Life Wars: the Conway's Game of Life Shooter

[drakon]

Hi everyone!
I'm an Italian software engineer with a big interest in the Game of Life (like everyone in this forum I guess!).
Several months ago, for hobby, I started to develop a shooter game based on our beloved Game of Life!
In the game you control a ship to fight against some strange enemies...
But guess who are these enemies? The Game of Life spaceships of course!
Each enemy has its trait, and some of them can activate special power ups!
For the old school people there is the "Original Game of Life" mode, where you can start a classic GoL simulation or study some existing pattern.
If you want more information about the project, or just give a feedback don't be afraid to send me a PM!

Today the game is available for free for iOS and Android!
Here the links:
App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/life-wa ... 77492?mt=8
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... x.LifeWars
Website: http://www.lifewarsgame.com

Enjoy!

What's next:
In the next releases I'll try to optimize the generation algorithm to make the maximum grid size bigger and/or make the generation update period shorter.
In the mobile devices the cpu power is limited, therefore the code should be very efficient!
Fell free to share your algorithm if you want! The game is written in C++.

Here some screenshots of the game:

[muzik]

But is there a caterpillar?

[drakon]

@muzik
I'm afraid not!
It would be big challenge to make a caterpillar move in a low performance Android device!

[Gamedziner]

Just curious, is there a copperhead or fireship?

[drakon]

@Gamedziner

Yes, there is copperhead!
This is how a page inside the "enemy wiki" looks like:



The "speed" is not the actual speed (c/10), but it calibrated for each enemy.
By the way each spaceship move exactly as in a simulation, just with different speeds!

[Saka]

What about eaters? Maybe make it so that they can eat certain spaceships just like actual eaters do. 180° reflectors may also be cool, forcing the enemy to crash onto other enemies, but it should only work on *WSS and gliders so it wouldnt be too OP and more accurate.

Why can't we make our own enemies via RLE? That would be cool!

[drakon]

Hi Saka, thank you for your feedback!

When you play the Discovery Mode or the Infinity mode, no real GoL simulation is actually involved.
I did this choice for several reason:
- I don't want enemies to destroy each other when they collide. It would be too messy.
- Each enemy type has its update generation period, this allows the game to be more enjoyable and contribute to the enemy identity.
- I was able to improve game efficiency and design preparing the game assets of each enemy during the development process (for instance you can see the glow effect around each enemy).

For the custom enemy proposal it would be doable, but as I said, the game looks nice only if I prepare the assets (images) for the enemy.
Maybe a user could propose a new spaceship, but the actual deployment in the game should be handled by me.

[Saka]

Hi Saka, thank you for your feedback!

When you play the Discovery Mode or the Infinity mode, no real GoL simulation is actually involved.
I did this choice for several reason:
- I don't want enemies to destroy each other when they collide. It would be too messy.
- Each enemy type has its update generation period, this allows the game to be more enjoyable and contribute to the enemy identity.
- I was able to improve game efficiency and design preparing the game assets of each enemy during the development process (for instance you can see the glow effect around each enemy).

For the custom enemy proposal it would be doable, but as I said, the game looks nice only if I prepare the assets (images) for the enemy.
Maybe a user could propose a new spaceship, but the actual deployment in the game should be handled by me.

Your welcome. I also do not want it to get messy. I have now played the game. The dart level is really tough! How do I avoid the attacks that consist of entire walls full of ships?

Maybe you could add different CAs, so that there is a huge variety of ships, like knightships. Maybe you could even implement Non-totalistic CA! That would include tons of new ships with strange properties

Thanks for adding a link to the wiki!

You should probably add loafer too. My suggestion for loafer is
Speed 1
Health 4
Damage 3

[Saka]

I have ideas for part 3!
Name: Life is Evolving
New enemies:
(Name,Speed,Health,Damage,Power)
1. Loafer,1,4,3,None.
2. Lobster,2,4,4,Emit gliders once in a while.
3.58P5H1V1,2,3,5,None
4.Weekender,3,3,3,Shoot double lasers
5.Big Glider,2,4,3,Nothing
6.37P4H1V0,3,3,2,Shoot lasers front and back.
7.Barge 2,4,3,1,None
8. Whoops
9.B29,3,4,2,Drops explosives
10.Dragon(Boss),1,5,5,None

[drakon]

Ehy Saka, thanks for the inputs, I will start the world 3 soon!
For sure I'll add some of the spaceships you suggested!
But before I start, I want to collect feedbacks around the world to understand if it is worth to continue the project.
I'd like to make the game as much fun as possible, to make the audience big!
The game is out only since three days!

[Saka]

Ehy Saka, thanks for the inputs, I will start the world 3 soon!
For sure I'll add some of the spaceships you suggested!
But before I start, I want to collect feedbacks around the world to understand if it is worth to continue the project.
I'd like to make the game as much fun as possible, to make the audience big!
The game is out only since three days!

I wrote a review, hope that supports you! Please continue. The game certainly wont be as popular as say, Minecraft, or something, but what matters is that people enjoy it! We GoL "addicts" will love this game. Maybe Nathaniel (The site admin) can add a promotional link to your app on the front page.

[Saka]

What was the update?

[drakon]

Ehy saka, it was just a minor release.
I updated the internal libraries and added the possibility to rate the game.
Now I'm working to add the possibility to share your scores with other Life Wars players!
Hopefully this will make the game more engaging...

[drakon]

Life Wars v1.3 is out!
What's new:
- Share your scores on Game Center or Google Play Games
- Gameplay improvements with the new "Fever Mode"
- Step by step tutorial for newbies
- Push notifications and daily rewards

Any feedback would be appreciated!
Enjoy

[Saka]

Drakon, please make it so that the "tutorials" are skippable and only go to newbies. I got 100 coins and then it told me to buy laser but I was saving up for a new spaceship.

[drakon]

Hi Saka!
The thing is that many people don't realize how to spend coins to unlock elements.
This is the reason why I make a gift of 100 coins and than force the user to buy the Laser.
Anyway with the new fever mode and with the daily reward you should be able to get coins faster and to unlock your favorite ships!
Finally, any tutorial shows only once, it should no be bothering for the user.

[Saka]

Hi Saka!
The thing is that many people don't realize how to spend coins to unlock elements.
This is the reason why I make a gift of 100 coins and than force the user to buy the Laser.
Anyway with the new fever mode and with the daily reward you should be able to get coins faster and to unlock your favorite ships!
Finally, any tutorial shows only once, it should no be bothering for the user.

Alright. I haven't tried fever mode. Is it for getting more coins? ALso why did you call it Alien Armpit lol

[drakon]

Alright. I haven't tried fever mode. Is it for getting more coins? ALso why did you call it Alien Armpit lol

Basically you go automatically in "Fever Mode" when you kill many enemies in a short time interval.
In "Fever Mode" the score and the coins are doubled!
I didn't choose the color names, I got they from Wikipedia!

[Saka]

I didn't choose the color names, I got they from Wikipedia!

Crayola is weird. You should also try adding "Golly Gray", the Gray of Goly's background. The RGB is 48,48,48.

[drakon]

We will have "Golly Gray" from the next version!

EDIT: I just tried the color. It's too dark, it's not a good idea to put on black background...

[Saka]

We will have "Golly Gray" from the next version!

EDIT: I just tried the color. It's too dark, it's not a good idea to put on black background...

Oh well. Try life wiki gray. It's the gray on the grid of the cells. I don't know the exact color but you should be able to use the pipette thingy.

[testitemqlstudop]

Do you have an .dmg for mac?

[drakon]

Hi testitemqlstudop!

As developer I can play the game on Mac OS, but I did't release the game for this platform.
The reasons are the following:
- The game controls are optimised for touchscreen (the game is difficult to play with touchpad/mouse)
- The game orientation is portrait, not landscape

Do you have troubles with your smartphone or tablet?

[testitemqlstudop]

No, I was just wondering. Maybe you can add key bindings (like left arrow, right arrow, etc)? Thanks for the response!

[fluffykitty]

The controls when on top of the screen are slightly unintuitive and ads suck (but it's a free game what should I expect)