During one warm sommer night an extraterrestrial creature, vaguely resembling an earthly slime mold appears in a peaceful city. It grows through the streets, having only one goal in mind: reaching the holiday home of the President to subdue Earth!
Night of the Man Eating Mucus, in short N.O.M.M., is a strategy game in which the player takes control of the slimy alien creature that wants to conquer Earth. The player has to decide which paths are the best to grow next, how to handle resources for growth and attack and how different abilities are best put to use. The game is designed for players who are looking for a different strategy experience on their tablets in a strange and playful setting, which pays homage to the B Movies of the 50s.
N.O.M.M. was the 5th and last project taking place in the 5th term. Each team, consisting of 3 students, had the liberty to choose one of five themes. Our team chose ‘Agents’ which not referred to ‘Secret Agents’ but agent-oriented programming. Our team consisted of two programmers and one artist. Together we created the basic game concept and goal.
While Julien created the behavior of NPC’s and the alien slime growth, I was responsible for the implementation of the game mechanics, resource system, interface and input. I also designed the level. Other responsiblilities I took came in form of documentation and project management.
Basic Game Concept
Since the project was estimated with 600 h we used the first four weeks to brainstorm and prototype. At the end, we had four digital prototypes and chose one of them. I got the idea for the game while researching animals and plants that form a collective and communicate information to each other like ants or mushrooms. Verena showed me the Slime Mold and I fell in love with its movement and ability to solve shortest path problems. I liked the idea of a game where growth is the form of movement so I created a prototype and we decided to use this approach. The agent-aspect of our game thus moved from the player to the enemies. Through growth the player has to reach a certain point in the level (the residence of the president). Growth needs resources which can be gathered by defeating enemies.
Impressions
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We used cotton wool for analog prototyping because it could be stretched and formed resembling the slime mold growth. -
After experimenting with the idea I created a digital prototype. It had the basic growth mechanic: by placing nodes (the darker dots) the slime would search a way to grow on its own. The Prototype also had a simple AI which attacks the nodes. -
The Player Character, the Man Eating Mucus, consisted of 3 parts: nodes, slime and a brain. The nodes could be activated and deactivated via touch input. Activated Nodes would attack or using their skills but also consume ressources. -
The nodes are used to 'gather ressources'. They can attack and eat civillians and policemen. Policemen are harder to eat and fight back. -
Like many creatures, the Man Eating Mucus has only one brain but it can move it around in its body. The brain is vulnerable and can only exist in slime. When a node is destroyed the connecting slime withdraws, which might leave the brain on the ground. Then it's game over. -
The brain of the Mucus is used to learn new abilities and to win and loose the game. The brain has to reach the holiday home of the president to possess him and rule over earth. -
One of our 6 skills were 'Attraction Spores'. They don't cost ressources to use. We included this to prefent players from building themselves. -
The Zombie Spore abillity can be learned during game. Normal civvilians (not policemen) are turned into zombies and start to eat other civillians. -
In addition to implementation, level design was one of my responsibilities as well. I did a sketch of the level. It resembles a neighbourhood of Los Angeles. -
At first I had planned two levels. But due to time issues we had to redesign the one to hold all four unlockable abillities. -
After the basic structure of the level was set I started to design the paths for the civillians and policemen. I lay down basic patrol routes for policemen and tested how many of them are appropiate during game play. I did the same for the civillians and went back and forth between them during the balancing process. -
Our city gets its atmosphere mostly from the lighting. While I was placing little models, e.g. trash cans, chairs and tables, I worked also on placing colored lights in the level. -
What our level looked like with and without lights.
Summary
N.O.M.M. was the last of our student projects we had to do to fullfill our curriculum. I am satisfied that I close the projects with specifically this one. I like the basic concept and the mechanics we came up with as well as the setting and the overall feel of the game. During the project I learned a lot and had the chance to explore a new field for me, which was level design in every aspect.
We worked in a group of three and our views on parts of the game often differed but we had healthy and respectful discussions and always came up with a solution. The atmosphere of that alone was great.
If I had to pick a project which I had to develop further, it would be this one. I see the most potential and the best game idea in it, though in its current state I recognise the flaws it has.