I haven't had much time to code this past week, but I have thought quite a bit about how the different parts of the game will fir together. Right now I am sorting out the logic of re-creating a biosphere from scratch, and how the elements of propagation and evolution will fit in. Research has led me in some interesting directions; I picked up a college text-book on botany, and spent a good long time browsing Wikipedia, specifically looking at Ecological Succession. I also grabbed a book called Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. Put together, these sources prompted me to change the focus of my game, from re-starting a global ecology, to something much more local - create a regional ecosystem, over the course of some decades or centuries, which will ultimately be (a) self-sustaining, and (b) be able to support a population of recently-thawed humans. Yeah, the basic story/plot is kind of weak at the moment, but the technical issues with putting such a game together are quite interesting.

Because I have no experience in ecology, biology or botany, I found myself at a loss as to where to begin. So I have started an exercise which has previously helped me make sense of information architecture problems: make a long list of simple, declarative statements, then order them, add to them, and flesh them out, until I have a design document. Here is my "ecology" list at the moment:

• All plants require sunlight.


• All plants more complex than algae require a solid surface for growing


• All plants have chlorophyll, which reacts with sunlight to create nutrients


• Algae scattered on ice will trap sunlight, and heat up enough to melt ice


• Lichen can grow on bare rock


• Moss can grow on bare rock and in minimal soil


• Plants growing on bare rock will begin to erode the rock, creating sand.


• When plants die, they mix with the sand to create soil


• The more complex the plant, the more nutrients it needs to grow


• The larger the plant, the stronger its root system needs to be.


• Taller plants need deeper roots.


• The more surface area a plant has, the more sunlight it collects.


• More leaves mean the plant needs to be either wider or taller


• Faster growth means faster propagation


• Faster growth means shorter life


• Faster growth means more fragile plant


• Plants can propagate by water, wind, or mechanical means


• Plants which propagate by water can only propagate downstream


• Plants which propagate by air can only propagate in the direction of the wind


• Plants which propagate by air can disperse to a wider area


• Plants which propagate by water propagate more densely in any given area


• Fitness is the likelihood that an individual will produce viable offspring


• Plants need to reach a certain maturity before they can reproduce


• Plant populations need to reach a certain density before they can effectively propagate


• plants need to reach a level of complexity where they create fruit before they can be considered food plants


• plants which contain sufficient nutrients to be worthwhile as food must get nutrients from the soil

Obviously this list is simplified to meet the needs of the game. I am sure any botanists reading this are shaking their heads.

Anyway, I consider it a good start. More updates to follow.