Awoken

Wow, what an awesome thread. Well sysads I've been apart of this community since 2009 and I think this video best describes the process.

Yeah I was wondering what happened to you. Looking forward to your next blog update.

Yeah well.... neither do I.

Well, yeah I did, the wine helped One thing I remember about that game was how it made the solutions to the problems reveal themselves. I remember thinking how wonderfully designed the game was to pull off such a feat, as though its puzzles and level design allowed answers to pop. Anyways, It is such a well crafted game. Another game that I think is well executed is a flash game called 'cursor*10', you might be interested.

This hunting game idea of yours sounds awesome. I too am going to be incorporating strong elements of AI into the game I'm making. Some of the concepts you've drafted up are similar such as the hierarchy of needs, though I don't think I'll be including many learned AI elements. I'm looking forward to hearing about your project. Are you coalescing the data into something which can be interpreted? or which is accessible to you the developer? I'm just imaging that you might have an AI with runaway parts that don't serve your intentions, but this is all speculation.

I loved Anti-Chamber. I drank a bottle of wine while playing that game and I thoroughly enjoyed those 2 1/2 hours.

Matt Ridley hey? I'll have to give him a read. Is there as specific book by Dawkins you'd recommend? I'm familiar with Conway's 'game of life'. It's interesting all the different forms that can perpetuate within the 'game of life' by simply following a few simple rules. I kinda imagine that's how evolution works too. FSM? hahaha, well philosophically you might consider me nuts . What do you make of free-will and subjective experience? I personally think they are integral to the universe, but just how and why is unknown. What is known is that it allows us to observe.

I played Resident Evil 2 and got the minigun, well done on only knifing, I can't imagine. I think part three was my favourite one though, the constant threat of Nemesis added another element of suspense. I remember they had something similar for Counter-strike, I played them quite a bit, the jumps got harder the higher up you went, and punishment for missing your jump was waiting for you at the bottom of the map. I never got good enough to hit the buzzer at the top. that eventually evolved into trick sliding maps which just took advantage of the bizarre effects of the engine. Unfortunately all the servers evolved into zombie-run games and death-match style games. My fondest memories where games of 16 terrorists vs 16 counter-terrorists. I was never a good shot, a good AWP-er or Deagle slayer could easily take me down, but cs_italy had many layers of complexity, from the way the ground sounded when a player ran, to the echos of action at a distance. It allowed me to develop a sneaky/psychological approach. I would intentionally make certain sounds and do certain things to trick my opponents.

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but in grumpyOldDude's post about growing out of games I kinda felt like talking about the time I've been the most obsessive about a game and am curious to know what you all consider to be the most obsessive you've been about a game. So, what' the most obsessive you've been over a game? for me that title easily goes to counter-strike ~1.3 to 1.6. I bought my first computer to... that's right, play counter-strike. I bought surround sound speakers and built a little hole in my basement to immerse myself in counter-strike. I've lost more hours to counter-strike than probably any other game. And it was hard, I remember when I first started playing I would just die endlessly and maybe get a kill every now and then. I so badly wanted to be like the guys at #1 in a match. Then slowly I got better and better and have my own domination stories I'm still fond of to this day. I lived and breathed cs_italy, that was my map. hahaha

I can rarely get into games these days. I enjoy thinking about what my game could be then actually seeing what other games are. Maybe twice to three times a year I'll lose a weekend or maybe even a week to a game.

Thanks, some of those photos I no longer have.

My question is... I noticed the pictures that were attached to older blog entries are no longer visible. Is this a permanent thing affecting all blog entries prior to the update? Would I need to go through and re-attach them? It was nice seeing the visual history of my project.

I am fascinated by the origins of life. I love entertaining ideas about where this all came from, and why and what is subjective experience? Is conscious experience really just an inevitable expression of the brain and free-will is just an illusion as Daniel Dennet suggests, or is it an essential ingredient in defining self-organising systems as Christopher Langan says ( My own interpretation of the his mad...?? genius ), or is it a waste of mental energy thinking insight could be gleaned from the unknowable. Anyways, if you're on board so far I'd like to say that I'm particularly fascinated by Pilobolus fungus. The first time I saw Pilobolus fungus on BBC documentary 'Life' I was just in awe. How does such a thing achieve such complexity? Especially since fungi came before cellular life.. so interesting. So one day while at work I came up with a proposed computer simulation that could ~kinda~ simulate the life cycle of Pilobolus fungus. I'm going to be making up a whole lot here and I'm going to make a lot of erroneous assumptions about the complexity of cells. I'm hoping someone who knows what they're talking about can show me the errors in logic. When I talk of 'system' I mean the actual Pilobolus fungus, o.k I'll try my best to convey the idea: - Within the fungus is DNA containing instructions/chemical bonds which have developed in complexity over the many iterations of the self-organising system. Through inevitable external/environmental interactions, the fungal spore synthesises and facilitates the processing of billions of chemical bonds resulting in RNA. Through similar processes mentioned in the previous sentence Protein bonds begin to fill the system. O.k, this is where I just simplify the hell out of this idea, so the system creates protein A, B, C, D and E. Each Protein has a bonding-potential given the right external conditions. At first the single spore develops a disproportionate amount of Protein A, which is good because protein A is responsible for cellular division ( hyphae ). Mean while Proteins B through E just slowly build up in concentration. Eventually the concentration of Protein B reaches a point where it's forced to develop an equilibrium with it's surrounding environment (thanks to maybe sunlight, moisture, dryness, nitrogen...) as a result a new type of structure emerges ( stalk ). Perhaps with the addition of the stalk a new set of environmental conditions allow for protein C to begin doing its bonds to achieve an equilibrium and develops the ( cap ). Now the cap happens to have an elastic component to it. As moisture is pushed to the extremities of the system the concentration of protein D builds up and creates a sort of one-way valve/gate, and moisture begins to accumulate within the cap. Eventually the whole system develops an equilibrium with its external environment and an equilibrium within itself. Once this state is achieved the system begins to self-germinate ( or it begins to foster the creation of spores within the system ). These spores are pushed to the extremities of the system and are trapped behind the one-way gate. Eventually the cap bursts. Protein E does nothing significant during this iteration.- What do you think?

That is true, you can pause all the mentioned games and yes this game could not be paused; at least not the multiplayer version of it. This is something I've thought about a lot... What I've drafted up borrows elements from traditional browser games in that the player can only do so much at any given time. Like most browser games, which can not be paused, the player's choice of action is restricted into 'time-blocks' so to say. A player only needs to attend their game session for an hour or two max per day and over the course of many weeks, even months do they see their efforts pay-off. A big difference that I can see between the game I'm creating and traditional browser games is just how dynamic and organic an experience could potentially be given that the game's session is dependent on thousands of interacting AI. menyo, do you like the games I've mentioned ( civ, sim-city, 4X), If so, what do you think about this idea I've had running in my head. Yeah, some players will have a heavy advantage because they commit more time manicuring their simulation; however, I was thinking of incorporating gaming bonuses which could be earned within a different game session. So let me explain the idea a bit: --During the course of one game session you're playing, and thanks by the way for playing , you've managed to build up a pretty sizeable tribe. You've developed some healthy farms, raided a few surrounding tribes for booty and your tribe boasts over 100 simulin. Things are looking good and you've spent an hour or so every night just making sure things are running smoothly. One day you return to your game session and find out your tribe has been raided and you're 20 strongest have been deleted, 50 taken for work and 20 deserted you. Now you only have 10 simulin left and everything you've built has been decimated. Things seem bleak, why carry on?... Your 10 remaining simulin, and the 50 which are under another player's suppression, now have a conditional moral bonus modifier which can be unlocked. Maybe not immediately, but over the course of time if you are able to build up strength, raid and free your former simulin, you'd unlock your heroic bonus and now you'd have a unique bonus which would not be available during a regular game session.-- anyways, this is a pretty good description of how I hope the game session could turn out, what do you think menyo?

Embassy, steal away buddy!  hahaha. Thanks everyone for your feedback.  I've been kinda pondering your responses and thinking about what direction I'm going to pursue.  Right now I think what I need to do is actually present something to try out and see what people think then.