Notes from the Slippery Slope, Part 1

[prophile]

(you just lost the game)

...

[BrianBlessed]

We need to find one word, a big, important word, that describes an important aspect of the game, has a clear, distinct meaning and connotations, and...subvert it to our own cause.

That's what I was thinking, a word which would be synonymous with war. Liberty, victory, territory, etc. Although I think that just using such a word as a name would seem odd, so I think some kind of alteration of the stem word would be neccessary (whether it's a techy alteration or not).

Libertek, Libertech, Liberteq, Liberto, Libertat, {insert other random formations of letters}

Or alternatively the sodding awful pun, Teratory. Which while awful, I kind of like the sound of.

[brice]

We're aiming for a fast, brutal and hilarious multiplayer wargame, set in the world of Darwinia.

I think you'll get better / more ideas if you tell us a little about how players win rounds of the game. Is it capture the flag? or annhiliate all opponents? or timed survival? or what? Or are there many modes of play to choose from? "Survival of the fittest" would imply last man standing or some form of world domination.

A catchy name should summarize the gamplay in some way, possibly obscured. Hopefully people wouldn't fully understand the name (or the embedded puns) until they've played the game a little while. But the name should evoke something about the gameplay mechanics to draw people in.

For example, if you run with "survival of the fittest", maybe the gameplay turns the Darwinian concept of "fitness" on it's head somehow. People would grab the game with one set of expectations (last man standing, rule the world gameplay), but would learn to love a game they hadn't imagined from the name alone.

For exapmle, perhaps strength in numbers becomes a liability beyond a point, so the fittest armies aren't the largest or most dense, etc. Or perhap you tweak the mechanics so that lone wolfs can never win? Then "fittness" implies multi-player politics rather than depending solely on military prowess.

I don't expect you'll share many gameplay secrets, but also I don't think you can get really good name suggestions without sharing a little more than you have. All we have to go on is the Darwinia history we already know -- but you've said you want to break free from that. Catch 22.

-brice

EDIT: a google search came up with a pun on "survival of the fittest". A Caltech research group coined the term "survival of the flattest" to explain some technical aspect of their work. Personally I like your tentative choice of "survival of the fittest", but I also like word plays off the Flatlander aspects of DG life. I'm not really pitching "survival of the flattest" -- it would make more sense if somehow "flatness" showed up in the game mechanics. Maybe DGs start out 3D and fat in this game? And as they gain military prowess they get leaner and meaner? Is that kind of visual & verbal pun too too awful? You already vary DG shade and size. Maybe they can get so lean they starve or fade away? That could be one of the balancing mechanics. Then "survival of the flattest" becomes almost a misnomer with a twisted dark humor about it. But I ramble...

Digital organisms: Survival of the flattest

Digital organisms, essentially computer programs obeying the laws of mutation and natural selection, can be used to investigate the interplay between the basic processes of evolution. One such experiment puts a new spin on the darwinian concept of the survival of genotypes with high replication rates — the 'survival of the fittest'. For example, a digital organism with vastly higher replication rate (12-fold higher) is shown to be out-competed by slower replicating organisms. The successful digital organisms occupy lower fitness peaks, but are located in flatter regions of the fitness surface, which is a probabilistic way of saying that their lack of fitness is more than compensated for by the support they receive from mutational neighbours. For a visualization of these organisms growing and multiplying, see the supplementary information published alongside the research.

Abstract at: http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010719/010719-4.html
Movies at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 1a0_S2.htm

[Montyphy]

Napoleonia

[brice]

When Bits Fly (When Bits Die)

Bloody Bits

Organ Grinder

Decimation (in the sense of DSP = culling)

Redshirt Greenshirt (see Wikipedia entries for both words) ...almost has a Dr. Suess rhythm to it

[ChasM]

My ideas for codename Multiwinia:

• Darwitron
  
• Alice in Darwitron
  
• Darwinet
  
• WarTron
  
• Darwin's Bitscape
  
• Winia's Horizons
  
• Branchscape
  
• Struggle Of Unified Links (S.O.U.L)
  
• Enemies of the Scape
  
• Planet of the Code
  
• Horizons Evolve

If any of these actually get used, I'll be proudly embarrased.

News Flash from Wall Street, a future Rupert tabloid:
GREAT WALL OF JOURNAL
Paris Hilton Jailed. All your base belongs to us.

[darrenhubbard]

My suggestion is...

Napoleonik

ie a play on Napoleonic and related to war\battles\tactics etc


EDIT: d'oh just realised somebody above had already suggested something similar

[illustriouschin]

Egocenter

[The GoldFish]

There is, indeed, a reason why the games do not have names for 80% of their development.

Also I still like IVS, it has a SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART.

Especially if you add a subtitle beginning with u, to make it IVSU.

[martin]

Why not multiwinia?

[shinygerbil]

The codename Multiwinia has stuck since the start, but it's not what we want - this name only means something to people who've played Darwinia. We are fairly sure we don't want the word Darwinia in the main title at all. We want something that represents the fun crazy action multiplayer game we are trying to make.

[Inigo]

Cannon Fodd- wait, no.

[shinygerbil]

Cannon Fodd- wait, no.

D:

[elDiablo]

The Game of Death.

In reference to The Game of Life (by John Horton Conway, not the rubbish board game).

Cannon Fodd- wait, no.

Nice!

[ynbniar]

OBLITTERATION

The old "blitter" chip...sigh...simpler times...