07 / Open-world game
VARIANT ZERO
An open-world game exploring the connections between life, rules, and environments through botanical evolution and gene combinations. Version 1.0.1 is in development.
The Challenge
Make combinations and randomness worth exploring while keeping rules, probabilities, and trade-offs legible to the player.
What the recorded tests establish
A historical local rule-test record, tied to the source fingerprints below. It is not a claim about every subsequent version.
Preview
Ten consecutive previews preserve the hybrid random stream.
Boundaries
Weighted-phenotype boundary inputs select the expected tested branches.
Invalid actions
The tested invalid operations preserve resources and random state.
Not a user study, statistical distribution test, biological simulation, security certification, or proof that the game has no other defects.
Inspect the original record and fingerprints ↗Read the design analysis · Chinese →
Approach
- Make randomness explainable and rules testable
- Separate inheritance and combat models from rendering and interaction
- Support deliberate decisions with probability previews, state feedback, and focus-loss pause
System Structure
- Inheritance: gene slots, expressed traits, hybridization, and mutation
- Rules: combat model, event queue, and expedition settlement
- Experience: Phaser scenes, laboratory, and discovery catalog
- Storage: browser-local preferences, discoveries, and unlocks
Outcomes
- 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
Discuss this project
Interested in this project’s methods, implementation, or tradeoffs? I welcome a conversation by email.