I've always been fascinated by the ocean's lowest depths. Such a game that let you delve into the crevasses of the deep would be cool. Maybe a National Geographic-esque exploration game?

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you start out as a big sea monster and try to survive through the ages gaining mutations along the way.

If you make the mutations small, like changing the colour of the skin, shortening or lengthening fins/flippers or size or tail, etc, this could be a good example of how small changes add up over time into larger changes. This would not only make it a game, but also be an educational game about evolution.

Part of the game is that over time you build up a "substance" (call it Mutagen) which allows you to make changes similar to levelling up a character in an RPG. But instead of the changes being in a specific direction, they allow you to make modifications to various parts of your creature.

The idea of the game is to out compete the other Sea monsters for territory (combats like a beat-em-up), food (chasing down prey in like a FPS style game) and mates (chasing off rivals and doing the correct displays like a quick time event).

The problem is, that the game will look at your creature and make similar types to yours as time goes on, which means that even if the player picks the best attributes for a given location, then over time similar, rival creatures will be spawned that make it harder for the player to keep the top place. Not only that, as these can have random mutations as well, they might actually hit on a better combination and out compete the player altogether (forcing them to move to new areas - especially if they get beaten in the territory control/combat part of the game).

It would be a bit like Spore "lite", but with more details on the creature attribute parts (and probably not including their physical creature designing technologies).

You would try to model things like how skin colour changes how much heat is absorbed/emitted or gives camouflage, how bulk and length of body parts effects the movement and manoeuvrability of your creature, etc more than they do with Spore.

You could also have the player be able to play different species in the world, so you might even be able to play prey species instead of predator species. Also, if this was an MMO type game, then you could have virtually all animals in the environment being played by real people.

Wow, lots of good ideas. [grin] I particularly like the idea of fish as adventure-game style puzzle elements. But actually there are so many interesting possibilities I have no idea which one to go with. o.O

I even have one more to add to the pile - I was thinking about Batman and the Joker recently and was pondering the idea of a fish-themed supervillain.

">SHARKS WITH FRICKIN LAZERS!


...sorry, it had to be done.

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Original post by jjd ">SHARKS WITH FRICKIN LAZERS! ...sorry, it had to be done.

Damn, you beat me to it [wink]

How about a less linear variation on EVO, where instead of "levelling up" to bite harder and swim faster, you have to eugenically reconfigure your fish to adapt to different situations? So, instead of amassing points and spending them to get bigger, faster and stronger, you'd be reallocating points, or even using some kind of breeding minigame to mix and match traits from different members of the population.

It could combine some basic natural-selection stuff, where colder water means a lot of fish that can't take it are dying before they mature enough that their DNA can be used in the breeding system, and the more hands-on "unnatural selection" of you, the player, picking and choosing which traits should be most expressed in the next generation.

You could do it directly, by either manually pairing fish, or maybe try a more abstract system, either by influencing fish behavior and migration (Let a chunk of your population live in somewhat salty water for a few generations in order to breed up a batch that can go even saltier) or by influencing the environment itself, maybe by introducing more direct sunlight or lowering the water level or stilling the current.

You could just have fish customization as the goal, or you could have some kind of challenge, like an oil spill or disease or invasive species that would either require your fish to relocate and adapt to the new environment or build up a resistance to the threat.

Now I'm envisioning a game board where there are ferocious fish of an ancient bloodline that dwell in a cavern and devour anything foolish enough to trespass, but they can't withstand untraviolet radiation, so they can't get near the surface of the water except at night. Vampires of the deep!

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Original post by sunandshadow Wow, lots of good ideas. [grin] I particularly like the idea of fish as adventure-game style puzzle elements. But actually there are so many interesting possibilities I have no idea which one to go with. o.O I even have one more to add to the pile - I was thinking about Batman and the Joker recently and was pondering the idea of a fish-themed supervillain.

That totally reminds me of

">Sharky and George [youtube.com] ;)

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage How about a less linear variation on EVO, where instead of "levelling up" to bite harder and swim faster, you have to eugenically reconfigure your fish to adapt to different situations? So, instead of amassing points and spending them to get bigger, faster and stronger, you'd be reallocating points, or even using some kind of breeding minigame to mix and match traits from different members of the population. It could combine some basic natural-selection stuff, where colder water means a lot of fish that can't take it are dying before they mature enough that their DNA can be used in the breeding system, and the more hands-on "unnatural selection" of you, the player, picking and choosing which traits should be most expressed in the next generation. You could do it directly, by either manually pairing fish, or maybe try a more abstract system, either by influencing fish behavior and migration (Let a chunk of your population live in somewhat salty water for a few generations in order to breed up a batch that can go even saltier) or by influencing the environment itself, maybe by introducing more direct sunlight or lowering the water level or stilling the current. You could just have fish customization as the goal, or you could have some kind of challenge, like an oil spill or disease or invasive species that would either require your fish to relocate and adapt to the new environment or build up a resistance to the threat. Now I'm envisioning a game board where there are ferocious fish of an ancient bloodline that dwell in a cavern and devour anything foolish enough to trespass, but they can't withstand ultraviolet radiation, so they can't get near the surface of the water except at night. Vampires of the deep!

Hmm, makes me think of something like a warcraft single player campaign or lemmings, where each level is a mission, but you have to breed your fish into the tools you need to solve the puzzle.

Ok how about this.

You've been charged by your commander to keep the bad guy away from his goal. In your arsenal you have an army of fish and squid that you can use to attack him with. You would only need to hit him once or twice, depending on how powerful he is, but once you send out your units, you can't control them any more (just hope for the best). However, you'll be able to deploy them whenever you want, aligned however you want. The bad guy will be able to dodge your army with limited swimming movement, and sometimes he'll be able to attack the fish with underwater fire (don't question it!). If he reaches the end, you lose.

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Original post by DavidNeal Ok how about this. You've been charged by your commander to keep the bad guy away from his goal. In your arsenal you have an army of fish and squid that you can use to attack him with. You would only need to hit him once or twice, depending on how powerful he is, but once you send out your units, you can't control them any more (just hope for the best). However, you'll be able to deploy them whenever you want, aligned however you want. The bad guy will be able to dodge your army with limited swimming movement, and sometimes he'll be able to attack the fish with underwater fire (don't question it!). If he reaches the end, you lose.

Problem with this is that is will result in the player sitting and waiting, hoping for randomness to go in their favor. Could easily be un-fun, unless it was like The Incredible Machine: resolved itself pretty quickly once the player hit the Go button, could also be instantly interrupted when the player saw it was going wrong, which would return the screen to the player's current set-up for easy modification, and pieces moved predictably.