Creating games with the EvoCell Universe Creator
With our EvoCell Universe Creator we present a radically new way to create computer games.
Instead of programming the enemy AI, and instead of programming what happens when the player hits the wall, and instead of moving sprites around on the screen we asked:
What if the pixels themselves could embody the physics or the enemy AI? How can we make the pixels live?
We found an answer to this question in a powerful mathematical concept called cellular automata. Cellular automata are an alternative computing paradigm that is inherently parallel and is inspired by the way biological cells interact and grow. They were invented in the 1950s and have been the topic of extensive research over the years, so there are many interesting cellular automata models available that we can use as ingredients for games. We also invented ways to evolve cellular automata to make them do specific things or manage specific tasks. We are using them in our game editor and the games that are created with it to make the game real, to make the game live. And you can change every little detail of the game very quickly and easily.