Dr. Blob's Organism

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Dr. Blob's Organism (DBO) is a hybrid shooter game created by the independent video game development group, Digital Eel, in which players attempt to destroy giant one-celled organisms as they try to escape from a petri dish.

DBO utilizes the well-known Game of Life algorithm invented by mathematician John Conway to generate quivering green blobs (organisms) that rapidly grow, split and mutate in real time. Note that the Game of Life is itself situated on a grid of square cells. Patterns that emerge have a distinctly pixelated appearance. However, DBO interpolates the edges of each pattern for a smooth fluidlike look.

Gameplay is similar to Tempest, the classic Atari stand-alone arcade game. However, instead of rotating the gun(s), the petri dish is rotated. Guns are in stationary positions around the edge.

Each DBO level (each dish) in the game introduces powerups (lightning; frost; various multiguns, etc.) and special "organism abilities" (regeneration; frenzy; "mitosis," etc.). to keep the lightning-fast gameplay challenging all the way through to its last and most infamous level, Spore Storm.

DBO features 20 levels, 10 powerups, 5 organism abilities, 21 original music tracks, squishy sound effects, bonus levels and a jukebox mode.

DBO received Innovation in Visual Art and Innovation in Audio awards at the 2004 Independent Games Festival.

DBO was released for PC and Mac on July 4, 2003 by the award-winning boardgame developer/publisher, Cheapass Games.

DBO was released as freeware on November 29, 2007.

[edit] Game credits

Code: Iikka Keränen
Design: Iikka Keränen and Rich Carlson
Art: Iikka Keränen, Bill "Phosphorus" Sears and Rich Carlson
Sound: Rich Carlson
Mac Port: Ed Zavada
Fearless Testers: James Ernest, Kevin Matheny, Duncan McPherson, Joe Pallai, John Slade, James Sterrett, Bruce Forsyth, Brian Uhrig and Thom Wetzel