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08 / Botanical genetics & tower defense

Zero Reagent

Actual home screen of the MUTABLOOM v0.3 game prototype
MUTABLOOM / v0.3Actual game prototype capture

Turning inheritance rules into a playable system. The current game, MUTABLOOM, connects gene combinations, botanical evolution, and tower-defense decisions in an expedition.

RoleGame systems design and prototyping
Period2026
Statusv0.3 · In development

01 / The challenge

Make combinations and randomness worth exploring while keeping rules probabilities and trade-offs legible to the player

02 / Approach

  1. Make randomness explainable and rules testable
  2. Separate inheritance and combat models from rendering and interaction
  3. Support deliberate decisions with probability previews, state feedback, and focus-loss pause

03 / System structure

  1. Inheritance: gene slots, expressed traits, hybridization, and mutation
  2. Rules: combat model, event queue, and expedition settlement
  3. Experience: Phaser scenes, laboratory, and discovery catalog
  4. Storage: browser-local preferences, discoveries, and unlocks

DESIGN DECISIONS

System structure ↗
  1. Inheritance: gene slots, expressed traits, hybridization, and mutation
  2. Rules: combat model, event queue, and expedition settlement
  3. Experience: Phaser scenes, laboratory, and discovery catalog
  4. Storage: browser-local preferences, discoveries, and unlocks

04 / Public outcomes

What the work established

  • A desktop-browser single-player prototype with an actual interface
  • A plant-building loop spanning hybridization, evolution, and mutation
  • Reproducible randomness in a rules layer separate from visual presentation
TypeScriptPhaser 3Game SystemsGenerative Art
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