Swim. Now with Human Interaction!
Swim is an evolution simulator. You play GOD. You get to poke and push the fish, forcing them to change, creating completely new evolutions. The controls are:
Left mouse button to select or drag.
The + button will increase the fish size, - will decrease it.
Feed will set it's hunger to 0, and Kill will, sadly, kill the fish.
Right Mouse will create a random new species of fish.
These controls give you just enough power to fiddle with evolution. I should warn you that they are completely unscripted and unaided. Everything they do is random. Thus, I can not be held responsible for anything they decide to do, or what they decide to evolve in to. Literally. They're limitless. Without further ado, I present, Swim.
Download.
Simple Guides.
Survival Guide. A fish needs food to survive and breed, and fish will share their food amongst other fish it encounters! This helps your population stay healthier by sharing the food around. Smart fish will stay nearer to the top of the water, and often jump out to grab the birds. The smartest fish will stay near the edges of the screen, where the birds appear.
Evolution Guide. Your fish will breed, and be mutated. That means they will change and get smarter. Their fins will change, colors will change, and minds will change. After a real long time, if your species manages to stay alive, you will have super smart fish!
Advanced Guides.
DNA guide. The top 10 strands all contain size information. For example, the second strand holds the length of the forward right fin. The bottom 4 strands hold brain activity. In my studies, I've found that multiple brown DNA are extremely beneficial. Every single strand of DNA effects something about the fish, mostly its dimensions, but also how it acts. The DNA, initially, will make no sense at all.. However, the more I play, the more I can identify successful DNA from bad DNA. If you happen to find a "super fish" while playing, a species that just does incredibly, take a screenshot of it's DNA and post it here! We want to see.
Advanced Evolution Guide. Evolution has 3 basic parts.. DNA, which decides how a creature grows and acts.. Radiation, which changes DNA.. and Breeding, which mixes DNA and passes it on to a child. When DNA is mutated, it can be good or bad (but is entirely random). A good mutation generally lets the child live longer, which means it can breed more. This is why good mutations get transferred, and what results in evolution. A bad mutation kills the child quicker, sometimes before it can even breed. This means it is completely wiped from the society.
Population Guide. There is a limited amount of food in Swim, which the birds bring in from land and drop in the ocean. While the population is low, there's lots of food to go around. When it's high, there is less. Food is also shared amongst the fish when they are close enough. (Hidden Secret: Thanks for reading the guide. You must hold L in the game to use the cheats.) However, fish can only breed when they aren't starving, and breeding takes some energy. All of this is one very weird, natural way of limiting the population in an environment. With lots of spare food comes huge bursts in population.
Breeding Guide. When two fish meet, they breed. They share their DNA with some level of mutation. They also name the child something similar to their own names. Now, what's important to know is that they can have multiple children, depending on how hungry they are. (Hidden Cheat: Thanks for reading the guide. Hole D or S to increase fin length, and X or C to decrease them.) A very well nourished mother could have several babies, a dozen even. However, if they mother is nearly dying of hunger, she can't have any babies. It should be noted that larger fish get hungrier, quicker.
Selective Breeding Guide. It is possible to breed fish together (although very difficult). When you see two fish with the same trait (such as a wide body), drag them together and they will likely breed. By selectively breeding your fish, you can allow species that would not otherwise survive to grow in population.
Edited by Danzaman, 07 June 2010 - 06:19 AM.
