Everybody poops
The whole PolyFish food web runs on one humble mechanic. The first thing that happens in the sim, before a single fish, is a piece of poop falling out of the sky.
The very first thing that happens in PolyFish, before you see a single fish, is a piece of poop falling out of the sky.
The logo fades, and down it comes from just above the top of the screen. It lands on the seafloor, a stalk of kelp sprouts where it hit, and a PolyFish comes swimming over toward the food, which means toward you. That is the opening shot.
The rest of the sim traces back to it. The critters do three things: eat, poop, reproduce. When one poops, the poop drops, and where it lands it has a chance of becoming kelp. Kelp is the food. It feeds the manatees directly, and it gives off the bits the fish swim around eating. So the plants come from poop, and the plants are what everything else lives on. The fish get pulled toward poop too, because that is where food is about to be, which makes it an indirect food source for the dolphins that eat the fish. Pull the thread on any creature in there and it goes back to something pooping.
The part I found most interesting was what happened before that chance was in there. At first every poop that landed turned into a plant. Seemed reasonable. Kelp forests bloomed uncontrolled across the whole floor, which meant unlimited food, which meant the fish bred without end, which meant a screen so packed the whole simulation choked. One small rule, poop always becomes a plant, with exponential consequences hanging off it.
So now each time poop hits the terrain it gets a roll. Bounce again, become a plant, or die. That is the knob that slows the forest down, and it is the only reason the place doesn’t bury itself in kelp.
I like that the least dignified mechanic in there is the one holding the rest of it up.
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