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The Pond is a place, hidden from view, where small creatures fight for life.
They live, they reproduce, they die.
You can watch them, or maybe help them.
But in The Pond, everything starts and ends the same way: with life and death.
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Left click to move the water.
Right click to drop food pellets.
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This is a simple simulation game I made in a few hours. I usually make something with a team of people but I had an exam on the 28th, so I quickly made this instead.
How long will your colony survive?
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SunShiranui
- Behind the curtain:
For every creature born, there is a chance of genetic mutation. This increases or decreases life expectancy and is hereditary.
Occasionally you might get colored creatures. If you can get a colony composed only of those, post a screenshot!
Food temporarily extends your creatures' life. It's not necessary for survival. Make sure your first two creatures live enough to mate!
Every creature has a randomly generated name. Hover over them to see it.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 68% |
| #31 | Mood(Jam) | 4.15 |
| #84 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.73 |
| #91 | Audio(Jam) | 3.78 |
| #163 | Theme(Jam) | 3.57 |
| #178 | Overall(Jam) | 3.51 |
| #359 | Fun(Jam) | 3.01 |
| #490 | Humor(Jam) | 2.27 |
| #578 | Graphics(Jam) | 2.82 |
Comments
Wow, just.. Wow. What an amazing game. So simple, but still greates huge impact to the player, at least for me. Music was perfect to build up the mood.
Incredible. It perfects mood; wonderful minimal design and wonderful music. It's captivating too. Definitely one I'll replay later.
Great execution of a simple concept. I know it kinda defeats the purpose of the game, but a neat trick I found was to drop pellets in the middle at a slow and constant rate. This causes them to all converge onto one pixel and mate a lot.
Easy enough to continue by placing many food pellets in, but at the same time a beautiful simulation.
Water physics are marvelous and the song fits it perfectly.
Very relaxing and fun. Giving the fish their own names was a nice touch.
wow I actually felt a little sad when all my pink ones died! So much from so little! Great job!
Very relaxing and fun. Giving the fish their own names was a nice touch.
Very interesting and certainly innovating concept. I like the way you used genetic algorithms. Also, having water mechanics was unexpected: many of us would have just made some semitransparent blue rectangle. The music complements the game quite well. Also, what Custard Games say is true, but it won't detract from the game as you have a choice to use it or not
Very soothing. I left it open for a while while I was doing other stuff just for the music!
Crashed on start
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ThePond.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 535eb84c
Fault Module Name: ig4icd32.dll
Fault Module Version: 8.14.10.2230
Fault Module Timestamp: 4cc50139
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 002092cd
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Relaxing and beautiful. The music fit the mood very well, and the water physics were fantastic. Good job!
I loved how you named them all, somehow my first 2 times they kept dieing
This game made me giggle, because the first time I had an explosion of life without food. On the second and third try the beasties died within 25 seconds and they had food and the water was moving.
So simple, yet so addictive! Very relaxing and cute. Nice job!
I liked this one a lot. One of the more relaxing entries :)
I love this! Also, thanks for making the font available, been searching for this one for months.
Great for relaxation. Nice and small, maybe a bit too small for my taste. More details in the system would have been nice.
A good, minimalistic simulation, and the water animation is really, really well done. Great work!
I like this. So soothing. I would totally dig if you expand the concept. Awesome entry.
A charming and relaxing game, I love the music, you could add different pond, or the passing of seasons (I don't know). Nice game :)
Nice simulation. But it was soooo sad when Uuxiu, the only child of Xikou died a lonely death, not leaving any other red creature behind. The same goes for Vivii, she never even had a parent of the same color and was always excluded from everything :(.
At one point I had 5 different colors at the same time, with white coming back. https://imgur.com/cvL28h8
Nice little simulation and liked the touch of giving the little creatures names.
Relaxing and engaging. The colored mutations made it all worthwhile. Has a great feel to it.
Nice little game. I found that it fits amazingly well on my phone :)
Really great simulation game (but is it really game afterall?).
The audio track - Erik Satie <3 - is a nice touch
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I love this game. So simple. Great idea and very nicely executed. It also has one of my favorite songs :)