So what do you think of this idea?

What's the goal of the player in this game? If the game doesn't have a goal for the player to achieve then it cannot possibly be called a game.
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What's the goal of Minecraft?

A sandbox game can have systems in place that lead to emergent gameplay without explicitly stating a goal to the player.

Sorry for the stupid question, but which part of the post described those systems? All I found was the description of a world generator (but you can blame it on my IQ being in the negative). If you have yet to think of those systems, then your idea for a sandbox environment is incomplete and until it is, there's really nothing to discuss.

Sorry for the stupid question, but which part of the post described those systems? All I found was the description of a world generator (but you can blame it on my IQ being in the negative). If you have yet to think of those systems, then your idea for a sandbox environment is incomplete and until it is, there's really nothing to discuss.

Hmm, it does seem to describe a simulation rather than a game, that is a fair point.

The ideas here reminded me of the Google Sponsored AI Challenge 2011.

http://aichallenge.org/index.php

Also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_game
http://programminggames.org/

Thanks for the links.

I'm not sure what the actual goal of this game is yet. I would think of it (at the moment) as a simulation in a interactive environment in which the player would be some kind of 'god' to the little creatures that live below. The reason I would say that this is more of a game is because I imagine it to be a lot more interactive and fun than a normal simulation. I was also thinking that it could be implemented as a game by involving a game mode. This game mode would make you in control of only one cell. This cell is in control (or the leader) of a small population of cells. You will tell the cell to cut down a tree. The cell will take many attempts before it learns how to do it efficiently and quickly. This knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and becomes more and more efficient. In this game mode you would have separate cells/societies/groups which have the same kind of rules. The aim of the game is to get rid of these other societies which could be done in a mass number of ways.
For example:
You could attack the society.
You could steal their food supply or destroy it all together.
You could disease the other society to make their offspring mutated that have low intelligence level and just die off from not being able to supply food to themselves.
The possibilities are almost endless

I'm thinking of making the cells as close to being 'living' as I can. At the moment I'm just listening to lectures on Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms, very interesting.

If anyone has any links or AI methods such as Genetic Algorithms etc please tell me
Thanks for the feedback.

Gen.

The aim of the game is to get rid of these other societies which could be done in a mass number of ways.
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Now _this_ is interesting. Instead of simply building units and sending them to attack your opponent's base you have to control your (or your opponent's) units' behavior by affecting their environment - that's a concept I'd love to play.

The aim of the game is to get rid of these other societies which could be done in a mass number of ways.
...

Now _this_ is interesting. Instead of simply building units and sending them to attack your opponent's base you have to control your (or your opponent's) units' behavior by affecting their environment - that's a concept I'd love to play.
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Haha yeah, although, it wouldn't just involve creativity. It would have to involve some form of strategy and thought. For instance:

You have an enemy group of a large population (200 - 300)
The enemy itself is week but the group is strong due to sheer numbers.
yo would have multiple options to eliminate them.
Lets say yo choose to steal a hefty 75% of their main food supply due to the fact that if you were to just randomly attack them they would swarm you.
What would happen?
Would it kill them?
Probably not..
The 25% that is left means that the entire enemy population would start to compete for it meaning natural selection and evolution.
The enemy population would drop to something like 50 and your population would probably raise due to the mass amount of food you have stolen.
Meaning that your population will become large but weaker than the enemy population which is now small and strong.

So really its not just about ways of getting rid of the enemy it HOW you do it and what strategy you use.
I guess you could have an option to command half your population to lure the enemy somewhere whilst the other half of your population eat the chewy goodness that is the enemy's offspring ;D