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tutorial

how to add a simple drifter

(the stuff described here is also shown in the video)

  1. if this is your first drifter, make a new folder in DriftersUserDefined/ with a good name. maybe just your username? e.g. DriftersUserDefined/pancelor
  2. add a new scene, e.g. CoolFrog.tscn
    1. Make the root node of type Node2D
    2. attach a new script to the root node with the same-ish name as the scene; e.g. CoolFrog.gd
    3. delete everything and replace it with this:
    extends Drifter

# every so often
func evolve():
  tweak()

# when the player clicks
func tweak():
  intend_clone(DirsOrthogonal[randi()%4])
    (you may need to reindent the code) 4. attach a Sprite node to your root node and "quick load" a 10x10 png that you've saved in your folder
    • if you want an animated sprite, attach a NavdiBitsySprite instead
    1. Add CoolFrog.tscn to the list of spawnables in GardenWorld.tscn. (under "script variables")
    • this auto-spawns one on game start
    • it also lets you spawn it by clicking in empty grid cells
  3. set the script variables for your drifter
  • guts: 0-100. higher = more likely to overwrite other drifters when they collide
  • major_element: a vibe; choose anything except "guts"
  • minor_element: a vibe; choose anything except "guts"
  • evolve_skip_odds: higher = your drifter's evolve method will get called less often
  • evolve_wait_after: number of frames of cooldown to wait before calling evolve again on your drifter. set it to, idk, 30 to prevent your drifter from suddenly moving a whole lot at once. up to you
  • immovable: normally, objects that move into each other will swap places. however, if your drifter is marked immovable, it will not move.
  1. Run the game with F5; you should see your drifter spawn! click on it to duplicate it.

so what are evolve and tweak?

the system tries to call evolve on every frame on every drifter. however, drifters with high evolve_skip_odds will have a high chance of being skipped each frame.

the system calls tweak when the player clicks on a drifter. give your drifters cute tweak methods! ideas: duplicate, destroy, change into something else, do a little bounce animation (like BigSnail)...

if you don't really know why you would want a separate evolve and tweak for your drifter, I recommend making them the same and setting a high evolve_skip_odds, maybe 10000. this basically means that the system will auto-click your drifter once in every long while

guts

only one drifter can be in a grid cell at a time; if two drifters both want to be in the same cell, the drifter with the higher "guts" is more likely to win. (this is especially relevant for immovable drifters that don't swap places when another drifter wants to take their place)

(the calculation is basically drifter1.guts*sqrt(randf()) < drifter2.guts*sqrt(randf()), rather than the more deterministic drifter1.guts < drifter2.guts)

vibes

what are vibes

drifters are deliberately not allowed to ask the system what other drifters are near them. instead, they ask for the nearby "vibe", which is deliberately vague and will hopefully lead to messy unplanned beautiful interactions without needing to code them explicitly!

each drifter has a major_element and minor_element, which are one of the following:

       # alternate interpretations:
Fire   #  red, energy, passion
Water  #  blue, wisdom, adaptability
Earth  #  brown, stability, calm
Grass  #  green, life, progress
Wind   #  white, change, restlessness
Sand   #  yellow, volatility, intelligence
Gem    #  purple, magic, uniqueness
Coal   #  black, death, decay

ideas:

  • a computer drifter:
    • major: Sand (intelligence) or Gem (magic, or the how computers depend on very precise structure to work)
    • minor: Fire (energy) or Coal (electric power)
  • a frog drifter:
    • major: Water (frogs live in water) or Grass (frogs are green, and alive)
    • minor: Wind (jumping is sorta like restlessness) or Sand (jumping is volatile? idk) or Fire (frogs are high-energy)
  • a blacksmith drifter:
    • major: Coal (blacksmiths use coal, and have black soot everywhere) or Sand (blacksmiths are humans which are intelligent) or Fire (blacksmiths use fire to forge tools)
    • minor: also any of the above

it's up to you! take whichever two Elements feel most like your drifter to you.

vibecheck

to interact with the rest of the world, check the nearby vibes. For example:

# Leaf.gd
extends Drifter

func evolve():
  var vibe = world.vibe_nearby(cell)
  if vibe.get_element("Fire") > 1:
    world.log("a wandering leaf bursts into flames")
    intend_transmute("res://DriftersUserDefined/pancelor-debug/Flames.tscn")
  elif randf()<1/50:
    # settle
    tweak()
  else:
    # move towards wind but away from guts:
    var dir = vibiest_dir(DirsAdjacent,{"Wind":1, "Guts":-0.02})

    intend_move(dir)

func tweak():
  intend_transmute("res://DriftersUserDefined/pancelor-debug/Sapling.tscn")

see the api for descriptions of world.vibe_nearby, vibiest_dir, etc