i was wonderin if you guys think this is a good project for a newbie like me to do the idea behind the game is that you a re a small single celled organism you are able to create new mutations for your creature by inputting genetic code but to get new genetic sequences you need gene points you get gene points by unleashing your organism in the world the longer it survives and the more it eats the more points u get when u get enough points u unlock a new genetic sequence for these criteria: Movement, Cell Membrane, Nucleus, and Mitochondria. since im a newbie im making this game text only then soon i will make a graphical one so wat do u guys think im a little over half done with the design doc if any of u wanna see it thx

If _YOU_ have a good design document , _YOU _ should be able to write most anything. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. As for if it''s a good project for _YOU_ to start with.. well.. I don''t know if I would recommend this for a newbie. I''d say Tetris, or a platform..

Magnwa

You should make it so if you do something wrong then the cell gets cancer and turns malignant and starts killing other cells

haha

Sounds like a good idea MercForHire. I''m very surprised to hear a newbie say he is ''working on the design document'' though. I thought newbies just run off and start coding without thinking...

Doug Sutherland

writing it in text first is one of the wisest things i''ve seen posted here.

make the game fun and playable. that is the most overlooked aspect of game programming. as for graphics, look around this board. there are plenty of people who do graphics who would enjoy the exercise if it is addictive, which it sounds like. personally i am keen to play it myself

i often put together little text only things to see if my game is fun. if it captivates you even without graphics you have a winning idea.

oh, and post it when you get something working. i wanna play it

thx for the support AND the adive
right now there are probally over 150 combinations for ure cell

we do start coding without thinking
i jus had nothing to do so im writing one up

right now my design doc is 9 pages and 1,200 words give or take 100 words

im happy...

hehe
i jus found out the approx. number of combinations in the game
u may not beleive it but i thinks its true

ahem the number is(drum roll)=1296!!!
im not sure though
ill ask u guys

4 categories with 6 differnt choices in each one
u pick one choice from each category
was my number correct?

Hey MercForHire, you have a great ideea ! Dont worry too much about design documents. Just code away the first version, play with it, hack the code to add features, do whatever they say you shouldnt. Thats how you learn. After this, when you do the real design document and the real polished game, you''ll have at least some ideea of what kind of trouble you can run into.


The excelent thing about your ideea is that its very easy to write the first version, and after that in can be extended and upgraded almost indefinetely.


As for the increasing the number of combinations, how''s this ?
You have 4 categs with 6 choices. What if you would allow a cell to have more of the 6 choices at the same time. But the more genes you add to your cell, the more it will have to eat to reproduce, so adding everything at once wont be a good ideea.

The number of combinations of this would be more than *lighting ... thunder* 16.000.000


Maybe you should ask felisandria to move this thread over to the game design corner. Posts in this forum tend to be swept away very fast. And gene talk would be a refreshing change from the day to day RPG talk we have there.

you lost me there


ok let me rephrase my words

u take one movement, one cell membrane, one nucleus, and one mitochondria mutation, thats it

even if ure number is right, 1296 is still a big number

i think ill write the design doc first so i can really knoe wat i want to do and not forget( i got bad memory)

since i dont knoe wat to put in the design doc im putting everything about the game in it

do u want to read it after im done?
id be honored


after this little version im making im thinkin about adding more aggressive A.I, more mutations, random factors( such as over population, disease, etc)


i have posted this thing on the other forum
i didnt get much feed back( they''re too caught up in RPG''s )


i wish i could get mroe feedback...

whoops
i screwed up my post

and i forgot to put my name

hey your game idea sounds great. im a newbie ive just started
learning about 2 weeks now im not even off the basics yet.
But your game hurry up and finish it ,it sounds excellent i cant wait to have a go on it. GREAT IDEA MercForHire and good luck with it