Eufloria

Eufloria (formerly known as Dyson) is a real-time strategy video game developed by indie developers Alex May, Rudolf Kremers and Brian Grainger. It was named after the Dyson tree hypothesis by Freeman Dyson that a tree-like plant could grow on a comet.

The game was for Windows in 2009, and for the PSN in 2011 and iPad in 2012. It was also released as part of the Humble Bundle.

It is set in a futuristic space environment, where you assume the role of the commander and builder of robotic plants and trees. The player receives orders from a mothertree. Players battle other empires and seek to discover the origin of a mysterious grey menace, to speed up the return of the mythical growers.

Eufloria has been descibred as a simple but charming game with calming music, graphics and gameplay.

Gameplay
Graphically, Eufloria is quite simple, with minimalistic graphics, and a simple design. The colour of your empire is customizable.

At the start of the game, the player has one tree on an asteroid which has a number of brances, and leaves which fall off and become seedlings, which can be used to either create trees or fight other seedlings. Each tree is unique, the growth of its branches based off a fractal algorithm.

To create trees, 10 seedlings are needed in orbit of an asteroid, which then plummet into the ground to grow grass and the trees' roots. A plant may also be grown that attacks invading enemy seedlings by releasing explosive fruit, called a defence tree. Over time, the plant's health, damage, and spawn rate increases. The player can also customize their asteroids with addons called 'flowers'. If a dyson tree has a flower added, dysons with a vastly enhanced firerate and range are produced. If a defence tree has a flower added, lasermines are produced. They are powerful seedlings which can take on multiple enemies with multiple lasers, and a suicidal explosion.

The seedlings can attack enemy asteroids, and take them over by burrowing through the roots to the core, and sapping the energy of the asteroid.

All levels are randomly generated, meaning each playthrough is slightly different. Also, each asteroid is unique in size and values, and produces seedlings with different stats. There are three stats. Speed enhances the moverate of seedlings, strength enhances the damage of seedlings, and energy increases the speed at which seedlings can convert enemy asteroids. The stats also affect the appearance of the seedlings.

Development
Originally called Dyson, the game originally started as a simple single proof of concept level. Levels were originally designed with the XML programming language, then later the Lua (programming language) for increased flexibility.

The game was renamed Eufloria by a contest on IGN's direct drive. Over 400 names were sorted through, with Vernon Sydnor giving the winning name.

The game has since been upgraded with a campaign, substantial AI and graphical improvements, and has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch. 

Plot
The game begins in the far off future in space. The player controls a force of seedlings, and take more asteroids for the growers, mythical beings which spawned the seedlings. The mothertree hopes that by taking enough colonies for the growers, they can make them return

Early in the game, the player encounter an enemy, the greys, which has attacked one of their colonies, with extreme rage and violence. Soon the mothertree learns that the greys have been driven mad by a disease, which forces them to attack.

They also learn that another empire is attacking their empire and so the player is sent beyond the borders of the empire to find out why the greys are attacking, and deal with them.

The player continues, gaining new technologies and rescuing allies along the way, to find that their enemies produced the greys, despite the danger that the greys would destroy them too.

Eventually, the home asteroid of the greys was found. After conquering them, the mothertree analysed their remains, and found that all the enemy seedlings had the same DNA as your seedlings.