Blobs
Blob was not created temporarily for this assignment, but also an original species I conceived after a long-term ecological concept and survival characteristics.
there is something special about this original creatureIt is almost the only design that can be liked by almost all people around me, such as my peers, my netizens and elders.
- Name: Blob
- Etymology: They are characterized by their soft, rounded bodies
- Globs are a highly resilient and adaptable species of creature, commonly found in various wild environments. Most Globs are inherently friendly towards humans and may even offer assistance, so they can domesticated as pets.
- Mimicry & Variety: Globs will mimic the appearance of various plants and animals, which is used to classify them into different types (e.g., Bunny-glob, Dandelion-glob). However, their appearance is not a reliable indicator of their diet or behavior, even a blob shaped like a plant can be a carnivorous.
- · Edible with Fillings: Globs are edible. And many of them contains an internal ‘filling,’ which varies by type. Some Globs can regurgitate a portion of their filling to distract or deter predators as a way to defense.
- · Diet & Digestion: Globs are omnivorous, theoretically. Although a specific type of them might be listed as carnivorous or herbivorous, this only indicates their preferred diet; they can gain nutrition from almost anything that organic.
- · Toxin Processing: Upon ingesting toxic food, a Glob will enter a dormant state, slowing its life functions to prevent the toxin from spreading. The toxin is gradually broken down inside its body, during which time its filling also becomes poisonous. It wakes up once the process is complete.
- · Weakness: Globs are extremely fragile to sharp objects, as they can easily be punctured. Their natural predators are mammals and birds with sharp claws and teeth, as well as snakes that can swallow them whole.
- · Reproduction & Memory Inheritance: Globs reproduce by fission (self-splitting). The new individual inherits all memories, including muscle memory, from the previous one, but their lifespan will reset. Under ideal conditions, fission involves evenly dividing the filling among the offspring. In a crisis, however, a Glob can undergo rapid, asymmetrical fission. In this situation, one of the offspring receives the vast majority of the filling and hides, while the other, containing little filling, act as decoy to divert predators, ensuring the survival of the “primary” offspring.
Interaction and Survival Crisis
- · Overexploitation & Ecological Impact: Due to their adorable appearance and docile nature, Globs have become extremely popular pets. This has led to widespread poaching from the wild, severely disrupting their natural ecosystems.
- · Unethical Mass Breeding & Trauma: To meet demand and reduce costs, unethical breeders engage in forced mass production. They subject captured Globs to forced feeding and stressful stimulation to induce constant fission. The offspring, inheriting the traumatic memories, are often psychologically scarred. Despite appearing plump and healthy at the time of sale, they frequently develop a deep fear of eating. Many rapidly deteriorate due to refusal to eat anything, and a significant portion cannot recover through companionship alone.
I always like to build systems, such as ecosystems, food chains, or more abstract rules. Therefore, this race not only has a lovely image for me, but also serves as a carrier and observation point for ecological logic.
Moreover, in his design, I refer to many small and weak creatures in real life, such as insects, but not only in appearance. I refer to the evolutionary results of the survival of these small and weak creatures: mimicry, reducing the benefits they provide to predators, broadening their energy intake strategies, using environmental structures, and making necessary sacrifices to preserve their survival, etc.
These survival strategies are projected onto Blobs, which give them a mimetic appearance and omnivorous characteristics.
At the same time, I didn’t let the Blobsbecome too strong or too difficult to catch because of these survival strategies. Although they are soft and can withstand blunt-force damage, they still have obvious weaknesses: sharp objects, which are the parts most predators have.
It forms a closed loop in the ecological chain and brings survival pressure for players to play from their Blobs perspective.
On the other hand, the ability of fission also makes the failure of tangtuan not punitive caused by simple Game over, but an inheritance and continuation of experience-this is essentially corresponding to the player reading the archive and continuing to take risks: failure will not erase the race’s experience and understanding of danger, but will only make it more cautious next time.