Darwinia (computer game)
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Backstory
Contrary to the indicative name, the world of Darwinia is not a natural phenomenon. It was created as a digital theme world by the mysterious Dr Sepulveda - a Jurassic Park for polygons. Housed in a massive network of surplus Protologic 68000 machines from the '80s, Darwinia is a world where the single-poly Darwinians (also known as DGs or DeeGees meaning "Darwinia Guy" a name that the fanbase created that predates their official title), with their simple, but growing AI, can grow and evolve. And where the world can visit to see them gambolling in their natural, fractal habitat. Except, when the player arrives, something has gone horribly wrong. Darwinia has been infected by a virus, and Dr. Sepulveda is panicking, watching decades of research being corrupted and consumed. Since the player is the only other person there at the time, Sepulveda decides that the player can help him, giving the player access to the combat programs he had managed to prevent from being completely rewritten by the virus, simple tools that were meant as minigames, mostly involving guns and blowing things up. It soon becomes clear this is not enough, and that triggers the third aspect of the gameplay - evolution.
Progress
- Initial beta testing on Darwinia started on August 27, 2004, and full game beta testing started on November 26, 2004.
- A demo level was released on January 21, 2005 and can be downloaded from the Darwinia website.
- Darwinia was released on March 4, 2005, while the Macintosh version was released March 30, 2005 by publisher Ambrosia Software.
- A patch was released on April 28, 2005 for Microsoft Windows, bringing the version to 1.2. New features included an improved unit selection system, as well as numerous modding updates including the ability to create custom strings.
- Another patch (version 1.3) was released in September 2005, which includes the option of clicking icons to create units instead of using the gesture system.
- A new demo, using features of the above-mentioned version 1.3 patch and an entirely new level not in the full game, was released in September 2005.
- Darwinia was released on Steam on December 14, 2005.
- With the Steam framework open to them, Introversion now hopes to implement the long-planned multiplayer mode into Darwinia [link].
- Beta testing singups for the next Windows Patch started on the 22nd February 2006. [link]
- A new patch was released on March 10, 2006 bringing the version up to 1.42 and adding difficulty settings ranging from 1 to 10. Higher difficulties increase the number, speed, and health of monsters. It also increases the speed of the player's own units. When played on the highest difficulty, the players will experience "Darwinia on Steroids", a term coined by Introversion and referring to the high speed. [link].
- eGames owned Cinemaware on April 4, 2006 issued a press release annoucing they would bring Darwinia to US markets in June 2006.
Critical acclaim
- Scored 90% from PC Gamer UK and reached number 21 on its 'Top 100 PC Games' list.
- Scored 8.5 in GameSpot's [review].
- "Has to be played" from [PC Review]
- Wired noted that they couldn't stop themselves from playing it.
- Darwinia won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Innovation in Visual Art awards at the 2006 Independent Games Festival.
- Earned a 5 out of 5 on X-Play.
External links
- [Darwinia Homepage]
- [Steam Powered, digital distribution for Darwinia]
- [TheNextGame, a Darwinia fansite]
- [stellarmatter.net, a Darwinia fansite]
- [Darwinia] at MobyGames
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