And so we meet once again to discuss what's new in the development of Lyfe. But as we promised on our Twitter this is something big. I don't have to tell you what we're discussing, you probably already read the title of this entry.
I have to thank Jake Best who took the time draw the concept we developed for how the player will create the basic shapes for his cells.
So let me explain what is going on here.
You start off with just one central orb. This is your base node and your cell starts to 'grow' from it. There are arrows on four sides of this base node. If you pull on them new nodes will be created in that direction. This will create a kind of 'spine' for your cell. As shown in fig. 3 and 4 not only is the default setting when creating new nodes to the left or the right to make your cell symmetrical but you can also move your nodes/ bend the spines and the shape will be translated to the other side as well.
You can also scale single nodes (fig. 5/6). This expands the cytoplasm around this node.
The next thing is something we decided we needed but are not sure how to implement: a weight/thickness slider. This includes the overall amount of cytoplasm with a slight bias for filling up space between spines.
Next step: placing organelles. Most organelles like Mitochondria or a Golgi Apparatus can only be placed on the inside of your cells but all organelles that are used for interaction with the outside world like Flagella or Pseudopodia have to be placed on the membrane. Organelles will have options to deform them, like elongating. Rotating them around the anchor point on the cell is also an option.
Asymmetry is an option that not only affects the placement of the organelles but also the sculpting of your cell. In fig. 11 the right half of the cell is deleted resulting in this more potato shaped creation.
Below are some possible results you might achieve with this toolset. For the two on the right, the dashed line represents their shape if the weight-slider was put to maximum and the one on the far left is a more experimental idea with actually two split nodes. If this will be possible in future is not sure yet, but we will see.
That's it for this entry. Feel free to comment all your questions and suggestions.
Keep on evolving!
