HEADS UP: FOR SOME REASON UNBEKNOWNST TO ME, THE WEB BUILD RUNS INFINITELY FASTER IN FIREFOX - EVEN FASTER THAN THE DESKTOP BUILDS!
With one week left till school (starting high school!!!), I decided that a partaking in this game jam would be the perfect way to ease myself back into the pressure and general sleeplessness that accompanies school life. Thus I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful ragdoll-and-blood-filled game featuring a genetic algorithm, a reference to 'The Killers' and my amazing piano arranging skills (as always, made in much less than 48 hours).
The "game" is a simulation of the development of (killing) technology - from ancient stuff (chucking bricks and rocks) to excitingly complex things like guns that fire guns.
What you have to do is simply to answer the questions at the start (these act as parameters for the simulation) and enjoy the ensuing carnage. The machines get pretty good at taking out entire crowds of ragdolls at about generation 5 so be patient.
Also, if any of you guys feel like building the game in Unity Pro and making it into a screensaver, hmu because that would be fab.
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THE ALGORITHM: I've used a genetic algorithm which basically means that the first generation is randomly generated. Then the most murderous of the first generation are bred together to produce a second even more murderous generation. It's basically natural selection on a computer!
it was only a brick, it was only a brick! yeah, for some reason its slow in chrome, very nice take of the theme, very nice execution as well anyway, that voice at the beggining really crack me up, and you piano skill is on point bruh :D
It feels like it's going way too slow. It's generation 12 and there are still a considerable amount of members that don't hit the walls at all. Those who do however are very satisfying to watch
I could watch this play out over and over and over and over again, It seems to favour the wall as the preferred way once it hits generation 14 and I think I spotted throwing knives at one point which was a nice touch :D
Nice one there :D A bit macabre maybe, but I love it! The piano music also fits beautifully. Not much in terms of gameplay, but entertaining nonetheless.
All jokes aside, very strange thing you've produced here. The music fits the carnage in an oddly sadistic way. Though I have no idea what's going on, it seems that it is simulating destruction of ragdoll people and is storing the most "successful" scenarios? Odd. Very odd.
Second LD entry I've seen in the first day that's not a game. Regardless, very fun to watch. Music's fabulous, graphics are clean, the carnage is beautiful
If I have an issue with the mechanics, it's that the bricks the walls are made out of are far too deadly. In a couple games I ran, the algorithm was using them as weapons. As much as particle effects are fun to watch, it gets boring watching simple bricks drop from various points to optimize splash. Crossbows and cannons are far more exciting and I wish I could see more of them.
As a mode of interactivity, it might be interesting to let the player upvote/downvote various ideas to discourage this sort of repetition.
Haha that was quite entertaining. The music, the ragdolling, the questions (without a negative which was a pretty good design choice, I think) in the beginning.
Probably shouldn't tell you this, but you should drink more and jam more. Good stuff happens
Very good physics and stuff. But am I supposed to watch the whole simulation, is it interactive or something? :/ I couldn't figure out what to do after answer the quiz.
Haha, this is hilarious. Not a "game", per se, but very entertaining all the same.
I've always been a fan of watching genetic algorithms in action, and this is no exception. It does seem like the winning strategy is to smash the walls in such a way that the bits go flying across the people, taking them all out - that showed up in generation 2 or 3 in my game and by generation 12 was pretty much universal.
Haha that was a lot of fun! Maybe to add some "gameplay" elements, you could rate the state of the machine and incorporate this for the next iteration. My machine ended up just grinding the left pillar, killing everyone with the debries :-)
Loved the music, and it was strangely hypnotic to watch the algorithm learn the best ways of killing. I'm really really curious about how the algorithm works behind the hood, would love more details about how it merges the various generations of killers.
Nice music, and its really impressive to get a solid genetic algorithm for a jam. Definitely needs some interaction though, it's just not really a game atm.
Hi, nice game and congratulations ! Simple mechanics that still offered a decent amount of challenge.We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #36. We made the same thing at the previous jam.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free) So we can include also your game in the video ;) p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description.
I love those types of evolution games, I really do. Its so interesting to watch those machines grow. And ... evolve. And now? When you add gore, murder and destructible enviroment ... WOHOOOOOO GAME ON!
Interesting game! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36 games, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/hC8B45eG0n0
Whoa! Nice simulation there, and good way to play around with genetic algorithms and that jazz. Good piano music, though with the slow Chromium I run on my Ubuntu machine, it does get repetitive on the way to ever more destructive means of death. It did feel like the "brick" reached extremely efficient ways of killing within one generation (an entire column being smashed into a scream-inducing wave of general unpleasantness), but maybe I just answered the quiz questions well. Who knows? Good work, regardless.
(And I didn't even know Unity Pro could build projects into screensavers, even if only with an add-on, that's pretty wild)
Really cool little simulation! The score was amazing too, props to you for your piano method! Only issue I had (if you can call it that) was that the most common top evolution (i did multiple runs to 15th generation) by generation 4 was members that simply spawned in or above the walls and killed with shrapnel from that.
I really like physics simulation, so I liked your game :D! Was nice know the performance of Chrome and Firefox :P. I could play for hours if it had some interaction. Maybe a drag of the people or the bricks. Nice work. Keep going!
Oh, hey, Steven Hawking's sound-a-like-voice is back! Good memories!
Unfortunately performs very poorly on my computer while hooked to a projector and streaming to Twitch, all at the same time. OK, almost nothing runs on my computer, but still, maybe make it less performance killing next time?
I didn't really understand what was going on, but the music was nice. I still wish I had some idea of what the "generation" and "member" number means, exactly...
Interesting game, liked how you had to answer questions at the start to set the perimeters. Did have moments where the brick landed off to the side and missed everything. Simple art also worked well with the game.
Would definitely make a good screen saver. Nice music. Would have liked some sort of interactive element, even if it's just a score board telling me which member in the generation has the highest fitness ("score").
![Complete Amateurs Christmas Card Maker 2016 [OFFICIAL]](https://pics.ldj.am/cover/-1/-1277842607-afe0496c.webp)
Comments61
yeah, for some reason its slow in chrome, very nice take of the theme, very nice execution as well
anyway, that voice at the beggining really crack me up, and you piano skill is on point bruh :D
Those who do however are very satisfying to watch
The only detail I would change is the speed, would be funnier and dynamic.
That jokes made me laugh a lot!
Great game.
10/10 would play again
Maybe needs some more player input to avoid it being a movie, but impressive work regardless.
What.. What is my life???
All jokes aside, very strange thing you've produced here. The music fits the carnage in an oddly sadistic way. Though I have no idea what's going on, it seems that it is simulating destruction of ragdoll people and is storing the most "successful" scenarios? Odd. Very odd.
Regardless, very fun to watch. Music's fabulous, graphics are clean, the carnage is beautiful
If I have an issue with the mechanics, it's that the bricks the walls are made out of are far too deadly. In a couple games I ran, the algorithm was using them as weapons. As much as particle effects are fun to watch, it gets boring watching simple bricks drop from various points to optimize splash. Crossbows and cannons are far more exciting and I wish I could see more of them.
As a mode of interactivity, it might be interesting to let the player upvote/downvote various ideas to discourage this sort of repetition.
The suggestion above about letting the player influence the scoring sounds neat as well.
Probably shouldn't tell you this, but you should drink more and jam more. Good stuff happens
overall a fun game
Some interactivity would be awesome - letting the player change the scene would be cool (but it might take quite some time to do :/ )
Nice piano too!
Should add some more interactivity and sound effects.
I think that there should be a bit more possibilities to control the generations - or maybe see a list of the fitness scores at least?
Still, it makes for a cool cinematic with playful music together with just about the funniest way to test GA. Very well done!
@everyone Yup, I'll look into adding some interaction later
I've always been a fan of watching genetic algorithms in action, and this is no exception. It does seem like the winning strategy is to smash the walls in such a way that the bits go flying across the people, taking them all out - that showed up in generation 2 or 3 in my game and by generation 12 was pretty much universal.
Good stuff!
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description.
Wait... now I sound like a psychopath.
Anyway amazing entry!
And now? When you add gore, murder and destructible enviroment ... WOHOOOOOO GAME ON!
(And I didn't even know Unity Pro could build projects into screensavers, even if only with an add-on, that's pretty wild)
The score was amazing too, props to you for your piano method!
Only issue I had (if you can call it that) was that the most common top evolution (i did multiple runs to 15th generation) by generation 4 was members that simply spawned in or above the walls and killed with shrapnel from that.
I could play for hours if it had some interaction. Maybe a drag of the people or the bricks.
Nice work. Keep going!
I think you may like mine too :P
Unfortunately performs very poorly on my computer while hooked to a projector and streaming to Twitch, all at the same time. OK, almost nothing runs on my computer, but still, maybe make it less performance killing next time?
I still wish I had some idea of what the "generation" and "member" number means, exactly...