It's Alive!

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It's alive! The blog, that is. After a long absence from the blogosphere (Ooh, how Web 2.0 of me!), the urge to program a wonderful little "do nothing" has overcome me. So here you have the very earliest skeleton of a virtual ecosystem. It's not much yet; mainly just little digital Roombas sucking up bits of "food" in order to survive.

At this point, we've got some slight randomization of body size (which determines how fast energy depletes), random move speed and turn times, and random lines of sight. I'm really hoping this turns into a fun little thriving ecosystem with births, species shifting, and a rudimentary idea of how natural selection works. That little countdown on each green harvester is how much energy it has left. The food replenishes itself every couple of seconds and it provides a random amount of energy to the harvesters based on size. You can click the blue "Add Harvester" button to throw another random harvester into the mix.

Inspiration came from a few things, but foremost in my mind is Larry Marder's "Beanworld", with its simple yet charming circle of life. Well, here's hoping this little nugget turns into something fun to watch!