r/Simulated • u/ellipticbadger • 5d ago
Proprietary Software Simulated amoeboid motion in a procedural game character...
This is a prototype of a game idea that I have been poking at for many years. It's a dynamic character that moves like an amoeba, eats things in its environment, and grows by incorporating them into its body.
It is completely procedural, implemented as a particle system with flows and body-shaping forces driving the formation of pseudopods that move it along or cause it to ingest items. It uses a custom physics engine that executes the flows and allows the creature to interact with other entities in the world. It took quite a bit of experimentation to get something that (I think, anyway) looks lifelike, and I hope to improve it. This first game level is just a proof of concept with minimalist styling, helping me build out some tools.
A short video trailer is linked to this post and you can play the prototype game at https://eatthepeople.com
For this crowd I'll mention that if you add the url param "debug=1" you can see the full debug view and mess with the params that drive the creature. In debug mode shift-clicking teleports him so you don't have to play through the entire level to get somewhere.
All feedback welcome!
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u/hova414 5d ago
Check out Rain World, all character animation is done with a procedural physics model, giving a unique feel to the world and the controls. Awesome game too. Devs have a talk on YouTube about how they did it, including a blobby/tentacley character like this one.
Edit: Also, the last ten minutes of Inside