Darwinia (video game)
| Darwinia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Introversion Software |
| Publisher(s) | Introversion Software (Windows/Linux) Ambrosia Software (Mac OS X) Cinemaware Marquee/eGames (USA) Stomp (Australia) |
| Distributor(s) |
Pinnacle Software [1] (Windows) Valve (Steam) DesuraNET (Desura) |
| Designer(s) | Chris Delay |
| Composer(s) |
Timothy Lamb Mathieu Stempell |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows Linux Mac OS X Xbox 360 |
| Release |
Windows
14 December 2005 MSN Games 31 January 2007 Xbox 360 11 February 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time tactics, real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | 84/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 9/10 |
| GameSpot | 8.5/10 |
| IGN | 8.8/10 |
| Awards | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Award |
| Independent Games Festival | Seumas McNally Grand Prize |
| Independent Games Festival | Technical Excellence |
| Independent Games Festival | Innovation in Visual Art |
Darwinia is a 2005 real-time tactics and real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It is the second game developed by Introversion Software, and is set within a computer environment that simulates artificial intelligence. It received favorable reviews and won three awards at the 2006 Independent Games Festival. A multiplayer sequel, Multiwinia, was released for Windows in 2008. Darwinia and Multiwinia were released together as Darwinia+ for the Xbox 360 in 2010.
Darwinia was created as a digital theme world for artificially intelligent polygons by Dr Sepulveda. Housed in a massive network of surplus Protologic 68000 machines from the 1980s, Darwinia is a world where the single-poly Darwinians, with their simple, but growing AI, can grow and evolve. Darwinia is also where the world can visit to see them frolicking in their natural, fractal habitat. A Darwinian lives a life working and growing, until the eventual death of the Darwinian, which releases their digital soul to later be reincarnated.
However, the player arrives in the midst of an emergency. Darwinia has been infected by a computer virus, and Sepulveda is in near panic, watching decades of research being corrupted and being used up. Sepulveda enlists the player, a curious hacker who stumbled across Darwinia by accident, to aid him in rescuing the Darwinians and drive off the computer virus. The player is given access to the combat programs, simple tools that originally began as mini-games. These are now the only means of attack against the virus. As the player progresses, it soon becomes clear this is not enough, and that triggers the third aspect of the gameplay, which is evolution.
The first two levels of the video game act as an introduction and allow the player to familiarize themselves with the controls. After that, Dr Sepulveda begins assigning tasks that span several levels to achieve a long-term objective. The first task involves clearing the virus population from and reactivating the Mines and Power Generator to provide resources for the Construction Yard. Once done, the Yard begins producing armored units, allowing the player to move on. The next task involves the reincarnation of Darwinians: the Soul Repository in the center of Darwinia collects the floating souls, and sends them down to the Receiver, where the Darwinians gather them and send them to the Pattern Buffer to be reprogrammed with the main Darwinian blueprint code, where they are sent to the Biosphere to be reborn. The player must clear the Viruses from all the facilities and reactivate them.
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Wikipedia