Welcome to Shelder Evolution!

Shelder Evolution: Outreach is an early alpha prototype published here as a proof of concept and as a first milestone on my journey as a game dev.

It uses the RPG Maker MZ engine and a bunch of plugins (listed below).

There is an extensive roadmap listing what I plan this game to become (see below)

This is an early-alpha prototype! 

It will change dramatically as development progresses.

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The roadmap for this game

1. RPG mechanics (you follow the progression of a creature in the game world)

1. sci-fi lore (we take part in the story of a group of colonizers, in the far future, and assisted by an Artificial General Intelligence, traveling to a planet in the other side of the Milky Way that is essentially a Earth-clone at the time of the late Cretaceous)
2. card-game mechanics (collectible card games like Pokémon or Duel Masters, with a hand, a deck, a discard pile, a playing field, card stats, card actions, card abilities etc.) 
3. deck-building mechanics (each creature has its own deck, and its growth is the deck-building process, with genetic traits being the starting deck, and with learning and resource-acquiring being the main mechanism to add cards to the deck)
4. node-based exploration (like Slay the Spire or FTL,  the player does not have free-movement in the environment: movement in the world happens by choosing nodes to move to)
5. roguelike mechanics (procedural levels and permadeath, like in Slay the Spire or FTL)
   1. Procedural world: while the world itself has a set Geography based on a realistic geomorphology, the exploration of individual territories presents procedurally generated territory card decks with habitat cards to pick from that change the appearence of the scene and alter the gameplay significantly)
   2. Semi-Permadeath: once the savegame is started, and beyond the optional introductory chapter, the player can "adopt" a creature and follow its progression in the world until its death, which is permanent, and after which they can start a new adoption process and continue the progress in the game world. So, while the creature death is permanent, the player progression in the world is persistent
   3. Persistence: by starting a new save file, the player picks up the world as it was before the events of the starting chapter, and from that point on, the state of the world persists throughout the player "run". There is therefore a clear distinction between a "creature run", which ends at creature death, and a "player run", being the save file itself. 
   4. Player progression: By progressing on a creature run, the player can collect "Evolution Points" that they can then spend to adopt rarer and more complex species of creatures in their next runs. During each run, creatures will also earn the player "Clout points" that they can be spent to unlock lore-oriented content like story quests, and special abilities
6. Procedural characters: while there are story-based set characters that you will always encounter, other creatures in the world are created procedurally and they will follow their own progression, grow, learn, reproduce, form groups, and die
7. Life cycle: creatures not only have permadeath, but also a complete life-cycle, with growth and metabolism, meaning they have to seek energy to survive, which means finding and digesting food, which means exploring the world to get the food, which means spending energy, especially when having to face competition and challenges like predators
   1. metabolism: energy is the main currency of a creature's metabolism, as it needs it to survive day to day and to provide the stamina that is used by actions. Energy can be obtained by digesting food
   2. creature instinct and strategy: creatures inherits behavior rules from their species, plus individual traits that they are born with, and additional experience traits acquired during the run. This alters their deck which in turn guides decision-making of both player-adopted and AI-controlled creatures. This means that depending on which species and traits a creature is born with, their ideal game strategy might differ significantly
8. background activity: the world lives beyond what the player can see
   1. creatures in the same territory, beyond the current habitat scene the player can see, are still spawned and indirectly interacting with you and with each other
   2. events can happen in the background and have either trivial, relevant, or permanent consequences
9. pixel art dinosaur creatures and human characters
10. pixel art backgrounds and scene assets
11. some 8-bit/chiptune inspired music and sfx
12. creature emotes and vocalizations
    1. biome-specific background sound punctuated by actual real-time creature vocalization, both in direct encounters with other creatures, and with background creatures in the vicinity 
13. chapter-based DLC expansions,
    1. human colonization progresses through the saga, so, each following chapter adds new technologies and the mechanics associated with them
    2. story characters and their associated story quests
14. Maybe, a mobile app version?
15. Maybe, massive enormous MAYBE, a MMO version?

Credits

- made with RPG Maker MZ from Kudokawa

Art

- most art bases by me

RPG Maker MZ Plugins

• Myth Atelier CGC (itch.io page)
• Casper CGMZ (itch.io page) 
• Theo
• Triacontane
• NRP
• EliMZ (itch.io page)
• Cae
• GALV
• WD (itch.io page)
• MOG
• Phoenix Kagedesu mobile controls
• McKathlin switchable text

Tips

• don't ask too many questions to MAGPIE. Some questions will crash the system (which is very meta eheheh)
• equip the gun (tool slot) and the darts pack (carry slot) and use (carry command) the pack to unpack the darts so you can shoot them
• trot (jog) and shoot. Keeping on the move reduces the chances of being rushed by attacks
• survive!

Check out the changelog on our notion page!