SimBioz

Project summary

SimBioz is a project done for my first year of Game Design study at ISART Digital.

It was made in 6 months with Virtools. It is playable with a mouse and a keyboard on a PC.

I had to team up with an other student, an artist named Romain Barrès. He created all the 3D assets.
I made the game design, all the programming and nearly all the 2D assets (except for textures).

This project was presented before professionals in 2007 during an ISART Digital symposium and was very well received.

The name is a pun on the word "symbiosis", in which "Sim" means Simulation and "Bio" means Biotope.

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Pitch

SimBioz is a god game in which players can develop a full biotope from an empty pond.
With the player's help, life can begin its cycle thanks to plants and the animals they attract.

By preserving the equilibrium of such a fragile ecosystem and taking care of its inhabitants, players can create a full living world.

Player experience

Like all god games, SimBioz allows players to create a world and have power on it.
By helping it grow and live, players can understand how it works and be sensitized to ecology.
One of aim of this game is to help people develop empathy for animal life striving to survive.

On a side note, as the biotope grow in size and complexity, the landscape become more and more beautiful and alive, thus allowing a peaceful contemplation of the like of an aquarium.

In this game it is impossible to lose. Players can begin a new cycle of life anytime.
Since players can play ad vitam eternam, they can experiment freely and discover the game at their own pace.

Gameplay

Players can plant wild plants on the ground (irises) and on the water (water lilies).

• These plants grow and attract simple life, like insects (flies, dragonflies...) and other plants (Cattails, duckweeds...).
• Insects survive by eating the plants. Players have to plant new plants when they are depleted, but without crowding the pond.
• If insects do survive, they attract more complex lifeforms, like frogs and fishes.
• These animals survive by eating the insects.

 And here goes the food chain.
 Plants and animals have a full life cycle, with reproduction and death of old age or starvation.

 Any surpopulation or underpopulation threatens the equilibrium of all the biotope.
 By controlling the population of plants (by adding and removing some), players ensure the survival of all the pond.

I used extensive systemics to make all elements in the pond act with credibility.
Plus, each time a new game is played everything is different. It is impossible to have two identical plays.

During their game, players can see at anytime the world through the eyes of any animal by clicking on it.
This allows immersion and contemplation, adding a 'zen' touch to the game.

For obvious reasons this game has a strong ludo-educative potential.
It was designed to help people of all ages to learn about and understand the unbelievable complexity of a pond by playing it.