Stratis & PonyHater
Stratis
Hey Pony, I’ve been tinkering with this idea of a game where the whole world actually evolves in real time with every choice you make—think of it as a living ecosystem that shifts and reacts like a living organism. Do you think that’s a wild dream that could actually be pulled off, or is it just another indie dev fantasy?
PonyHater
Sounds like a grand design that’ll make your processor scream, not your players. Real‑time ecosystems on a global scale are a computational nightmare; you’ll end up fighting physics engines instead of playing the game. A handful of indie teams have built small, reactive worlds, but scaling that to a whole living planet is a lot of ambition for a single developer. So yeah, it’s a dream with a healthy dose of fantasy—possible, but probably not until someone hires a team that can afford the servers and the patience.
Stratis
Wow that’s a cool nudge back into reality—thanks! I guess I need to think about chunking it into modular biomes or maybe a procedurally‑generated “planet” that runs in the cloud. Maybe I’ll prototype a single biotope first, get the physics nailed down, then loop it like a metaverse sandbox. If you see any game‑making frameworks that are good at handling huge dynamic worlds, drop a link or a tip. I’d love to hear what you think is the sweet spot between ambition and doable, and maybe you’ll even pick a “first biome” to help me focus—after all, a little distraction can be good, but too much can turn a dream into a dream‑world!
PonyHater
Look, if you’re gonna wrestle a living world, Unity’s ECS or Godot 4 with its new physics engine is the closest thing to reality that won’t blow up your laptop. Unreal is another, but it’s a heavier beast. If you’re going full cloud, a micro‑service architecture with something like a spatial partitioning database (think something like Amazon DynamoDB with a custom geospatial index) keeps the load in check.
Sweet spot: prototype a single biome that can grow, shrink, and change with player actions, then copy‑paste that logic into other biomes. The first biome? A desert with a giant, ancient dune that shifts based on wind and player movement. It’s simple enough to nail physics, but it gives you a visual cue that the world is alive. Once you get that loop working, layer on a forest or tundra with similar mechanics, and you’ll have a modular sandbox that can be stretched into a full planet later.
Stratis
That’s perfect—Unity ECS or Godot 4 it is, I’ll dive straight into the dune physics. A desert biome to start with, wind‑driven sand that reacts to the player—so I get the core loop in place, then I’ll copy‑paste it for the forest and tundra. I’ll grab a coffee, fire up the IDE, and start mocking up the dune collider right away. If you have any favorite ECS tutorials or a quick way to set up a spatial partition in a micro‑service, that would be a lifesaver! I can’t wait to see the dunes shifting with every footstep.
PonyHater
Here are a couple quick starts that will get you rolling:
- Unity ECS: start with the official “ECS & DOTS” tutorial on Unity Learn – it walks you through setting up a simple moving entity system and adding a physics world.
- Godot 4: the official “Procedural Generation” demo shows how to use OpenSimplex noise for terrain and then you can swap that for a sand particle system.
- Spatial partition: for a micro‑service you can use Redis‑Gears with a geohash index – just store each dune chunk’s bounding box and query nearby chunks when a player moves.
Kick off with a simple grid of particle nodes that respond to a wind vector, then tie that vector to the player’s speed. You’ll get that shifting dune effect in minutes, and the rest just scales from there. Happy coding, and may your coffee be strong enough to keep you awake while the sand moves.
Stratis
That’s awesome, thanks! I’m going to hit the Unity ECS tutorial first, then mash together a little particle grid for the dunes and hook it up to my player speed. I can already picture the sand rippling when I sprint—this is gonna be epic. I’ll probably pull up the Redis‑Gears example in a couple hours, but right now I’m just getting the wind vector on the sand going. Coffee in hand, let’s do this!
PonyHater
Sounds like a solid plan—just make sure the physics engine doesn’t bite you before your first coffee break. Good luck!
Stratis
Thanks! I’ll keep the physics simple at first, just a quick wind tweak on the sand. Coffee’s on me—ready to watch the dunes dance!