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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Ambitious students create Evolutionary game

    Undergraduate integrative biology major Jacob Stagray seeks to bridge the gap between education and the gaming world by producing the first video game completely based off the evolutionary processes of the organisms of earth, known as “Evolution Through the Ages.”

    “Evolution Through the Ages” involves players starting off with the first organism that inhabited the planet, a prokaryote known as Luca. From that point on, the player has to pick between certain traits the organism will have and then watch evolution run its course. The goal of the game is to get as many diverse organisms as possible. So far, Stagray, along with his research team, have incorporated over 170 organisms into this game.

    “We created a video game; however, I hate that name due to the fact that it’s so much more than that,” said Stagray. “We created a completely evolutionary accurate game starting from the beginning of time where the earth first formed and you evolve all the way up to modern creatures and humans. In essence, I’m creating a 3-D model so they can actually see step by step how evolution occurred.”

    Stagray wanted to make the game as realistic as possible, from the graphics to the individual evolutionary processes that took place among specific organisms. The game resembles the reality of evolution and the complexity of the relationships it has with the organisms and surroundings. He designed the games so players would also have to consider the same factors that could affect their organisms that would happen in the real world of evolution. 

    For instance, players have to take into account all the real life situations that could affect the evolution of an organism, such as the ecosystem they put their organism in or if they are near predator organisms.

    “The whole point is to get as many organisms you can and keep them alive. For example, if you’re not careful or not paying close enough attention, and you put a tiger next to a chimp, it’s not going to end well,” said Stagray. “You’re not going to have a lot of chimps left because the tiger is going to eat them all. It’s multifaceted, so you are going to have to take into account multiple factors involved in the game.”

    In order to make this game reality, Stagray had enlisted the help of fellow undergraduate biology majors to serve as the research team for the game. The team consisted of Cynthia Harris, Savannah Klier, Heyam Saleh and Kyla Bowers.

    In addition to the research team, Stagray also had the help of computer science, physics and math major Sean Craft to help with the programming of the game, Southeastern alumnus Devin Reeson for the graphics and Morgan Curole and Ivan Stroup for the music in the game.

    Professor of biological sciences Dr. Murray Pendarvis helped Stagray with the accuracy of the game to make sure “Evolution Through the Ages” met real world standards.  

    In addition to enlightening fellow students about evolution and the diversity of the subject, Stagray also hopes this would bring together evolution and religion, proving they can coexist.

    “We are trying to bridge the divide between evolution and religion because they are not mutually exclusive,” said Stagray. “Evolution is just a mechanism scientists pose in order to say how life diversified. It’s not saying one way or another there is an almighty being.”

    The release of “Evolution Through the Ages” is scheduled for May 31 on the Internet. There will be a lifetime subscription fee for $12. The game can be found at www.evolutionthroughtheages.com. In the future, Stagray hopes to format the game so it could be accessed through an app, which will give prospective players the opportunity to play the game on their phones.

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