Voxel Seeds

Level 3

Level 3

Development Period: 2013/06/14 (AGJ13) - 2013/07/05
Genre: 3D Game/Simulation
Language: C#
Members: Andreas Reich
Johannes Jendersie
Enrico Gebert
Patrick Schön
Source: AGJ13

Again a project from a game jam.
During the idea finding phase we came together with the following motivations:

Enrico: "This time I will only do game design!" (Luxury feature on game jams)
Johannes: "Andreas, lets make something with voxels."
Andreas: "Oh yes voxels!"
Patrick: "3D - Sounds good."

So the idea was born.

The game itself is a complex cellular automaton simulating the growth of plants. The player have to try to plant different trees in such a way that they are not decomposed by parasites.
Resistances and growth properties should add a tactical part that the player has to decide what and where to plant. At the end of the Game Jam we achieved a nicely looking interactive simulation. The game play was left behind.

Project Achievements/Game Jam Diversifiers:
Skynet AI evolves over time or by interacting with the player.
Swarm More than 400 actors with a specific behaviour at the same time in a gaming session.

The following articles describe some technical issues of Voxel Seeds:

In the weeks after the Game Jam I made a game out of the simulation. It is still much to do and the game could be expended and polished in many points.

In the Game Jam version playing meant to click fast and hope. Now it is a bit more tactical. First of all space was transformed to a limiting resource. Before it was possible to build trees everywhere - even on top of other trees. Now each tree requires space. The second big change is that you start with a few resources only and get new gens if your plants are growing. If you achieved to grow enough biomass a countdown starts. Then you have to hold at least the biomass threshold for some time. During this countdown you can let your plants mature or seed new ones to get as much resources as possible - these are your starting resources in the next level.

Actual Release

The latest version contains following elements:

  • 6 Trees: Teak, Pine, Spruce, Beech, Oak, Redwood
  • 5 Parasites: White Rot, Noble Rot, Hesperophanes Cinnereus, Grasshopper, House Longhorn Beetle
  • 5 Levels
  • Graphics: Many Voxels, Specular lightening (+Fresnel approx.), GUI, 16x16 Textures

Here you can download the game. It should start without additional dependencies. There is a settings.xml in the folder which you might want to change.

2013/07/05: Windows Binary (1.95 MB zipped)

 

(My) wish list of features - there is a chance that I or the other team members will write these at some point in future:

  • Environment Sounds
  • More species: termites, moss, ...
  • More levels (including a credits level)
  • Portation to XBox