Truly disturbing and cool at the same time.
I once saw a documentary where similar looking creatures evolved based on selection against simple parrameters like reaching a cube before others etc. the creaures evolves into very interesting shapes.

I am liking this a 8)lot

This is good stuff Bezzy, you are getting alot done on what is not an easy entry.
Keep it up man.

[Desired Gameplay]

Finally an update!
 
Dyson is progressing nicely, but becoming leaner and meaner along the way.
It is starting to look like we have a handle on scope now (After some slimming excercises) and I have good hopes that what we will end up with will be worthwhile :-) We haven't said much yet about the gameplay so here is some more info.:
 
Desired Gameplay
The game features an asteroid belt with currently 64 individual asteroids.
The player starts with a seedling planted on a single asteroid (The Von Neuman device/space chicken/Dyson Tree we mentioned earlier)
First, the player initiates the seedling to grow roots to the asteroids "energy core" and from those roots a dyson tree sprouts on the surface. The charecteristics of the tree are affected by the composition of the asteroid, and all asteroids in the belt are unique in that respect.
 
Once the tree is grown, the player can trigger it to grow new seeds. The seeds characteristics and abilities are also affected by the composition of their parents. Seeds are used for various things. They can be used to grow more trees, or, they can be sent of towards other asteroids to start more colonies.
This is where things heat up.
 
The game has AI opponents that act the same way as the player and are contesting the asteroid belt for ownership.
Now, if the seedlings arrive at an asteroid that is already owned by another, the seedlings attack the surface sructures. If they manage to destroy them the surviving seedlings will bore down to the centre of the asteroid and take over the core. If succesful they will claim the other's asteroid and are able to exploit its resources.
 
What this results in is hopefully a strategically deep game of conquest that can be won either by destroying all contenders or by colonising all asteroids.
 
What we have now:
Quite a few things!

• 64 asteroids
• Tree roots
• Seedlings
• Pathfinding of seedlings to other asteroids (See image below) Selection
• Ability to grow new seedlings

 
I am quite psyched by this but we will have to see if the ambition matches up to reality. I will let Haowan do the talking on the tech front. :-)

[brainTooth]

hehe,. this is looking a bit like a game built about a year ago,. my game was called brainTooth you can find it here;

   http://iterationgames.com/brainTooth__045.zip

feel free to rip ideas from it,. it is quite simple, a spherical shooter with a bit of stratagy in deciding what planet to go for next,. pressing SPACE shows a simple map for strategic planing,. I am still not really happy with the controles, interested to see how you deal with the ball contoles..,  perhaps when this compo is over i will revisit this and add 360 contoller support,. actually most of my old games would benefit from that!  time is always against us,. .  .. .

sounds like you guys have some good ideas,. and better trees than i did with that one,.  looking forward to playing your game!  cheers.

`

Thanks, I will definitely have a look :-)
The trees in our game are linked to some of the core gameplay, but I wil reveal more on that when we get it working ;-)

That's because Dyson spheres really are very cool

No worries, basically we are taking inspiration from a number of concepts by both Von Neumann and Dyson. Between them they have created so many fascinating concepts that one could create countless games using themn for gameplay inspiration.

Dyson trees are interesting as well for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_tree
We are fusing some of these things, the self replicating cellular automaton, the astro chicken, the Dyson tree, in coherent and hopefully fun gameplay mechanics that suit the procedural elements of the competition. It is tremendous fun material to work with.

Researching this stuff also uncovers bizarre internet sites. Check this beauty out:
http://www.orionsarm.com/civ/Dyson_Trees.html
That site is full of wonders :-)



(http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html)

Sometimes I think my references are a bit too obscure.

Anyway, despite being in space and having little round planets, this game looks significantly different from my game. I was just commenting that little planets seem to be a thing these days.

The little planets are actually sylised representations of asteroids in a large asteroid belt. They are round for now as we need the scope manageable, and I have aready given Haowan a momentous amount of things to include.  :-) The player will be able to interact with all the asteroids in the belt and to make that possible we are shying away from complex shapes, at least for the moment.

Yes, that looks seriously sexy!

[First and foremost, the title.]

Haowan and me are having great fun with this, and without giving away too many surprises I want to share some of the inspiration for the game.

First and foremost, the title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_dyson
I have always been fascinated by the work of Freeman Dyson (what a name) who has done some great writing and philosophising on space exploration and similar geeky goodness. There are too many great things to have sprung from his mind to mention  but check the wiki page for some choice examples like the Dyson Sphere, the Dyson Tree and specifically the Astrochickenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrochicken. (yes that is the real name)

Now this idea of space exploration aided by the astrochicken points at another mad man of science, Johann Von Neumann. His ideas led to the concept of the Von Neumann Machine, a self replicating robot built for space exploration.
Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann

Here is a quote from the page:

“Von Neumann also created the field of cellular automata without the aid of computers, constructing the first self-replicating automata with pencil and graph paper. The concept of a universal constructor was fleshed out in his posthumous work Theory of Self Reproducing Automata.[13] Von Neumann proved that the most effective way of performing large-scale mining operations such as mining an entire moon or asteroid belt would be by using self-replicating machines, taking advantage of their exponential growth.”

Think about it, if you add procedural generation and  throw all these concept together and you have a near perfect set of game mechanics for this concept. (Well that is what we think anyway)

Oh, and also this:



Keep an eye on this thread to see how we are progressing. :-)