Dr. Blob's Organism
A look into the Life brewing in the lab
By Russell D. Carroll [March 1, 2004]

In 1970, mathematician John Conway created a "game" called Life. The game really isn't a game at all, but instead it is a simulation of how cells grow. His piece of innovation has been spread around the world and exists all over the internet, as an explanation to the "random" patterns that we see in life, specifically in cell growth. For anyone who has "played" the game of Life, Dr. Blob's Organism should immediately show some similarity. In interviewing Ripcord from Digital Eel, Maker's Of Dr. Blob's Organism, he pointed me to the connection to the game of Life as being one of the interesting quirks in the game.

"We don't think of Dr. Blob's Organism as being particularly innovative but it does have its moments and quirks. For example, Dr. Blob's Organism uses the rules for John Conway's Game of Life to generate the blobs you shoot at in the game," said Richard Carlson a designer, artist, and sound developer on the game.

Much like many Independent Game Studios, Digital Eel was formed by friends who wanted a little more freedom than they got in the mainstream industry, "We met each other while working on various commercial games. Our ideas were similar and we became good friends so making games together was a real natural thing to do," said Carlson in regards to how the studio started making Indie Games.

As a finalist in both of the last two years, Digital Eel has become a well-known commodity in the Indie world. Their games show their creativity and free spirit, in addition to meeting their own definition of an Independent Game. Carlson stated, "An indie game can be anything you want it to be because you're making the choice, not someone else. An indie game should be unusual, unique and a clear alternative to what's typically on the shelf."

Certainly anyone who has played Dr. Blob's Organism will agree that the game meets that criteria fairly well. In fact for anyone who has played the game, or even checked out the website, it is immediately clear that the group making games over at Digital Eel walks to the beat of their own drummer. Still, just being different doesn't keep indie companies alive in the end. I asked Richard about what he saw as the evolution path for Indie games, and what the challenges facing the genre were, and he said: "It all comes down to survival of the funnest. Survival and, ironically, the loss or giving up of independence."

Digital Eel certainly doesn't look to be giving up their independence anytime soon, and already are moving on with new games. "We have a couple of new games in the works, including a follow up to Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. Hopefully we'll be able to get them released later this year," said Carlson . A follow-up to SAIS is certainly good news for gamers who enjoyed that great Indie finalist game from a year ago.

For now, gamers get to enjoy a very odd little game that is inspired by the calculable randomness of cells by John Conway, and the incalculable zany strangeness of Digital Eel. Altogether it works out for one great romp in the laboratory.