dawn

|| Ed Perkins || Jennifer Shepherd || Ellie Wem || Roland Vink ||

dawn can be observed in action here.

What is dawn?

dawn is a procedurally generated socio-genetic simulation. What does that mean?

• Procedurally generated
  • None of the outcomes are predefined; they are based purely on the results of the random algorithms.
• Socio-genetic simulation
  • dawn is inspired by Conway's Game of Life and Spore (also No Man's Sky regarding the procedural generation).
  • The user observes 'cells' interacting with each other in an environment; living, breeding, inheriting properties, and eventually dying.

getting started

The easy way.

The lengthier way:

• git clone this repository.
• cd dawn.
• npm install to install dependencies for development.
• open specRunner.html (OSX) or xdg-open specRunner.html (Linux) to run unit tests.
• open dawn.html (OSX) or xdg-open dawn.html (Linux) to observe dawn

process

1. diagrammed ideas
2. wrote user stories
3. defined our MVP
4. wrote tests
5. wrote code
6. refactored
7. repeated steps 2 - 6

user stories

mvp/v1

as an observer
because I am interested in life simulations
i want to see a basic cell

as an observer
so that there is more to look at
i want to see two different cells

as an observer
so the cells seem more realistic as living creatures
i want to see them move

v2

as an observer
so that more cells can be created
i want the cells to create another cell on collision

v3

as an observer
so that i can get a sense of time elapsing in the simuation
i would like to see the cells grow

as an observer
so that the environment does not become crowded
i want cells to die after a period of time

v4

as an observer
so that the canvas looks interesting
i want there to be visibly different properties in each cell

as an observer
so that the new cells are genetic offspring
the new cell will have attributes that are a mix of the parent attributes

v5

as an observer
so that the new cells don't eventually become the same colour
i want there to be a chance of colour mutation

as an observer
so i can experience cell creation on a different sensory level
i want there to be a sound on creation

web stack

• Node.js.
• NPM for dependencies.
• Matter.js for physics, with the following plugin:
  • matter-attractors
• p5-sound for sound.
• Jasmine for unit and integration testing.

Points for development:

• mutation in shape
• update code to ES6
• improved deployment (e.g. using Webpack)

for more points for development, you can check out our issues.