been working on line-of-sight detection and hiding systems... you can now play hide and seek with hungry predators!

Let one of the achievements as a horseshoe crab be named "The ultimate lifeform"

ahahaha definitely!

This looks ace! can't wait to play hide and seek!

thank you!! ill be fine tuning it so its much more nerve-wracking!

Your welcome and good luck!!

Okay, so what is this that you're building? Does it have a website yet? I was wanting to make an aquarium "game/screensaver", but it seems like you may have beaten me to it.

an ecosystem survival game based in the Ordovician! and so far, this is the only place im posting updates on... Theres been games like this before mine, so why let that stop you!

Well, dang, folks really like our conversation! For VirtuaMakers 🦜, I'll create a spiritual successor to Nintendo Wii's "My Aquarium": Aquarium GoFish 🪸 You get to make your own #aquarium, amounting to a screen saver for any device it's installed on. There's also a sequel!

The tail of the fish should not be moving if the fish is staying in one spot (unless current which there doesnt seem to be)

hmmm... any examples on what you mean? my reasoning for this is A: ocean waves/currents being strong, and B: sacabambaspis possessing a whip like tail with very primitive weak fins, so it will need to swish its tail to stay in place!

The only types of weak swimmers are animals in low flow low movement like ponds lakes streams puddles, so something tadpole like would honestly die for the waste of energy in the ocean (although its cute), many fish barely move their body's to keep stationarylook up dive videos

I realize your point, but are you talking about like contemporary fish that stabilize using mostly large paired pectoral and pelvic fin movement? The marine fish footage I reference all have them very slowly undulating to keep up with the currents of the ocean

To me it seems more like Snake or tadpole, less like fish, the entire spine moving is fairly unnatural looking, for a fish that relies more on pelvic and pectoral movement, even benthic fishes wouldnt move their tail that much for movement in the open

yes exactly, as sacabambaspis seemed to possess a notochord, and not a modern spine like today's fish, nor did it possess pelvic and pectoral fins. In the end, none of us know exactly how this prehistoric animal moved, but I'll look into lessening the range of movement when still

Question, but is it possible for us to temporarily see what's above the water in this game? If so, then do you plan in adding a gorgeous ring system for the skybox?

yes and yes! I've been looking forward to making a ring for the skybox!! I know it's just a theory, but I feel like it would be a beautiful visual, and I'm already aesthetically inspired by halo CE and that would be just icing on the cake

Ordovician is a very unique setting, tbf palaeozoic in general is but a nice time period youve picked for this. Are you planning on any other hunters than eurypterids?

thank you! and yes, most creatures that are larger than you can be potential predators, and I'll be adding large orthocone species and a speculative predatory swarming conodonts later on!

@Sharp_Sticks This reminds me of sea monsters for the ps2

Really love what you’re building here

Make a fish specie that's able burrow into the sand to hide (Or a predator that's able to do that. Like a Sandshark from Subnautica)

the megalograptus can do that!

Oh D: What more features does it have?

All the creatures can pick up and grab things, but the megalograptus can pick up much larger things with its spiky claws and hug them to death! and if its target is too big to hug, it will be a snap attack that inflicts damage and knockback

Estas al tanto de esto, gordo? @PaleoLazo

Brother, your game looks spectacular! Wonderful work! What platforms will it be playable on?

thank you!! so far only pc is confirmed, but I will see what I can do about other platforms!

Thanks, let me know when it arrives on Android or other devices. Keep it up, you're on the right track.

I really hope you add falciscaris. he's just so awesome

I'm currently looking into this guy, and from what I can tell, it seems to be a slightly smaller, active-hunter cousin of aegirocassis?! If it can work as a creature that roams open waters and swoops down to grab benthic creatures or sift through the sand that would be great!

How did you go about doing detection? I'm curious as I've made prototypes myself (mostly illumination based) and found it to be a problem with a great many solutions.

im curious to hear about illumination based ones though!!

I used a very low resolution camera (48x48 pixels) that saw everything but the player model in shades of grey, and the player model as shades of red depending on ilumination. It normalized the brightness of the player and the background, and checked contrast in little chunks. 1/?

If iluminated, detection chance increased, if iluminated against a dark background, it increased more, if in shadow on a lit background, it increased a little, and movment itself increases it a bit. This makes a moving silhouette noticable but hugging terrain keeps you hidden 2/?

Distance also factored in, movement speed, color of background was it's own other low rez camera to check if the background was similar in tone to the player and lower detection when iluminated and still. I was going to add footsteps, floor materials, and other noises but 3/?

Havn't sat back down to learn that stuff yet. The detection cameras are meant to be on every "guard" so one guard might be more able to see you from a different direction, but they're all tunnel visioned to an fov of like 50. If one saw you, they'd yell and get other guards 4/?

To come to them and it sharply increases detection rate since they're looking for you. It's all inspired HEAVILY by Thief 1 and 2. Great games if you like stealth, and they do stuff nearly nobdy has done since. Next time i pick it up i'll add some of the guard AI. 5/5

oh wow that's crazy awesome, I haven't even heard of that method before! is it tough on performance?

I can't wait to play this. Looks incredible. Are there plans for multiplayer?

thank youu! I will be figuring out if I can make it so you can play with a couple of friends, but no guarantees!

Idk what this is but its paleo shit I'm in. Especially since its cambrian period not dinosaurs. Dont get it twisted, i adore dinos, but this different n highlights other fascinating creatures.

In what language do you code btw?

GDScript, on the Godot engine!

i need this in my life

you will have this in your life...hopefully soon!

unrealistic, predator didnt even check surrounding area of last seen prey...

I do have another clip where a different individual was searching the area where it lost track of me, but it didn't make the cut

Cool, as long as youre working on it :)

is that you...feed and grow fish?

Biblically inaccurate

can you be more specific?

Niceee

I wanna plaaayyyyy

Que jogo é esse?

a ecosystem survival game I'm making, based on the Ordovician!

Parece tão legal!

@IV757975026 by the way is thos supposed to be a specific formation

@IV757975026 oh no, just creatures handpicked from the general Ordovician period

👀 game dev is gambing

where can I play this? looks cool.

I really love the backing song, idk why

me too!

YAH CAMBRIAN PERIOD!

omg spore

So cool...

The sea is a place where every day, half the population eats the other half

Whoa, really cool!

Wow!