Signal: Genesis by Z1116730

[raw]
made by Z1116730 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

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Game Lore

A century after the apocalypse, the Earth's surface is stripped of oxygen, leaving humanity to cling to life underground. However, the people of the old era left behind a secret laboratory containing a "Biochemical Compound" capable of bringing the planet back to life. To prevent theft, the Founders constructed a lethal "Ecological Lock" using mutated flora. These plants cycle between life and death following the rules of Conway's Game of Life. Only the living plants can form a safe, insulated path. Players take on the role of the pathfinder robot, "Unit-0." Guided by a human researcher, you will use the "Evolve," "Eradicate," and "Revive" commands to manipulate the plants' life signals. Amidst the dead underground ruins, you must calculate the grid to carve a path toward the core compound vault, igniting the green hope for humanity's return to the surface.

Gameplay Overview

The player takes on the role of a robot. By using different abilities to trigger changes in the "life signals" of special mutated plants within the lab, the player carves out a safe path to reach the target destination and clear the level. 微信图片<em>20260421090424</em>358_7.png

How To Play

Conway's Law

1)Any dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbors becomes a live cell in the next iteration. (Reproduction)
2)Any live cell with fewer than 2 live neighbors dies. (Underpopulation / Loneliness)
3)Any live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbors lives on to the next generation. (Survival)
4)Any live cell with more than 3 live neighbors dies. (Overpopulation)

Movement

You can click on a grid outside the Life Evolution Zone, if a safe path exists, the robot will automatically pathfind and move to the destination.

Skills

You can intervene in the life signals by clicking on the ability icons and selecting a target on the grid (if a target is required)
Evolve
Does not consume energy. Upon activation, all Life Evolution Zones in the level will undergo one iteration of evolution according to the rules of Conway's Game of Life.
Eradicate
Costs 1 Energy. Upon activation, the player selects a living target within the Life Evolution Zone and forces it into a dead state.
Revive
Costs 1 Energy. Upon activation, the player selects a dead target within the Life Evolution Zone and forces it into a living state.

Notes

You can access your Notes by clicking the button in the top-right corner. It records the rules of the Game of Life, Unit-0's abilities, and classic life signal patterns that unlock as you progress. If you ever get stuck, checking these patterns might just give you the inspiration you need!

Demo Video

【【LD59】Signal: Genesis——我们基于康威生命游戏做了一款解谜游戏……】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV16udCBhEoi/?sharesource=copyweb&vd_source=aef3e44ba1f8fdccf47b60e136d4ed19

Play Now!

https://statuesque-licorice-dcf4d3.netlify.app/
https://stiam-wu.itch.io/signal-genesis
https://dulcet-raindrop-abb114.netlify.app/ (Chinese Version)

Known Issues

Some dialogues may not display correctly under certain circumstances.
The WebGL (HTML5) version might display a black screen when entering full-screen mode.
If you encounter any game-breaking bugs, try...... !>restarting the game and pressing CapsLock on the Level Selection screen. This will unlock all levels so you can quickly get back to where you left off!

Ratings

Overall 467th 3.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 416th 3.381⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 343th 3.5⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 661th 3.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 424th 3.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 352th 3.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 449th 2.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 518th 3.475⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

JettVan
Apr 21st · 04:12 UTC
A really excellent game! Super innovative gameplay, polished and friendly UI, and it genuinely challenges brain in the best way possible.
mimigo
Apr 21st · 07:42 UTC
Love the distinctive visual style, reminds me of classic retro aesthetics. The puzzle design is clever and kept me engaged all the way through. Solid entry!
Awwwz
Apr 21st · 08:14 UTC
I love the scene! The overall drawing is very delicate, but the precision is slightly inconsistent, and the font of the dialog box is a bit too large. I like the small animations of characters and items popping up and down!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 21st · 08:26 UTC
@jettvan Thank you so much for the kind words! We are thrilled that you liked it. We really hope the complex system of Conway's Game of Life brought you a dynamic, mind-blowing, and truly unique puzzle-solving experience!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 21st · 08:26 UTC
@mimigo Thanks so much for the love! We are really glad that you could appreciate our visual style while enjoying the puzzle-solving process. Thanks for playing!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 21st · 08:29 UTC
@awwwz Thanks for the detailed feedback! We are really glad you enjoyed the delicate scenes and those bouncy little animations. As for the inconsistent precision and the large UI font, we totally agree. Due to the time limit of the jam, we couldn't polish everything perfectly, but we've noted it down for future updates! Thanks for playing!
Rémy Lopez
Apr 22nd · 12:35 UTC
The game is verry interesting !
Never saw any game taking advantage of the game of life like this !
nicardo
Apr 22nd · 13:24 UTC
very interesting and brilliant usage of conway
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 22nd · 16:07 UTC
@remy-lopez @nicardo Thank you both for the kind words and recognition! When I first encountered Conway's Game of Life, I was absolutely blown away by how complex and magical the system is. That's exactly what sparked the idea to turn it into a core game mechanic. So glad you guys enjoyed it!
nicardo
Apr 22nd · 17:56 UTC
Do you have more research on any other concepts like Conway which can reflect in a game or concept ?
CodeChomper
Apr 23rd · 01:37 UTC
Wow, Conway’s Game of Life as a puzzle! Back in the day as a young computer science student I made Conway’s Game of Life run in the terminal such a fun challenge. Your game brought back that nearly forgotten memory, thanks. I really enjoyed the puzzles. The only thing I would change is to not reshow the dialog when retrying a level due to a failed attempt. I understand the time crunch, overall excellent entry!
InfinateFalcon
Apr 23rd · 02:04 UTC
Quite liked the graphics of this, it's a good extension of conway's game of life. Little annoying to have to go through the dialog of each level when you need to restart it though. Overall good work :D
DAYA
Apr 23rd · 03:56 UTC
对于康威生命游戏规则的使用是很创新性的,这个游戏极具扩展性,经过更深入的设计可以构成很多新颖的谜题,我很喜欢这个游戏。The implementation of Conway's Game of Life rules is highly innovative. The game offers great extensibility and, with more in-depth design, can evolve into many novel puzzles. I really enjoy this game.
ursagames
Apr 23rd · 05:03 UTC
This had a lot more narrative than I was expecting! Very interesting use of Conway's game of life to make a puzzle game! Was always such a fun comp sci program to implement during college. The art was great! I wish the first intro also had the "next" button as it seemed to be based on time and I hit the refresh button once and had to wait for it all a second time. All in all I really enjoyed the game though! Very strong atmosphere and take on the theme.
LDJam user 371996
Apr 23rd · 09:16 UTC
Nice puzzles and learning curves! I expect this Conway's game of life gameplay can dig out of some "huge" puzzles www
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 24th · 06:33 UTC
@codechomper @infinatefalcon Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! We totally agree about the dialogue issue. The good news is we've already released a post-jam update that adds a skip feature (just press SPACE at the start of game). Note: this updated version is currently in Chinese, but the skipping works! Thanks again!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 24th · 06:37 UTC
@nicardo Great question! I actually pull a lot of my ideas from my early days of practicing algorithms on LeetCode—Conway's Game of Life is a perfect example of that. I also think the N-Queens puzzle is super interesting. It has huge potential for a game, I just haven't found the right way to adapt its rules into a fun gameplay loop yet!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 24th · 06:41 UTC
@ursagames Glad you enjoyed the puzzles and the art! We’ve taken your feedback to heart. In our post-jam update, we added the ability to progress the opening dialogues using the SPACE bar. (But note that the language in this new version has been switched to Chinese). Thanks for checking it out!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 24th · 06:44 UTC
@daya @rubatotree
感谢你们的喜欢与体验!生命游戏确实是一个很有创造性的玩法,我先前也构想过玩家DIY关卡的创造模式和更大型的演出关卡,可惜出于时间限制最后没有落地,可以期待我们的后续版本来完成这些遗憾!
Thank you both so much for playing and for your amazing support! Conway's Game of Life is indeed a highly creative mechanic. We actually had grand ideas for a player-DIY level editor and some massive, cinematic puzzle sequences. Unfortunately, due to the jam's time constraints, we couldn't bring them to life just yet. But please look forward to our future updates where we plan to make these visions a reality!
LuciaYan
Apr 24th · 06:48 UTC
对轻度解谜游戏玩家来说,使用康威生命游戏规则是非常新颖的!是个很有潜力的游戏!For players of mild puzzle games, using the Conway's law is quite novel! It's a game with great potential!
🎤 Z1116730
Apr 24th · 07:29 UTC
@luciayan 感谢你的喜欢与认可!确实我思考了一段时间如何让轻度玩家上手这款游戏,最终采用了前置关卡展示模型、后续关卡利用模型,这样可能即使玩家不需要推演甚至不完全掌握生命游戏的规则也能通关我们的剧情模式
Thank you so much for the love and recognition! I actually spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to make this game accessible to casual puzzle players. My ultimate solution was to use the early levels to showcase specific patterns, and then have players utilize those patterns in the later stages. This way, even if players don't mentally simulate the outcomes or fully master the complex rules of Conway's Game of Life, they can still comfortably clear the story mode!
YouLing
Apr 24th · 14:56 UTC
不错的一次创新,用康威生命游戏的演化作为玩法的思路,在观测推演中增加了玩家切入影响的乐趣,值得一试!Nice innovation - using the evolution of Conway's Life as the gameplay concept adds a fun element of player intervention and observation, definitely worth giving a try!
VenomousMouse
Apr 27th · 13:32 UTC
Very cool art style, sounds and puzzles.
HappyMirrorer
May 06th · 09:59 UTC
This puzzle-solving gameplay offers plenty of room for creative design. The strategies that emerge from reusing certain paths are quite refreshing. That said, I find the deduction based on Conway's Game of Life rather abstract and not very intuitive, which poses a challenge for the difficulty balancing and mechanical expansion of future levels. Good art style.