Games Critters - cute evolution, exploration, survival game [WIP]

Critters - cute evolution, exploration, survival game [WIP]

Hello everyone!
I am Farelle, head of "Embersparkz" am working on my first commercial game called "Critters".
I'm wanting to create a game, that is colorful and cute and full of places to explore, but at the same time has a darker side to it, which is the survival aspect, in form of making your cubs survive the dangers of a harsh environment (storms, burning heat, falling from cliffs etc.)

Your cubs survive by helping them to get food and to keep their temperature stable and protect them from the elements by seeking shelter etc. Your cubs will be slight variations of their mom and can be enhanced through selection, but they also have chances of gaining adaptations through environmental influences as well as random mutations (very rare). There are also some temporary adaptations, that can be gained for just a single generation through eating special fruits, plants or nuts.

I hope I can create a unique experience for players and that the world will feel full-filling in terms of exploration and that the indirect way of customizing your character through selection of mutations is giving players a sort of long term goal (You always continue next generation with a cub you chose, that survived from the last generation)

The game is still in it's very early stages, so a lot will likely change.
Current estimated release/finish is towards end of 2017, beginning of 2018.

The game is build on top of a Ludum Dare game I previously had made, which now acts as a sort of demo for the game
https://farelle.itch.io/critters

otherwise for further info or if you want to follow my progress on other platforms/social media, you can find them on my website:
www.embersparkz.com

now to some actual pictures of the game



and some concept art:

Spoiler

 

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finally got Terrain Composer 2 to work with my Raw file and figured out how to use it (at least the basics), so here I present to you "the grasslands" (starting area) first pass, getting closer to those rolling grass hills.

 

Hmm, a creature game. Can you describe how it works--what you actually do--in a bit more detail? Do you play as the omnipotent "God" who can affect all of these creatures at will? Do you play as a character in the game who interacts with these creatures, thereby affecting their growth (like the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure games)? Do you control the creature yourself? It seems like this last one is what you're doing, but I'm not sure.

What is meant by the "survival" stuff? Is that calculated in real time for all of the critters, or does it only affect the one "you" control?

Can you describe the genetics in a bit more detail? Is it all visual appearances? Or are there stats of some kind, which incorporate genetic inheritance?

I'll take a look at the "demo," but it would be nice to know that stuff here.

Additionally, maybe not a big deal, but I would avoid the word "mutation" unless you're actually referring to a mutation. Mutations are random genotypical changes, which may or may not be supported by selection. Selection doesn't cause or produce mutations. It seems like you're simply referring to genetic variation there when you say "mutation."

My experience with the Chao Garden and knowledge of a game called Windborne both made me very interested in the idea of indirect control over creatures whose fate is somewhat dependent on the way you "raise" them. Is this something like that, or does it go in a different direction?

Either way, very interested in this.

 

Sure I can and feel free to ask more questions.
Practically you play as the "parent" or mom critter, who is (so far) not affected by any survival mechanics, so it's halfway godlike, but from her point of view.
Through the mom critter, you take care of your cubs, which steadily grow, if fed enough. Only the cubs are affected by temperatures and sickness as well as needing to eat and drink, so as mom you have to bring them to places that have food, water and shelter, as well as plants with healing properties for sickness.
In other words, your cubs are subject to survival, while your main character is only needing to watch cliffs and more deadly hazards like lava.

So far genetics are both visual and practical, but there are also some that are purely cosmetic. Examples for practical ones would be "thicker fur" which helps with cold temperatures or scales, which helps with sickness, sleeker body to run faster and horns to ram trees to get fruits from them etc. But I have not specified every change in detail yet.
What is clear though, is that every time you start a new generation, the cubs have a big chance to inherit traits from their parent(your character), with a very small chance to get a random more extreme mutation and an increased chance to get an adaptation based on the environment.

Hm...seems I actually wrote the mutation part wrong in my initial post, thanks for pointing that out But I'm actually using it as well as selective inheritance and adaptations.
Selection in this case is only to enhance already existing traits, that, if as example you got a cub with a slightly brighter fur color and you select that one, then on your next generation all your cubs will have colors closer to that, meaning through selection you can make them brighter, go towards certain colors or prefer fur patterns or keep one of the random mutations, if you happen to encounter one.

I have not played both games you are referring to, so I can not really tell, if their mechanics are in any way similar, but I think i can say that it's rather indirect control over your creatures, since they simply follow you around and are dependent on you to show them where they need to be, to survive, but it's not as indirect as Sim or god games.

I hope I could answer your questions

 

Yeah, that was definitely a comprehensive answer. Thanks.

What happens to creatures from your generation after you select one to play as? Do they all disappear? Or do they stay alive doing their own thing? Additionally, do you have reproduction through mating (which would require other creatures of the same generation)? That's really the main basis for genetic variability.

 

The one you select will become the new "mom" and the ones that you don't, ideally scatter away and do their own thing (but I'm not sure of the extend of their autonomy and lifetime yet, I would like them to start their own families though).
No reproduction through mating, I want to keep it simple, that, if you feel ready to start the next generation you have to find a nest/den (it's gonna be marked somehow) to start a new generation. No mating, father unknown

 

Well if they're fantasy creatures you don't even need different genders, you can just have them monogendered. But gotcha.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is the extent of the simulation. My initial impression was that basically the only creatures in the world would be those in your pack. From what you're saying now however it seems like there will be some autonomous creatures you don't interact very much with. That the case?

 

yup, some of those are inside the spoiler tag in the entry post (concept art)

edit: I should add, you kinda interact with them, some flee from you, some might be curious, some might be even dangerous (not actively hunting, but some are so big they won't really see your little cubs or care)

 

Good to know, thanks.

 

a small update, lots of tweaking mostly

 

Seems to me that this game will be a simulation game than anything. Looks good from the screenshots and I haevn't read all details but will you add predators as well? It seems natural selection needs to play an important role here.

 

I very strictly don't want to go in any combat oriented direction, while there will be creatures that are dangerous to be close to (like being so big that they might stomp you or in general having some abilities that might be harmful) there are no predators.
The difficulties/challenges are really mainly through finding food, finding non poisonous food and not dying from natural storms, catastrophes and falling from cliffs etc.

And I think it's difficult to put really a finger on the genre it's a mix between survival, exploration, simulation, but mostly it's just meant to be fun and cute and something that hopefully entertains for many hours when trying to explore the mutations, other animals, the world etc.
So in a way, it's also a bit of an adventure game just not in the traditional adventure game genre.

 

I understand your desire not to put any combat oriented elements in this, does that also exclude and tension from other animals?
Tension can result in pretty great win scenarios or mission success points that give players a real good feeling - a sense of accomplishment afterwards. Tense moments also can result in some very happy/phew! moments.

I'm not suggesting adding combat/conflict elements would improve the experience, but moments with tension - like a race where a very large creature can stomp down during the race causing the racers who get caught in the wind blast looses momentum and speed - can add elements that are both cute (the reactions of the racers when they are effected by the wind blast) and also add a little tension which would result in an accomplishment to those who win and finish the race. win win!

Just a thought as I've followed your progress.

 

that's what I meant with other nature based dangers I'm currently thinking of storms actually being able to push around your cubs if you don't find shelter, river currents that can drag your cubs down the stream into their death, meteors, that could come crashing down the sky, herd migrations which could stomp you to death if standing in their path, aswell as giants awakening from their sleep while being nearby etc.
I'm aware, taking the route of not having a direct threat in the traditional sense might be difficult to still generate those feelings of tension. I really hope I can pull it off though
I think it might be also becoming more visible once I start adding visuals for threats, cause in best case, just the visuals alone should already carry a lot of creating that feeling of tension.

usually when people talk about "storms" in games, I have seen often, that it just feels like rain with some thunder and rarely threatening, same for snowfall.
I'm more thinking of things like this:



similarly sandstorms and snowstorms are not supposed to be just decorative and would actively hinder players sight and make movement and surviving extremely difficult, not to mention that not every Biome is equally equipped with foods.

Currently everything I made so far looks very cute and peaceful, because I'm mostly working on the starting zone atm and the main Critters, which of course I want people to emphasize with

 

No - I think this is a really interesting route. Thumbs up smiley if we had one available !!
I believe in-game playable cinematographic elements like you describe is really a strong 'hook' in certain games that players really love to experience - even if it results in death or game over state.
I've not played Uncharted 4 yet - but from what I've seen it is full of those moments - that really make the game special.

 

actually one game, that comes to my mind is conan exiles, their sandstorms is actually circulating through parts of the world and first time I saw it I was like "Dammmmn! This looks crazy!" and it also made me feel so small and fragile XD
it's a bit sad though, that while the visuals were impressive for, it being a giant wall of sand rolling towards you, the effect on characters was rather minimal (mostly sight).

 

I hope in 2 weeks I can have a playable demo with all the new features, in very small scope though
here a little sneak peek on current progress:


it won't be quite as crowded though

 

Will you be able to modify model geometry in the game?
e.g. Ear size, tail size, extra limbs etc
Or just attributes and colours?

 

there will be variations in tails, body shape (only slightly), ears, horns, scales, hairs and body patterns (body patterns are only texture changes, but I thought it's worth mentioning aswell)

 

small update, genetics color system has a basic setup now now I need to work on exchanging body parts as well and then adjust the chances. So far, the colors are simply based off 1 base color, which determines overall color scheme on a critter, cub colors are based on mom/guardian critter and will vary slightly from it, with a low chance to get a random mutation
This will be more finetuned, currently I'm just focusing a lot on getting a demo done for the game so I can get the after ludum dare version into your hands I'm hoping 2 weeks from now, but I thought that last week already, that's when I got knocked out by a bad cold...>.<

 

I seem to be on target with releasing a demo of the current version this week currently planned for sunday
more info and from now on regular friday updates on my blog here:
https://fartoindie.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/time-for-some-demo-update/

and for those who don't want to look at the blog:
I got adaptations and mutation mechanics ingame now, first weather threat (a tornado), game states are working now, to start a new generation when requirements are fullfilled , different temperatures through biomes is in and selection of successor
I'm very happy with the results right now, hopefully I can continue this progress for next few montsh without any major interruptions and then I would like to release the next version for playtesting

 

I got a demo out, though it's quite buggy and only for windows atm:
https://farelle.itch.io/critters-cute-cubs-in-a-cruel-world

 

aaand my first update 1.2a:
https://farelle.itch.io/critters-cute-cubs-in-a-cruel-world

 

Since I made a promise to make an update every friday
https://fartoindie.wordpress.com/

otherwise, I'm quite happy with some of the feedback I got, I feel like I'm just taking it all in without taking it personally, which is great and what i hoped for!
Also, I thought it would be difficult to tell what my game is about, but it's interesting that the approach I chose now, usually ends in it being a "positive surprise" to find out that the game has some genetic component to it
So atm the games focus is survival and that everything is supporting the survival aspects, including the genetics, but that there are elements of exploration (geographical and discovering genes and other animals) as well.

oh and, the latest version is available for Linux, Mac and Pc so give it a try!

 

I had a bit of a slower week, more in terms of "finishing things" than anything else.
I still got a new demo version up with slightly skewed controls, but some bugs fixed (and others introduced *rollseyes*)
https://farelle.itch.io/critters-cute-cubs-in-a-cruel-world

also some update in my blog if anyone is interested to read ranting about life getting in my way XD

 

https://wordpress.com/post/fartoindie.wordpress.com/1630

Did I mention I'm official Steamworks partner now? so yeah, around mid October, in BEST case I will likely release into Early Access with Critters, but I have aloooooooot of work still to do until then, so I'm sorry, if I'm not really updating more, but I keep updating on fridays to at least have one "sure" day

 

https://fartoindie.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/sorry-im-a-bit-overwhelmed-o/

 

so I finally got the promo-art done :3 which was taking way too long XD (*snifs* so much work still to do )

 

Haha, that's a cool picture. The top right thing reminds me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.

 

that was somewhat intended creepy and cute and a little bit of magic

 

A bit earlier friday update Critters is now under review by Valve just finished the Trailer today and it was the last thing on the list and with that, I hope I can do more direct game development again :3
(btw. check out my discord, I like to hang out there :3 https://discord.gg/BXzeYC3 )

 

Your character's movements look like the rigidbody isn't interpolated. Also, I'd make the tails a bit more.. movement-ish in the rig, it doesn't move at all right now and it looks very rigid. That'd give it life! Also, the movement speed is much too quick for the walking animation, I'd sync it!

 

you are right about that
All those things you mentioned are on my long list of things that need to be done XD
I'm trying to complete the whole game though in sweeps all across the things that need to be done to make it complete and with every sweep I iterate through already existing systems, but that also means I sometimes have to stop working/tweaking on something (like camera controls and animations etc.) and come back later to it.
Helps immensely with progress and also makes sure that everything is somewhat of similar and consistent quality/state

 

oh btw. the game is going to be released on steam in about 7 minutes as Early Access
http://store.steampowered.com/app/717280/Critters__cute_cubs_in_a_cruel_world/

 

Oh wow, good luck!!!

Edit: the minimum specs seem to be pretty high - is this verified?

 

the minimum specs are my own laptop, it's the only "minimum" I was able to personally make sure that it would work on ^^ I will likely lower it when the game is more optimized and I would have information on which lower specs it can run.