Extinction is inevitable

This game was made in 48h during the Ludum Dare 50

Basic gameplay explanations

You control the evolution of a specie. When it goes extinct, you lose!

You DON'T control your creatures directly, you just chose how they evolve. They will seek food by themselves, and reproduce once they have eaten enough.

You get DNA point over time, each point allows you to add or replace an organ.

• You start with no mouth so your creatures only get 1/3 of the energy of the food they eat, and can't eat grass at all. So evolve a mouth ASAP.
• Legs are usefull too. You know, for walking.
• Once you have your fundamentals, increase your fighting power a little so you don't get bullied by everyone.

Then it's a matter of evolving the right organ when you need it.

Controls

"Space" to pause

"+" and "-" to increase/decrease simulation speed.

Maintain "X" pressed to display an icon over your creatures.

In depth explanations

Creatures will go to the most "desirable" target. Desirability take into account food quantity, if the creature can digest it or not, fighting power difference with a potential prey, and distance. Desirability checks are performed every 0.5 seconds.

Energy is lost over time or when attacked. When it reach 0, the creature dies and drop meat. Losses over time are reduced by the energy efficiency stat.

Creatures don't flee from predators, althought they can outspeed them if they are running in the good direction.

Stats

The fight stat is used both offensively and defensively. If two species have the same fight power, they don't fight. If not, the one with the higher value will attack the other. The damage inflicted is proportional to the difference.

Being able to digest food means creatures get 100% of energy from food. Otherwise they get only 33%, or 0 for grass. Better digestion means they get 200%. Incisors is the only body part that give better digestion (for grass).

Speed increase how fast creatures move.

Detection radius increases how far creatures check for the most desirable target.

Energy efficiency reduces the energy lost over time.

Stealthy creatures have 80% to avoid detection when a predator check for most desirable target.

Toxic creatures drop meat with low energy value. They also are a 33% less desirable target so predators are more likely to attack someone else.

Perspective

The game is obviously very rough as it was made in 48 hours. Or 30 really, as I wasted time with other ideas during the first day. The game is ugly, lack content and is unbalanced.

Also let me know if you find the gameplay interesting and would like a better game based on this idea (with better graphics, a big map with biomes, lot of bodyparts etc.).