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[Rooster]

I don't know if this has been up before, but here it is:

www.dyson-game.com

Check it out! It's really neat, and comment here on the game 

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Someone posted a thread about the IGF finalists so yes it's been posted about indirectly.  It's a kinda cool game.  Great for just relaxing.  Not complex at all though.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Very interesting, got it in a package of indie games (that omitted DF for some reason) recently. One major problem, or rather two but correlated - lack of multiplayer (lack of even plans for multiplayer) and a verily dumb AI.

The game could grow into something obscenely interesting, especially if it expanded into something more serious. Dyson trees could progress and grow real big on big asteroids, evetually forming Dyson Seedyards where large 'capital-class' seeds could be built, procedurally-generated of course. The game mechanics could be improved - as it is, your seedlings can only shoot at something that lands on your 'roid and attacks it, even if some other seeds pass near enough to touch them, as well there's no way not to attack something on your planet, no alliances are possible (though that particular bit may be against the game's setting). Individual unit AI is also dumb, slow seedlings will prefer to fruitlessly chase a single targeted fast enemy while flying through a cloud of others, without even taking pot shots at anything.

All in all, it's alright for a few intense minutes (especially if you're new to it) but you're soon just able to crush any opposition the AI sends at you (it never ever has more than 32 seeds in a wave, the only time it sends more is when attacking from several places at once) and quickly lose interest.

[lumin]

Is it just me or does that Anthony Carboni guy in the ByteJacker video look like Tobey Maguire's twin?

[Kagus]

Going to have to agree with some of Sean's points on this one.  It's got potential beyond the stars, but right now it's just a time-killer where victory goes to whoever waits the longest.

Still, it is fun having an interasteroidal army of seeds charge across the belt, utterly unstoppable since you've forgotten about several asteroids in your rock collection, and just recently bundled all their seeds together and slapped them into one massive 700-strong force.


But I do think that this game could be made infinitely more popular just by adding a little more complexity with different kinds of trees, not to mention a better AI (preferably one that at least pretends to obey the asteroid-hopping law, instead of just going straight past everything else and landing on your home rock.  Sometimes from behind).

[PTTG??]

A few more complex commands would be great, too, like giving asteroids standing orders to direct all seeds in orbit to a targeted asteroid. Also having large groups be more responsive- somewhere above 700 or 800 seed no longer take orders. Oh, and having more map options or even a map editor. Have to agree that multiplayer may be difficult to create but certainly worth it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I just thought of how the game could grow into something more serious without changing its principle much.

So, you know that this is a game about colonizing asteroids. With 'seeds'. So flesh that bit out and bring some flavor through. Asteroids are usually one of the three things - silica (rock), metal, and ice. Each such 'group' can then be divided into three subgroups - Silicate could include Rock, Dust and Crystal, Metals can be split into Common, Rare, and Radioactive, and Ice... well, I don't know but something could be thought up, like frozen water/frozen CO₂/frozen methane. Now, each of those would contribute to the construction of your 'seeds' in varied ways. Among other things, creating weapons with different properties - lasers for Crystal-heavy asteroids, rapid-fire cannons for abundant common metals, the like.
Another change could be to the trees themselves. The 'seeds' produced would actually be just machines created through inorganic metabolism out of available materials - think the mechanic seeds from Lem's "Eden". There would really have to be just one tree for creation - the Mother tree if you like. It would spread its roots across the procedurally-generated asteroid and take materials out of it. But, it can't realistically consume it all by itself. So you can use your seeds to 'build' augmentations - adding strategy by defining what type of material you want the seeds to process. If the asteroid is rich in common metals, and has a low amount of crystals, you can add silicate-processing 'bushes' and perhaps shift the scale enough to start making lasers. The defence trees would remain, but would again be subject to the same principle - their weapons would be defined by the materials, possibly limiting their use for certain combinations of materials.
The biggest change would be with the seeds themselves. A cosmetic change would involve different basic designs according to the primary type of material processed - silica, metal, or ice. Another change would be that once the Mother Tree grows sufficiently large in any one spot, it can begin the slow process of creating large "Capital Class" seeds. Their design would be heavily dependant on the available materials, and they would have arrays of weapons corresponding to them in quantity and power. Would make the game much more strategic, methinks.

I wonder what'll happen if I post this on their forum?

[beorn080]

Sean, instead of simply having the asteroids be all of one material, perhaps they could be percentages of each material, with only the top 2 visible before you land on it. That way you could have an asteroid be 50% rock, 20% iron, 15% crystals, 5% radioactive, and trace amounts of the rest. Naturally some asteroids would be mostly iron or such.

Anyone else notice how this seems extremely close to the Berserkers of Fred Saberhagen. In fact its nearly identical, aside from the fact that its von Neumann machine vs von Neumann machine.

[Dragooble]

i cant get past level 2. i cant get enough seeds to really get going before i get attacked by the enemy. any advice?

[Kagus]

Fill up the asteroid with dyson trees, and then sit there.  Send scouts to nearby asteroids, and snag one that's unoccupied.  Basically just try to pack the rocks with dyson trees, and hold onto it long enough for the trees to grow into their full seedling-producing capacity.

Sit and wait.  Your army will grow by itself.  Let it.


Explody-trees aren't really necessary, except in certain scenarios.  They just take up space that could be used for another troop-brewer.


Heh, I recently tried the fifth and final level of the native game...  I still wasn't exactly sure what happened in that one, so I just went about at a rather leisurely pace and tried to keep genetic superiority in my troops (I.E., only pack up the strongest rocks with dyson trees.  Try to only use seedlings from there).

Well, I later found out what's so special about that level.  Crikey that was a lot of seedlings.  The only reason I survived for so long after first encountering the superpowers was because they were fighting with each other.  Sending one 700-strong swarm into another 700-strong swarm made things easier for me.  But I just couldn't keep up with that respawn rate...  I eventually quit.  Waaay too many enemy seedlings.