with your game. I think if you added some tutorials at the start, it could go a long way.
gre
gre11 May 2014, 16:04
Very cool concept! The game mecanism is interesting.
my entry also have mushrooms :D
littleball
littleball11 May 2014, 16:20
Still trying to work it out, but it looks good. Well done.
60711 May 2014, 17:47
Wow, very good! I've known the concept of game of life, but am not too good at it, so I had to figure everything out myself. Unfortunately I only had time to solve the first level, but it was great. I think that when you want to make a real game out of game of life, this is the perfect way to do it.
BadPaul34
BadPaul3417 May 2014, 20:53
Kind of tricky to play but very fun! Great concept game of life. Mechanic is interesting and neat. Miss the music!!
rincewind_cz
rincewind_cz18 May 2014, 15:33
Interesting take on game of life.. but I think that custom/tweaked set of rules for cells would be even funnier -- now I can get rid of most levels by just gliders and it's not so enjoyable when the player know what he gets... ;)
copain
copain19 May 2014, 16:09
Nice idea. I like Game of life.
But once you find some pattern (like cross) to get more mushroom and expand, this is a little repetitive. Maybe some obstacle that forced only one solution, will be nice.
(and a didacticiel for people who don't know game of life and to discover some patterns...)
wschorn
wschorn19 May 2014, 22:30
I love Conway's Game of Life so I was nerding out about making gliders with this :P
PixelFeet19 May 2014, 22:33
Really interesting game. It took me a while to figure it out, but I got there eventually.

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