Chris
Harrison

Ameba RPG

I needed a project in AP Biology, so when there was an opportunity to make a game (e.g. board game) that taught students biology, I jumped on my computer and started coding. I luckily recycled much of the engine from Sandak, but ended up adding a number of new features. It's not really a full project, but represented quite a time investment by completion.

Ameba is a text based adventure game. Your goal is to survive while learning about the various cellular organelles. The game revolves around energy. Energy can be gained by digesting material you find floating in the pond and by digesting enemies after you have killed them. You use energy to complete actions like move or attack. You can also spend energy developing your internal systems. By doing this, you can become better at some actions, such as attacking. Your organelle development level controls your attack and defense rating. Attack rating is the maximum amount of damage you inflict on the opposing organism. If your attack rating was 4 you can do 1-4 damage, assuming that you hit in the first place. Determining if an attack hits is based on the defense rating of the opponent. If your defense rating was 3 you have a 30% chance to block or dodge an attack. Enemies have their own ratings to determine how much damage they do to you and how often you hit them. During a battle, damage sustained will reduce your energy. Energy is analogous to life (HP), with out it you will die. You can die in battle from enemy attacks or from moving around without replenishing your energy.

There are 5 distinct sections to the game screen.

  • Location: This describes the area you are in.
  • Items: This lists the various food items present in the area. Next to each item is the amount on energy they are worth.
  • Enemies: This lists the other organisms in the area that are possible food sources.
  • Directions: This lists the possible direction to travel from your current area. For instance if it displayed NWS: You could go North, West, or South, but not East.
  • Energy: This text represents your current energy level. Maximum is 100. So if you have 40 energy it would say 40/100.

Commands are what you will do to control your ameba. They should be typed in as lower case. It is not necessary to type in the whole command. If you want to take a certain item, type “t”, then enter. It will then list the items in that area. Type the number of the corresponding item and hit enter. It will then ask you where you want to store it. Type in the vacuole number and hit enter. Congratulations you just stored a item.

Command list:

  • TAKE– Allows you to engulf a specified item and store it in a particular vacuole for later use.
  • USE– Use has two sub-options: Use item and Use energy. “Use item” allow you to digest one of the food sources you have stored in one of your vacuoles. “Use energy” allows you to invest energy in your internal systems. Every 10 energy invested should on average boost your organelle development rating by 1. Spending more energy make you more powerful and allows you to defeat harder enemies to sustain yourself. If you are running low on energy, you can always take out some energy by typing in a negative number. However, this weakens you. It a good idea to always leave your self with at least 30 energy.
  • ATTACK– Allows you to attack a particular enemy in your area. If you win the battle you engulf the enemy automatically and gain its energy. Some enemies are harder than others, so keep record of what types are good. Every turn in a battle requires energy so you slowly expend energy to keep attacking. If you feel that you might die, you can flee by typing FLEE. However, your enemy may prevent you from escaping. Enemies can also flee if they feel they are going to die. You can always type the USE command to digest some items stored in your vacuoles for a quick energy boost.
  • INVENTORY– Displays your current status (items in vacuoles, attack and defense rating, and organelle development)
© Chris Harrison