peng ink

Short: Amoeba Joe is a puzzle/simulation game where you control an Amoeba named Joe.

Background: Inspired by Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Johnny the One-Celled Boy and Katamari Damacy.

Description: Amoeba Joe is one hungry one-celled organism. Despite being genderless, because his name is Joe, we can refer to him as he. He wanders around in organic brine, searching for his next meal. Indeed, there is food everywhere, and he wants it all. But how can a single single celled organism eat all that food? Well, it can’t. That’s why Joe has a little trick up his sleeve called asexual reproduction.

In order to control Joe, the game requires dual analog sticks, each controlling a side of his body. To move, tap one forward, and continue with the other afterwards, to simulate his little psuedopods scuttling around. To eat, move the analog sticks opposite to each other, and forward. Joe will pull himself thin, and around his prey. To split, hold sticks opposite to each other for a longer amount of time, until Joe is finally in two. After a new Joe is created, you can send him off in any direction, and take him over at any time. Of course, you can’t split on an empty stomach, so the Joe that splits must have had a bite before another Joe can be made.

The game soon becomes somewhat of a game of micro management. You send new Joes in search of food, and eat food with the current Joe that you control. The goal for each level to eat a certain number of items, all the while finding new ground.

Hook: Experimental gameplay, the joys of micro-management, and all around weirdness.

Reflection: Out of all the concepts, I think this is my favorite. Amoebas are so cool.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 12:36 am and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.