Lunimals


System requirements:
--------------------
Windows XP
Windows Vista will work but may require an extra step
Windows 7 will work but may require an extra step
Direct X7
Stereo headphones or speakers are recommended

If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7 you may encounter an error if you don't have direct X7 registered. Follow these steps to register the file and the error should be corrected.
Put dx7vb.dll into the c:\windows\syswow64 folder. The file to copy can be found within the game's folder. After copying, open command prompt as an administrator. Go to c:\windows\syswow64 and type regsvr32 dx7vb.dll

If you are running a 32 bit version of Windows Vista or Windows 7, you won't have a syswow64 folder.  If that is the case, follow these instructions instead.  Put dx7vb.dll into the c:\windows\system32 folder. The file to copy can be found within the game's folder. After copying, open command prompt as an administrator. Go to c:\windows\system32 and type regsvr32 dx7vb.dll


If you attempted to register direct X, but had difficulties, here are step by step instructions:
(If you are running a 32 bit version of windows, replace "syswow64" with "system32" in these instructions.)

Copy dx7vb.dll into the c:\windows\syswow64 folder.
Open up the command prompt as an administrator (being on an admin account does not mean the same thing).
There are 2 ways to achieve this.  If you're able, right click on the command prompt icon and select "Run as Administrator".
If you must use the keyboard, use the Windows context key after you have highlighted the command prompt icon.  This will bring up the menu allowing you to select "Run as administrator".
Once command prompt opens, type the following 5 commands, and press enter after each one:
cd..
cd..
cd\windows
cd\windows\syswow64
regsvr32 dx7vb.dll


Style of the game:
-------------------
Lunimals is an accessible eco-system simulation game written by Aprone, (Jeremy Kaldobsky).
The game is a series of mathematical systems built on top of eachother.  At the bottom level, grass, moss, and mushrooms fight to reproduce and use up any available space in the dirt.  The type of terrain on the specific tile, as well as any tiles directly touching it, affect how that battle plays out.
On the next level up, bugs attempt to reproduce across the land.  The amount of grass, moss, and rocks determine how rapidly the insects can multiply.  The next level handles 'prey' animals such as mice, rabbits, and birds.  These animals survive and breed based upon the quantity of edible items they can get to.  Not all animals eat the same things, but the animals can only survive if the lower levels can replenish themselves fast enough.
The final level is predatory animals.  Rather than surviving off of bugs or vegitation, these creatures survive and multiply based on the number of 'prey' animals they eat.  Not all predator species eat the same prey, but the main idea is that these animals depend upon the stability of each level below them in the eco-system.
This game is currently a rough beta.  I have released it in the hopes that people will play it and make suggestions.  In the past, I have found the online community to be very good at suggesting easier and better ways to run games, and I would be a fool to ignore such a valuable resource.  Please post specific questions, concerns, and suggestions you have with the game, and everyone will have a chance to help.  Thank you for playing.  Message by Aprone.


The Story:
----------
In the not so distant future, a new symbol of social status has emerged among the upper class.  Fancy sport cars, sparkling jewelry, and huge mansions are no longer the preferred way to show off one's wealth.  An innovative company, called Lunar-tech, launched hundreds of machines in to space and landed them safely on the moon.  These remote controlled machines linked together to form massive stereo lithography machines.  In everyday language, these were giant 3D printers capable of building things a layer at a time from the ground up.  Huge containers of chemical resin, sent along with the machines, could be mixed with moon dust to form a concrete-like substance that was both strong and air tight.  After robots dug out a foundation, the huge 3D printing machines would center themselves over the pit and begin working.  These machines were genius in the simplicity of their design.  Scaffolding formed a huge open square which allowed an arm to slide anywhere inside it.  A series of hoses on the arm would drop the correct type of material as it formed each layer.  Once dry, the arm would raise up slightly and begin again on the next layer until eventually a huge dome was created.  During construction the machine would switch between concrete, moon sand to take up space, clear molten plastic, and dirt from earth.  The 3D printer unfolds itself and moves slowly off to the next construction site while other robots move in to outfit the dome with accessories.  Machines install tracks along the ceiling inside the dome, and on those tracks are fitted an assortment of robotic arms and cameras.  On the outside, battery banks and solar panels are put in place.  In the end, the dome is a huge airtight structure filled with dirt and dotted with thousands of plastic windows to let light in.  These bio domes on the moon, or lunar domes as they are most commonly called, are the ultimate toy for the super rich.  Constant video feed lets the world watch as life exists, against all odds, in a place as harsh as the moon.  At first, billionaires would buy these and use them only as gardens.  When Lunar-tech sells a dome, they pump water, oxygen, and seeds inside before sealing it up with a special kind of door.  The dome's owner was left to actually tend his lunar garden by remotely issuing commands to the robot arms within it.  As you might expect, quite a few people never got the hang of it and their plants would die off.  Years passed and Lunar-tech kept everyone on their toes.  More rockets to the moon included specially bred insects along with the usual supplies.  The rich might have their lunar gardens, but the richer got to show off by having living colonies of bugs on the moon!  Since that day, Lunar-tech has expanded to the use of small animals selectively bred to be smaller than normal.  Due to the difficult nature of maintaining these complex eco systems, many dome owners hire big companies to handle the normal day-to-day operations.  Wealthy corporations have even jumped in to the dome craze in an effort to turn a profit.  Because shipping animals from earth is astronomically expensive, most people buy ones that have been bred right there on the moon.  Lunar-tech shipped up a huge fleet of transporting robots that will quickly move animals from one dome to another, for a substantial fee, of course.  No where else, will a person pay 2 thousand dollars for a mouse, and pay 20 thousand dollars for shipping!


Controls:
---------
Press Tab to cycle between different speech modes.
Use the arrow keys to move between menus.
Press Enter to accept a menu choice.
Use Space bar to pause or unpause the game.
Press Escape to return to the game after opening a menu.
Press Z to list your current money.
Press X to list your current battery power.
Press Shift + X to enable or disable audio power tracking.
Press M to select the mouse species.
Press R to select the rabbit species.
Press S to select the snake species.
Press B to select the bird species.
Press L to select the squirrel species.
Press C to select the cat species.
Press F to select the fish species.
Press T to select the turtle species.
Press K to select the cayman species.
Press 1 to select grass.
Press 2 to select moss.
Press 3 to select dirt.
Press 4 to select mushrooms.
Press 5 to select rocks.
Press 6 to select trees.
Press 7 to select bugs.
Press 8 to select acorns.
Press 9 to select algea.
Press 10 to select advertising contracts.
press Q to hear your current quest.
Press Shift + Q to hear a shorter quest summary.
Press V to hear loan information.
Press Shift + V to hear loan payment information.
Press ? to hear fun statistics about your current dome.
Press CONTROL to stop the current message from being read.
Press Page up, and page down to adjust the Sapi talking speed.
Press [ and ] to adjust the game's ticking speed.  Please note that your game will only go as fast as your computer can handle at any given time, so the fastest speed may not be any faster if your system is already at max capacity.
Press ` (tilde) to hear a quick tile summary, while in the game.
Press Shift + ` to hear a quick dome overview, while in the game.
Press < and > to cycle through any awards you have earned.  Awards can only be earned during custom games.
Press Pause/Break key to pause or unpause the game music.
Press Home to shuffle to another music file.
To have background music available within the game, name up to 10 mp3 files "music1.mp3" through "music10.mp3" and place them into the game's music sub folder.  The game will detect any properly named mp3 files in that directory, and use those during game play.


How to play:
------------
When you begin the campaign, you will be presented with your first quest.  At any time, during the game, press the Q button to hear your current quest.  If you hold Shift while pressing Q, you will hear a quick summary of your current quest.
The game will already be paused for you, at that time.  Press spacebar and you will hear a ticking sound.  That ticking sound represents quantities of time passing within the dome.  I haven't officially called these periods of time, days, months, or years, because I worried it would be confusing when animal life spans didn't match up to real life.
Just know that a tick of time is more than a week.  Ocassionally you will hear another sound, like the konk of a hollow piece of wood.  This sound represents the changing population of mice.  If you hear the sound in your right ear, it means the mouse population has risen, if you hear it in your left ear, the population has lowered.  Each species has its own sound, which you will gradually get used to.  During the game you can hold shift, and press an animal's hotkey, to turn on or off this population sound.
It is a good idea to keep an eye on your dome, rather than just unpausing it and letting things happen on their own.  Especially if a few mice have already been born, it would be a good time to press spacebar to pause the game and examine how things are doing.
Once the game is paused, use the arrow keys to move between the tiles in your dome.  The first campaign starts you off with a small dome consisting of only 2 tiles, A-1, and B-1.  Unless you are attempting to place trees, grass, rocks, or an animal, it doesn't matter which tile you have selected.  Press enter to examine your dome more closely.
The first thing you will hear, is the amount of money and battery power you have.  Use animal hotkeys to select the animal species you wish to focus on.  The keys are, M, for mouse.  R, for rabbit.  S, for snake.  B, for bird.  L, for squirrel.  C, for cat.  F, for fish.  T, for turtle.  And finally K, for camen.  Once you select an animal you will be given options about buying, selling, killing them, and how to check a history of this species in your dome.
You've already heard what the current animal population is, but it is usually important to know how the population has been changing.  The last 10 ticks of time are available for you to review.  Press the number keys, 1 through 0, to see if the population is rising or falling.
Animals are not the only thing you want to keep an eye on.  Use the arrow keys to cycle through the different items within your dome.  Highlight the one you want, and press enter.  You will hear all available options for that item.  Not all items store a history, because not all items are expected to change on their own.  Some items can be purchased, or destroyed, so those options will be presented to you once you select the item.
These non animal items have hotkeys as well.  Hold shift and press 1, for grass. 2, for moss. 3, for dirt. 4, for mushrooms. 5, for rocks. 6, for trees. 7, for bugs. 8, for acorns. 9, for algae.  And 0, for advertising contracts.
When you are finished buying, selling, and checking numbers, press the escape key to close this menu and return to the game.  While time is passing within the dome, you can still use the animal hotkeys to get a quick update on its population.  This is good when you want to monitor a particular species on the fly.
Also during the game, the non animal hotkeys will work.  Holding shift, and pressing the number, tells you about the selected tile.  If you press the number without holding shift, it tells you about the entire dome instead.
Once you've achieved the requirements to your current quest, you will hear a chime, and a new quest will be spoken.  Once you have completed all of the quests for your current mission, you will be returned to the campaign menu, and the next mission will be unlocked.


Credits:
--------
- Game design, story, art, and programming by Aprone (Jeremy Kaldobsky).
- Game sounds have been pulled from various sources including donations from my pals at Audiogames.net.


Website:
--------
If you are looking for other audio games, or accessible software tools, please some visit my web page.  I know it seems tacky, and I have procrastinated setting this up, but there is finally a donation button on the site.  People have requested I put one up for a while now, and I've finally gone ahead and done it.  I would appreciate any support, but I want to stress that no one should feel obligated to give me anything.  If I felt like anyone owed me something for the work I'm doing, then I would sell my stuff rather than listing it for free.
www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/


Walkthrough:
------------
If you happen to be stuck, or if you just wish to hear another person's Lunimal strategies, Nocturnus (from audiogames.net) has taken the time to assemble a very handy walk through of the missions!  It can be found here:  www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/LuminalsAudioWalkthrough.zip