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[Screenshot | Download | Playing | Controls | Simulation] |
SimBlob is the name of a project I started in 1994, to produce a game that would let me experiment with various things I was learning at school. In particular, I wanted to experiment with bitmap graphics, multithreaded programming, user interfaces, and cellular automata. SimBlob started out as a strategy game for OS/2 with simulation of the environment and economy affecting your quest to conquer neighboring towns. The setting is an early (green) Mars, with blobs being the most intelligent life form on the planet. The original plan turned out to be too ambitious for me, given that I spend much of my time on projects and I have starting spending much of my time on my Ph.D. thesis.
The plan was for the SimBlob project to include two (or more) simpler games instead of one very complex one. The games would have shared the basic map structure (a hexagonal grid map), environmental simulation (water flow, erosion, fires, tree growth, etc.), and user interface. The first game, BlobCity, is a single player game where you are playing against the environment. In it you try to build a town in a world that has fires, floods, volcanos, and so on. The SimBlob project also included a second game, which would have had less city building and more resource management. This game was never fully designed. I wrote up several possibilities for games that could fit into the SimBlob project. The blobs might live in a large city; they might be building a town to compete with other towns; they might have towns already, and want you to link them together with trade; or they might be seeking to take advantage of the natural resources on Mars.
[8 Mar 1999] I have sent the source code to BlobCity to OS/2 NetLabs, in hopes that they will find a project maintainer and also put up a CVS version. You can also download a ZIP file (800k) with my poorly documented source. I hope some developers will produce versions for Macintosh, BeOS, Linux, and other systems.
Mar 8 version (379137 bytes)
Other notes:
At present, the game is playable, although it's not complete. (The main problem is lack of documentation and the inability to save and load games, IMO.) The play in BlobCity is "Blobs vs. Nature" (single player) instead of "Blobs vs. Blobs" (human player vs. computer players), which had been planned for the second SimBlob game. Like SimCity, there is no predetermined goal; instead you set your own goals. You are building a town and seek to conquer the elements. Try to build your towns to withstand floods, yet be near sources of water. Try to build your towns to withstand fires, yet be near forests. Try to achieve 600,000 population without auto-build mode. (My highest population in the old economic system is 653,712; my highest in the new economic system is 1.13million.) Try to have more food than people in your town.
Other things to try:
Using Ctrl with the LMB will use the Eraser instead of the toolbar selection. Using Shift with the LMB will draw straight instead of freehand, or freehand instead of straight.
RMB click does different things in different versions; it is a convenient place for me to put test code.
Farms, houses, and markets will be created automatically near roads. Markets must be adjacent to a road; houses can be two spaces away; and farms can be three spaces away. Markets make more money in city centers; houses are better near the city center but it's not as critical as it is for markets; farms prefer being near water and aren't really interested in paying higher land prices for areas near a city. As a result, farms near cities will be bought by people building markets or houses, and houses near the city center will be replaced by markets.
Anything that needs to be built will be marked with a hexagon, and then a builder blob will go there to build it.
Water will flow downhill. Trenches are 50 feet deep, so water will flow into them. Walls are 120 feet high, so they block most water. Gates are also 120 feet high, but they allow a small amount of water to pass through. You can use gates to build spillways or controlled release points on dams; or you can use them as openings on the sides of an irrigation canal, to let out small amounts of water to side canals.
Economic simulation involves determining how many people are able to get to work and how much food can be delivered to homes. To do this, I am using network flow algorithms to make people "flow" from certain points (houses) to markets to other points (farms). I am using the same algorithms for making food "flow" from farms to houses. (Both workers and food must travel through a market.) For now, workers producing food forms the entire basis for BlobCity's economy. BlobCity will probably not have any military simulation and is unlikely to have any political simulation; these two are more likely to be in the second SimBlob game.
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Last modified: Fri 18 Jun 1999Comments? Suggestions? I'd love to hear from you!
Amit J. Patel, amitp@cs.stanford.edu