Game-A-Week

I was challenged to make a game based on the concept of "Growth" (evolution, ect).As soon as I heard the word “growth” I immediately thought of John Conway’s “Game of Life” model. I was always interested in his model and thought it could be used for a myriad of applications in the field. (Same thing with Fibonacci Sequence, but I'm working on applying that right now into SOMETHING) This is really a half-hearted attempt (because it was a rush job for a class) but it illustrates the point.





You play a President in the US. Each cell is a politician you are familiar with. Their location on the grid details their views. If a cell is far to the left on the x-axis, the politician is very liberal. If they are far to the right they are very conservative. The y-axis represents states right vs. governmental authority. Every 5 generations you make a decision. Certain politicians (the ones who agree with you) light up. The lit cells follow the Conway “Game of Life” formula to try to survive. If 10 (adjustable number, but reasonable percent of grid size) survive after 5 generations the bill passes.


Four or more politicians together will become unlit because they see the opinion as to much of a sure thing. (They can’t be the “hero”)
A politician who is stranded with no support will lose faith. (Become unlit)
A politician with three neighboring politicians will give birth to a new lit politician who wants to jump on the bandwagon.
A politician with two or three neighbors will stand strong and support the bill together and remain lit.


This might not be a game in its own right, but perhaps a smaller component to a much larger game (like a RTS) due to its simplicity. The player itself would not know the rules the model runs by, to make it appear “random” or “chaotic” but still retain some element of growth/detriment.