An attempt, using the Unity engine, to create a simple yet realistic flock of birds that act and evolve as in their natural environment. The code can also be adapted to interpret a herd of animals or a school of fish.
An organic and realistic representation of a flock of birds; ✓- A random change in the values of each bird clone on creation;
- A collision-based reproduction system with the child clone sharing an average of the parents' clone's values;
- A chance to have a random mutation on the child's values when a couple of birds are reproducing;
- A bird panic system and the addition of predatory non-flock birds;
- A reproduction and mutation system for the predatory birds;
- A bird defense system;
- Bird food objects and the addition of a hunger function on both prey and predator birds;
- A bird food growth/reproductive system;
- A preference for a specific food for prey birds;
- A preference of prey for the predatory birds.
- Add UI elements
- Adding a spawning and zoom in/out system when clicking or using the scroll wheel of a mouse;
- Add a way to save the evolutionary data;
- ...
The code, mostly typed by my human fingers, is the result of hours of human thinking and imagination. Generative artificial intelligence is only used for specific questions on how to implement my ideas and to help me understand how to fix specific problems. So I'm proud to announce that this is my first Unity project, and that any error or spaghetti code is mine; I view them as an opportunity to learn how to use this game engine, and not an excuse to use artificial intelligence to strip the human ingenuity of this project.
When using this code for your personal project, make sure to adapt it with whatever tool you need to obtain your goal, but don't forget that the project is yours, and it is more rewarding to have a feeling of accomplishment than to get it done the easy way.
If you want to guide me or ask a question, feel free to do so in the comments. If you're more comfortable speaking another language than English, you can speak to me in French, Portuguese, or Spanish, as I am a fluent speaker of the first two and a moderate one in the last one.
Here is the list of the assets from the Unity Asset Store I used for the graphics:
- For the background:
- Pixel Skies DEMO Background pack, by Digital Moons
- https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/environments/pixel-skies-demo-background-pack-226622
- For the entities' graphics (birds, prey, food):
- 2D Cute Birds(4 in 1) Mini pack, by SR Studios Kerala
- https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/2d-cute-birds-4-in-1-mini-pack-237273