Hi, I've pretty much abandoned DA I'm just posting this journal to ask if anyone at the SE (speculative evolution) forums knows what happened to it? I can't get on, it just keeps saying connection was reset. Is it a problem on the server or site's end or is everyone else able to get on just fine? I haven't been able to connect to the site for a couple of days now.

EDIT: I now have a video of the game so far. There's very little at the moment, but it just demonstrates the behaviour of the fish as food, the behaviour of the player when hurt, changing rooms and the part where the path splits for the first time and you have to choose what environment your fish has to adapt to (there will be actual challenges in those later levels, the introductory level is purely to ease the player into how the game works).

Here's a direct link to the video: [link] Oh, and sorry for the poor quality of the video, I haven't quite got the hang of using videos yet. I never actually use videos on my computer normally. I might look for a better place to upload it too, using photobucket was just for quickness since it's not exactly an impressive demo.

I'm working on a game with Game Maker. It's a bit of an ambitious feat considering I have no experience in creating a game, and with computery things I'm not that bright. But I'm starting to get the hang of some of the basics of using drag and drop and game maker language, so I plan on building it up as I learn.

It's not meant to be in any way scientifically accurate, in fact it's purely for entertainment. It's all about evolution and inspired by the Snes game Evo. Instead of Evo though there are set paths with pre-made creatures, but you can choose from a variety of paths at different stages in the game.

It is going to be a 2D platformer. You are a speck of light and you travel into the egg of your starting fish-like creature. It hatches and you are brought into the introductory stage of the game. You are shown text messages explaining aspects of the level, such as how to get the help page (which shows your current creature's stats and moves) and how to attack, what to eat (you need to replenish energy every so often though you can restore it over more time by resting) and your level goal.

Upon completing the introductory level your creature approaches a split in its path to three different habitats. One tunnel looks dark with glowing things in it (Deep Sea Cave), one shows a blue expanse with shoals of fish (Open Ocean) and one shows pebbles and vegetation with sunlight (Lush River). Upon choosing a path the player is shown the message: Many generations pass... and the speck of light appears again in the chosen habitat.

It enters the egg of the new creature, who hatches. The creature will look different and have stats and moves to suit its environment. Some I intend to include are Bioluminescence to light up dark areas, Allure to bait for small prey, Rush with jaws gnashing for a burst of speed towards a target, Electrosense to find hidden creatures in daylight, Sticky as an enemy move to simulate an enemy grabbing your creature, etc.

Your creature will continue to evolve this way by splitting paths. I hope to develop the storyline further, as you as the speck of light pass from creature to creature you may begin to gain conciousness and pursue an ultimate goal. Perhaps this speck of light has a task to fulfil, an energy based alien being controlling the course of evolution using the creature's bodies as vessels. I dunno, something like that. A story to go along with it would be nice anyway.

I might start to post some stuff from it, some sprites and illustrations of creatures that are going to be in it. I'm off to bed.


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Current stuff I'm working on:

Life Without Vertebrates - if vertebrate life went extinct 360 million years ago, how would invertebrates have conquered the world? Would they have evolved sentient life with technology like our own? ** This may not be updated for a while actually. I seem to have lost some of it, and need to hunt it out.

Mesozoic Island 2 - A re-think of the original mesozoic island that starts in the Early Jurassic. A miniature continent to the South East of Asia hosts dicynodonts and theropods, and life never before seen on any other continent. ** There will be submissions on this soon. Maybe even literature submissions, since I have been writing a lot of this up in a wildlife documentary style.

Alien Planet - The most recent submissions are for this project. This is about an alien planet in the early stages of the development of complex life. Life on this planet has a close resemblance to Earth life in that it is made up of cells with a phospholipid bi-layer membrane and has genetic information.

Oh yae cannae shove yer granny oaf a bus (push push)
Oh yae cannae shove yer granny oaf a bus (push push)
Oh yae cannae shove yer granny,
'Cos she's yer mammy's mammy!
Oh yae cannae shove yer granny oaf a bus (push push)

Ahem... anyway...

Current stuff I'm working on:

Life Without Vertebrates - if vertebrate life went extinct 360 million years ago, how would invertebrates have conquered the world? Would they have evolved sentient life with technology like our own? ** This may not be updated for a while actually. I seem to have lost some of it, and need to hunt it out.

Mesozoic Island 2 - A re-think of the original mesozoic island that starts in the Early Jurassic. A miniature continent to the South East of Asia hosts dicynodonts and theropods, and life never before seen on any other continent. ** There will be submissions on this soon. Maybe even literature submissions, since I have been writing a lot of this up in a wildlife documentary style.

Alien Planet - The most recent submissions are for this project. This is about an alien planet in the early stages of the development of complex life. Life on this planet has a close resemblance to Earth life in that it is made up of cells with a phospholipid bi-layer membrane and has genetic information.

Competition Evolution

The game can still be accessed below but whenever I try to access it I get a page loading error. I need to ask does this happen to anybody else? I can't even get onto the host's website either so it appears something is wrong.

Here's a forum game I have designed. It's all about evolution, and I'm looking for new members to join in. It's pretty quiet just now so we welcom new players.

If you're interested, have a look here: [link]


A new Project?

I have been thinking... I wasn't going to continue Alternative Earth until much later. It's still sitting in its folder, but I don't feel like continuing right now. I have a new idea in mind that I'd like to explore in Earth's setting.

It's a project where all tetrapods and all lobe-finned fish die out at the start of the carboniferous period, 360 million years ago, and explores how life might have evolved in their absence. EDIT: I have decided all jawed fish will be joining them, so that changes can take effect in the sea as well as on land.

I'm currently studying up on the known life forms from back then so I can put together a general picture of how the world might have looked back then before starting this project.

The difference here is I'll be evolving many life forms and not just fish or animals. I'll cover plants too.

Hopefully I'll be started on this soon.

New Phylum

This project is in the works just now, please excuse inaccuracies or advise please!

Currently on: 1 million years from the first bilaterian worm.

New Phylum gets its name from harbouring one last remaining phylum of multicellular animals left alive on the planet at the start of the project.

The planet resides in a star system that has a single yellow-dwarf star. There are a handful of other planets in the system.

New Phylum is in the early stages of the development of complex life. Having harboured nothing but simple unicellular species, its now home to tiny multicellular animal, plant and fungus-like organisms.

The multicellular animals got off to a good start but the number of species bottlenecked to just one at the end of a devastating mass extinction that resulted in increased heat and radiation raining down uppon the planet (currently still figuring out why though). This leaves only the worms - microscopic bilaterians with few simple organs. What is left for them are hundreds of niches to exploit and a whole planet to conquer... until the next mass extinction.

Current related deviations:

Grip worm - Folds of skin provide this worm with a means of latching itself on to the algae growing on the ocean surface.

Winged worm - Swiming ability has improved due to the growth of slightly enlarged membrane connected by moveable spines.

Bristle fin - A large herbivorious species that uses simple fins to help it swim.

Floating gas worm - Keeps itself afloat near the ocean surface using gases given off by the bacteria in its intestine when they digest plant material.

Mini filter feeder - This herbivore collects floating algae and detritus from the sea water using a filter made up of the muscle fibres that control its mouth.

Coastal bristle swimmer - A shallow sea variety that stays near the flora growing on submerged cliff-sides.

Clingy Herbivore - A herbivore that uses hooks to hold on to colonial plants like bubble algae.

Bristle swimmer evolved - Bristle swimmer was rather successful in cycle 9. This is one of its many descendants in cycle 10.

Close-up of a carnivore feeding - One of the carnivorous worms feeding upon a smaller worm.

Winter White - ... yeah, wasn't a very original name, no. This is the third planet from the yellow dwarf star, coming after New Phylum. Its much like Europa in nature and four times larger than Earth.

Evolution of the worms - this is just the beginning of the evolutionary progress of the worms on New Phylum, it features every species I've made for cycle 9 so far.

Rock grabber - A herbivorious microscopic worm that latches on to rocks to feed on drifting detritus.

Hairy biter - An omnivorious, near carnivorious, microscopic worm covered in protective spikes.

Bristle swimmer - Another microscopic worm, this time a herbivore that can swim well.

-----------------------------

Prehistoric Speculation

I'll be posting many of my own interperatations of what I think some species of extinct animal may look like. I may even start to draw sceneries. I will do my best to stick to fact and will use any references I can.

Current related deviations:

Catopsalis (Cretaceous - Paleogene period) - A prehistoric mammal.

Velociraptor (Cretaceous period) - With feathers.

Megazostrodon (Triassic - Jurassic period) - Its with its offspring.

Acanthostega (Devonian - Carboniferous period) - How acanthostega might have looked.

A new Project?

I have been thinking... I wasn't going to continue Alternative Earth until much later. It's still sitting in its folder, but I don't feel like continuing right now. I have a new idea in mind that I'd like to explore in Earth's setting.

It's a project where all tetrapods and all lobe-finned fish die out at the start of the carboniferous period, 360 million years ago, and explores how life might have evolved in their absence. EDIT: I have decided all jawed fish will be joining them, so that changes can take effect in the sea as well as on land.

I'm currently studying up on the known life forms from back then so I can put together a general picture of how the world might have looked back then before starting this project.

The difference here is I'll be evolving many life forms and not just fish or animals. I'll cover plants too.

Hopefully I'll be started on this soon.

Competition Evolution

Here's a forum game I have designed. It's all about evolution, and I'm looking for new members to join in. It's pretty quiet just now so we welcom new players.

If you're interested, have a look here: [link]

New Phylum

This project is in the works just now, please excuse inaccuracies or advise please!

Currently on: 1 million years from the first bilaterian worm.

New Phylum gets its name from harbouring one last remaining phylum of multicellular animals left alive on the planet at the start of the project.

The planet resides in a star system that has a single yellow-dwarf star. There are a handful of other planets in the system.

New Phylum is in the early stages of the development of complex life. Having harboured nothing but simple unicellular species, its now home to tiny multicellular animal, plant and fungus-like organisms.

The multicellular animals got off to a good start but the number of species bottlenecked to just one at the end of a devastating mass extinction that resulted in increased heat and radiation raining down uppon the planet (currently still figuring out why though). This leaves only the worms - microscopic bilaterians with few simple organs. What is left for them are hundreds of niches to exploit and a whole planet to conquer... until the next mass extinction.

Current related deviations:

Grip worm - Folds of skin provide this worm with a means of latching itself on to the algae growing on the ocean surface.

Winged worm - Swiming ability has improved due to the growth of slightly enlarged membrane connected by moveable spines.

Bristle fin - A large herbivorious species that uses simple fins to help it swim.

Floating gas worm - Keeps itself afloat near the ocean surface using gases given off by the bacteria in its intestine when they digest plant material.

Mini filter feeder - This herbivore collects floating algae and detritus from the sea water using a filter made up of the muscle fibres that control its mouth.

Coastal bristle swimmer - A shallow sea variety that stays near the flora growing on submerged cliff-sides.

Clingy Herbivore - A herbivore that uses hooks to hold on to colonial plants like bubble algae.

Bristle swimmer evolved - Bristle swimmer was rather successful in cycle 9. This is one of its many descendants in cycle 10.

Close-up of a carnivore feeding - One of the carnivorous worms feeding upon a smaller worm.

Winter White - ... yeah, wasn't a very original name, no. This is the third planet from the yellow dwarf star, coming after New Phylum. Its much like Europa in nature and four times larger than Earth.

Evolution of the worms - this is just the beginning of the evolutionary progress of the worms on New Phylum, it features every species I've made for cycle 9 so far.

Rock grabber - A herbivorious microscopic worm that latches on to rocks to feed on drifting detritus.

Hairy biter - An omnivorious, near carnivorious, microscopic worm covered in protective spikes.

Bristle swimmer - Another microscopic worm, this time a herbivore that can swim well.

-----------------------------

Prehistoric Speculation

I'll be posting many of my own interperatations of what I think some species of extinct animal may look like. I may even start to draw sceneries. I will do my best to stick to fact and will use any references I can.

Current related deviations:

Catopsalis (Cretaceous - Paleogene period) - A prehistoric mammal.

Velociraptor (Cretaceous period) - With feathers.

Megazostrodon (Triassic - Jurassic period) - Its with its offspring.

Acanthostega (Devonian - Carboniferous period) - How acanthostega might have looked.