Mudcraft

Old Favorite Updated--And now $9.95

Mudcraft was the Central Commitee's choice on the day we launched--and has now been updated to version 1.3, and the price cut in half. We thought we'd feature it again.

A Non-Violent RTS?!

Dune II, WarCraft, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, and Empire Earth--real-time strategy games have always been about warfare and conquest, right? How could you possibly do a peaceful RTS?

That's the challenge a team at Michigan State University set themselves... and quickly found that their inspiration outgrew their dreams, attracting contributors beyond the university, becoming an Independent Games Festival finalist in 2006--and expanding from a freeware student project with a handful of levels into today's commercial game with 45.

Mudcraft is no high-end high-poly high-budget high-def extravaganza; it's a simple, pleasant, goofy, fun little art game that engages you and brings you back for one level more. And yes, you come to care a good deal more about the mud people than you do about, say, the minutely-detailed soldiers of a big-budget RTS title; you feel a pang when they melt into the mud or dry into brick when you could have saved them, while some spearman from another game exists to die.

How do you do an RTS without violence? It's not that hard; half of RTS gameplay, after all, is resource extraction and construction. Combine that with natural threats rather than enemies to slaughter, and you have a compelling game--and one with the potential to appeal beyond the grognards who delight in mastering the intricacies of waypoints and combined arm tactics who form the hard-core of the RTS audience.

RTS gamers will find Mudcraft of interest, for the way it makes you think about what's really fundamental to RTS play--but so will more casual gamers, including those who have no idea what "RTS" means, because it's just plain fun. You might even find that your family actually wants to play this game, even if they have no interest in joining you in Age of Mythology.

Mudcraft is cute. It's fun. And it's--just well done. At least download the demo, for chrissakes. Who doesn't like playing in the mud?

The Developer Says:

Mudcraft is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that challenges you to work with mother nature as you build a strong mud community while foregoing the violence associated with most RTS games. Mudcraft is a lighthearted game designed to be enjoyable to male and female players of all ages.

The Basics

Each level in Mudcraft has its own goals and objectives, but in general the object of the game is to collect dirt and water to create Mud people, while at the same time protect them from the forces of nature.

Mudcraft takes place in a whimsical, grassy backyard. A light from above shines down on a mud pit and mud life emerges. At the start of the game, the player has two mud people. The player must direct the mud people to gather dirt and water from around the world and bring it back to the mud pit. Thus, creating more mud people, who in turn can gather additional resources. Each level in Mudcraft has its own goals and objectives, but in general the object of the game is to grow a Mud community.

In the world of Mudcraft, there are a number of forces working against the player. For example, at various times during the game, rain or intense sunlight may come, and any exposed mud person will melt or dry, respectively. In order to avoid this, the player will to have to direct their mud people outside of harms way, or develop huts in which the mud people can escape the weather. If a mud person does melt or dry, the player can direct another mud person to revive them by dropping dirt on them or spraying water on them, respectively.

There are various creatures in the world other than the mud people. While none are a direct enemy of the mud people, they can cause you quite a bit of grief. For example, the frogs are attracted to mud people and, thinking the mud people are food, will flick them with their tongues. This causes a mud person to drop anything they were carrying and forget what they were doing.

While the player does not have a direct presence in the game, they control the fate of their mud people. Should something happen and all the mud people under the player’s control are all immobilized, the player loses. As long as one mud person is active, play continues.

The basic resources in the game are dirt and water. These are used to create the mud people, as well as revive them from various immobilized states. Dirt is obtained from holes in the ground, while water is obtained from small ponds.

Mud people themselves are the material to create structures in the game, for example: to build a hut the player selects a mud person and directs them to a location and tells them to start a hut, that mud person then transforms into the first level of a hut. The player then directs two additional mud people to become the second level and finally the roof of the hut. By using the mud people in this way, the mud people themselves are an essential element of the games economy.

In later levels, sticks are introduced as another resource. Mud people can pick up sticks, which give them additional "magical" powers, such as the ability to call rain or the sun, create fire, or scare creatures away.

Unlike most RTS games, there are no military units in Mudcraft or themes of conquest. While the player cannot perform direct violent acts in the game, their mud people can be harmed. For example, mud people melt when rained on or dry up when hit by intense sun. These immobilized mud people can be revived. However, if they are not revived before another storm catches them, they will melt away or crumble to the ground (i.e., they die). While the game is essentially non-violent, we felt and playtesting confirmed that there needed to be this element of life and death in the game. That is, there needed to be "something on the line" to create the dynamics of a compelling RTS game. After all, a RTS is at its core a game of resource management. If there were no consequences for playing poorly, it would not be much of game.

The overall story, artwork, and sound in the game are designed to be humorous and have broad appeal. The graphics and sound are comical and cartoon-like. The appearance of the mud people is gender-neutral and the gender of the voices are distributed evenly between male and female. The limited game story is very lighthearted and stresses a positive, but mildly stated message about living in harmony with Mother Nature.

What is unique or innovative about this game?

• Non-violent twist on RTS genre
  
• Gender-neutral gameplay designed for both core and casual gamers
  
• Humorous story, graphics, and sound designed to have broad appeal
  
• Straight-forward game interface
  
• Developed using combo of research, creativity collaboration, rapid prototyping, playtesting
  
• Game has a positive, but light-hearted message about our relationship with mother nature
  
• Created with zero funding by an interdisciplinary, international team with members from the US, Korea, and Brazil

Awards:

Future Game Talent Award (1st place) Future Play 2005 International Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology, October 14, 2005

Outstanding Media Project in Games and Best of Show in Games, DMAT Showcase 2005, May 6, 2005

Best Game Award (2nd place), 2005 Indiana IDEAs Festival, April 23, 2004

2006 Independent Games Festival finalist