Controls: - Left Mouse button to select and interact - Middle Mouse button to rotate view
Goals: - Explore how the regions of the brain interact with each other - Adjust and improve brain functionality - Prevent damaging stress levels (not implemented) - Enable, direct, and engage with the emerging intelligence (not implemented) - Reach various capability milestones (not implemented)
Core Mechanics: - Accumulate Stimulation to level up a brain region - Stimulation produces equivalent Stress - Accumulate Resources to purchase upgrades (up to the level of the current brain region) - Stress reduction costs equivalent Resources - Manage Stress Relief accumulation and distribution - Overstress can cause distribution errors and upgrade loss (not implemented)
Monologue: I wanted to create a brain simulator that would allow the player to discover and manipulate the development of an emerging intelligence. The core mechanics would involve keeping the system balanced. Intermediate goals would involve directing how it would grow, both mechanically, and through dialogue-choice interactions based on what upgrades were active. High level objectives would include milestone style achievements, and a final personality profile for the new intelligence.
For some reason, I thought the basic framework could be finished and playable in 48 hours. So, aside from everything I learned about brains and gamedev, I learned a bit about my own mind as well. <.<
The actual mechanics started off loosely based on real brain activity, but rapidly moved into fiction for the sake of simplicity and interesting interactions.
In the end, I didn't have time to implement the Parietal Lobe beyond the (currently disabled) UI, which contained some of the most interesting upgrades. Likewise, the dialogue interactions, milestones, and audio were cut during the last 12 hours. As was balancing, which turns out to be very important in a bounded-system game with player controlled feedback loops. Enjoy the runaway conditions, and Infinity showing up in random places.
Not too familiar with brains anatomy or activity but it's cool knowing what each one does now; I wasn't sure what I was doing but I felt like a scientist doing it!.. therefore cool game.
Thanks! I started with how the brain actually works, and it slowly devolved into abstractions, and outright fallacies for the sake of gameplay, but it was fun, and I learned quite a bit. Like, next game has no UI. None. Too tedious. (grumble)
Neat idea - completely oblivious as to what's going on - I gather it's a cookie clicker style affair, I'd be keen to see where this heads in the future.
Thats too complex for an average person, in my opinion. I didnt understand anything i did (so much sliders, so much numbers, so much options). Needs more tutoring an info, if you want to make a game about such a narrow known subject.
It took a bit of time to get the hang of it and to learn how everything worked together. After that, it turned out to be somewhat complex to play. The mechanics need a little work, though. I got to the point where the Brain Stem was reducing "Infinity per tick" stress. Check the numbers and balance it some more. Good job overall, though!
Good concept, and could be made for real, right now it is hard to tell if anything is happening in the game other than setting the sliders, it looked like it was on pause the entire time.
Love the concept. Though couldn't quite get into what was affecting what. Could do with a slower unlock process to guide the player through what to do.
Nice concept. This game would benefit a lot from more feedback. Once I click a brain area, it should change color/transparency or use arrow or anything to indicate what you've selected.
Same thing with the sliders: now it's difficult to understand why i first select a lobe, and then get to select "stimulus distribution on other lobes too"? Is Occipital Lobe responsible for disttributing stimulus to frontal lobe?
So... if game would start with just one lobe and then introduce more, that would perhaps be more interesting.
@sandbaydev Yeah, each lobe controls specific resource distributions and upgrades for all lobes. The idea was to try to maintain balance during growth. Only the basic mechanics made it into implementation, and the interface is really bad, frankly.
I didn't quite understand what I was doing, but it's cool to see someone trying something so different. With the missing features and by spending some time tinkering with the systems I could see myself syncing loads of time on this. It reminded me of Diplomacy 3.
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-C
Same thing with the sliders: now it's difficult to understand why i first select a lobe, and then get to select "stimulus distribution on other lobes too"? Is Occipital Lobe responsible for disttributing stimulus to frontal lobe?
So... if game would start with just one lobe and then introduce more, that would perhaps be more interesting.
Nice work and has potential.
With the missing features and by spending some time tinkering with the systems I could see myself syncing loads of time on this. It reminded me of Diplomacy 3.
Good effort.