Production Notes: Phage Wars 2
I just launched my latest game called Phage Wars 2, the sequel to Phage Wars. The game consists of genetically modifying a virus and competing against other viruses for total domination. The game is centered around fast paced strategy where you must take over as many cells as possible to eradicate all foreign life forms.
If you are unfamiliar with the original Phage Wars, here is a little bit of back story. When I was in college, I had to do a senior project before I graduated. After a doing a fair amount of research on what style game I wanted I came across this game called Galcon for the iPhone (also on the Mac). I loved the gameplay and found that I wanted to make something similar in Flash. I had previously built an AI engine from another project in college so I was already halfway there. The cellular life forms idea came from my professor wanting to see a game centered on microscopic life. Needless to say I got an “A” on the project and ended up collaborating with Armor as a sponsor for the game.
Phage Wars 1 was a huge technical challenge for me, as I really wanted to pit hundreds of viruses against each other. I ended up optimizing the game so much that I could get 500 viruses on screen and still have it run within a decent frame rate. I also found that the power of Flash 10 helped a little bit as well, which is why the original had such a large disclaimer for requiring Flash 10.
When I was tasked with Phage Wars 2, I wanted to do something different with the UI as well. Phage Wars 1 had hardly any UI, so I figured the sequel should have a lot. I also didn’t want to do the typical game menus that you see in every game either. Instead I wanted to create a testing environment where you run an experiment and see a bunch of data afterwards, kind of like a science lab. Going with that theme, I always remembered looking at the equipment scientists use and how old most of their computers were archaic and built on legacy software. I tried to replicate that as much as possible, harking back to the old Mac OS 6 and 7 for reference. I was lucky enough to collaborate with John on the UI, so that really helped a lot.
I also wanted to create new elements of gameplay that I wanted in the original, but never implemented. These are the new cell types and the Genome Sequencer. The sequencer came about from hearing Carlie talk about her biology classes and how the Genome is usually represented as a chart. This ended up being the perfect way to upgrade your virus over the course of the game. Using Gene Proteins to upgrade your virus, rather than the typical point based system.
Phage Wars 2 plays out more like a science experiment, than a typical game. I’ve added enough geeky things in it that I hope play to some internal geek in us all.
If you haven’t played Phage Wars 2 yet, check it out at Armor Games here. If you’ve played #2, but haven’t played the #1, check out the original here.
Phage Wars 2 was an amazing game - I reviewed it here: http://electric-overdrive.blogspot.com/2009/06/flash-game-review-phage-wars-2.html
I love the cancer cells and upgrading. Great job on the game.
Enjoyed the game. Ran across it on JayIsGames and got hooked long enough to beat it.
I only have 1 constructive crit and that is that I think the game is too easy. I play a lot of flash games… but even taking that into consideration I think I should have lost more than twice throughout the whole game.
I didn’t feel as though it got increasingly challenging. Didn’t feel as though the computer had a good strategy (such as go for the Reproduction x2, Defense x2 before anything else). Computer also didn’t pursue the un-occupied places fast enough. If I just went for those as quickly as I could it would usually tip the scale in my favor in the long run.
This is just a constructive criticism. I obviously enjoyed the game quite a bit to stick around long enough to beat it. Great work! Will keep an eye out for any future ones.
I agree with what Ickydime said: great game; pity about the difficulty curve. Especially having played through the original I didn’t find it much of a challenge. The AI needed to value the beneficial cells more highly, and probably also needed to get better stats. I found I could beet the final levels with no upgrades at all.
Still it was enjoyable hour and a half, and the second version distinctly improved on the original.
Looking forward to the third installment
your page (armorgames)is blocked by the proxy here at work and I really want to play this great game along with all the others there to pass the time. please help!
I won the last level with empty sequencer, without any gene proteins. It’s that easy.
AI isn’t aggressive enough populating neutral cells. If I start by spamming viruses to all neutral cells, computer is too lazy to capture them all back and the cells have time to grow big defense.
Maybe AI attack rate could be set to max until all neutral cells are capped by any player? That way AI would spam viruses instantly everywhere at the start of a round.
Great game. I like the fact that you can play the game many times over and have a different experience each time based on how you decide to build your virus.
NOT THAT GOOD BUT NOT BAD I LIKE IT.
great game i really liked it
i loved it it was an awesome game
This game is so fun… i didnt really know what everything did so i beat the whole game without using any of the add-on things.
Great game. I think it would be a nice multiplayer game, and it would have be good with a map editor. Cool design!
I loved the game!
PLEASE, make more, maybe with different types of cells such as ones that can intercept a viral attack and suicide, or somethings like that 
I love the game so much XD!!!
THIS GAME IS SO FUN I DIDNT ADD ON THIGS AND I BEAT IT
Great game, would be perfect in multiplayer.
hi and i whant to play it know can i
I found this game fun for one thing I really like the graphics man its a good game
Great graphics on the game. gratz..
I like it