Darwin's Demons

This student project from the University of Idaho brings a new bent to the classic and beloved Space Invaders. Gameplay, is of course, basic, but the real beauty of this game is the algorithm behind the scenes. Every ten generations or so, the aliens would evolve enough to really start giving you a challenge. The further you go, the more of a bullet hell it becomes. No matter how much you try and manipulate the aliens gene pool, they will eventually match you, and then better you. You will lose, but how long will it take? Crisp graphics, great art style, addictive, simple and complicated all at once, has better procedural content generation than No Man's Sky. And this is a student project. Eat that, Hello Games.

[h1] It's space invaders with a unique (and interesting) twist. [/h1] Darwin's Demons brings something new to space invaders. The whole premise is to apply the evolutionary theory of "survival of the fittest" to the aforementioned invaders. The invaders that have the best survival stats influence the next generation of invaders. This manifests itself in the most annoying way possible. [b] The invaders quickly learn your greatest weaknesses, [/b] and soon you are facing entire waves of enemies that know the best way to defeat you. [b] You have to adapt and evolve at the same time they do. [/b] My first run lasted 2 waves. In the first wave, I let too many reach the bottom of the screen and in my panic to stop them, I let them land a few hits on me. In the second wave, I died to lots of enemies trying to rush to the bottom. [b] In my next run through, I had to learn to adapt to my own weaknesses. [/b] I spent my time targetting enemies that were the closest to the bottom. This served...

There are many games that are only a 'good idea', and have very little atual gameplay. This game is completely different. The genetic algorithm creates a game that is specifically hard for you, and no matter how much you try to game the system, it will eventially beat you. But that doesn't stop the game being fun, firing guided missiles and lasers at space-invader like enemies. I'm sure I will get many hours of fun out of it. If you are thinking of buying, just go for it. It costs £4.

I know a few people on the development team for this game, and was excited to try it out for myself. I have always been a fan of the space invaders/galaga style bullet hell games, and the twist that this game adds is exciting and different every time. The enemies can get very difficult if you don't know how to handle them, and are quick to exploit any weakness if your playstyle. Overall, very fun and remember, evolution will always win.

An excellent game that takes a refreshing spin on a rather old concept! The amount of "genetic" detail within the behavior of the individuals is rather uncanny! Slay the majority of the populations that congregate in the center of the screen? More enemies tend to prefer the left and right sides... Get your rump kicked in by those blue suckers with semi-homing projectiles? Guess who's gonna be more populous next round... A game definitely worth the price of a dejected Stat Trak CSGO Skin, or, a lovely cup of gourmet coffee at your reigonal overpriced coffee dispensary.

I've pretty much only started with this, but so far it lives up to what I hoped it would be. Basically, it's Space Invaders, but with a lot more player options, and more importantly, aliens that adapt to your ship and strategy. I unlocked a ship whose strategy relies on blocking enemy fire with its own fire... and before 10 waves were out, wound up going up against a population of lightning-eyes aliens whose projectiles all favored moving in a right curve. Thus neatly avoiding the projectiles that were supposed to block them. Other rounds I've done so far have ended with other really interesting setups that clearly show adaptation to the ship used, and incidentally to a strange playing quirk of mine... my hearing is bad in one ear, so I tend to "ignore" one half of the screen in playing a game - if I'm not paying attention, it's the one on the same side of the bad ear, if I am paying attention, I usually overcompensate and so don't pay enough attention to the other side. Pretty muc...

I can pretty much say that I love this game more than space invaders! Space invaders is my favorite Arcade game of all time! so that's saying something. But... This game is difficult. And thats a good thing. :) Bringing evolution of the enemies into it makes it so unpredictable that you pretty much have to do something new each time to get a better high score is awesome! its like laying a different game every time. You guys did great with this and I'm excited to see what else you can come up with.

The aliens don't grow more brains, just more brunt.

An excellent space shooter with one outstanding and innovative feature - a self-learning AI that will make your life very difficult! This game becomes harder and harder as you progress and learns from your mistakes, then exploits them. This is essentially a gamified Neural Network that creates a close to unbeatable AI. Try to survive for longer than a few generations on the hard mode and you'll feel like a champion! Check out a full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAg_r4OjBRo Definitely highly recommended

Overall I can say that this game has a very good idea and execution. Ships, alternate weapons, and defenses are all varied enough to give novel strategies and trying to manage the evolution of your enemies adds another layer to it. The devs are also quite friendly and frequently interact with the community, which is a great sign in general.