Evolution sims.

       Seldom representing the concept of "adaptation" all too well, and often not particularly fun in the first place, games like Evo and Spore have always been the epitome of "mixed bag, missed potential." My goal with Erma is to finally do the concept justice, by just creating a good, simple game, and layering it deep with the wildest customization concepts I could imagine.

What makes Erma different?

- A highly developed movement and animation system. Much work has gone into  balancing ease of control with making it fun and challenging to chase down prey and flee from predators.

- Visual customization is limited, but the exact parts you choose actually change your playstyle greatly. Does Erma catch her food with a long sticky tongue, or a powerful vacuum mouth? Does she swallow it up in one huge bite, or sip on it like a vampire bat? Are her legs built for long distance pursuit, or shorts sprints? Has she swapped out her claws for gliding membranes, or have all four of her limbs evolved into flippers to take advantage of the bountiful benefits of aquatic life?

- An arcady gameplay loop keeps the action and adaptation going nonstop. Spawn into large, procedural maps, complete various objectives while staving off starvation, and move onto the next challenge!

What do I have so far?

An early alpha, featuring most base game systems and the first "world." There're currently 3 main biomes with their own unique enemies, gimmicks, and tilesets, a boss fight for each of them, several transitional biomes that mix and match elements, and well over 100 unique customization parts. Beating a normal level for the first time grants you a handful of bones, which are used to unlock normal parts like jaws, legs, tails, etcetera. Beating boss levels and ones marked with golden eggs on the map will award special parts, such as alternate Organs that grant Erma more drastic ability changes, and Glands, which are effectively randomly-generated "spells" with a variety of elemental properties.

What's left to add? Here's a very simple roadmap I created for my Discord server, though much of it's still negotiable, depending on how long people take to beat the early alpha builds and how hungry they seem for more.

Is there a story?

Not much of one, so far. The basic premise of the game is that a mysterious force has set up shop in the distant past, and is doing everything in its power to ensure reptiles - particularly, dinosaurs - remain the planet's dominant life for good. Erma is our completely unwitting heroine, and it's your job to help her help us!

How do I play?

Glad you asked! Here's everything you need to know, for the time being.

Can I please just play the game now?

Almost! Since I've found little success devlogging on itch, here're the places to actually follow my progress.

My developer Discord, where I post updates near-daily! Don't worry; there's no 18+ channel where I ask for feet pics.

My YouTube. Erma content pending.