Evolution in your computer – UI video game studio have brought students of many disciplines together

The University of Idaho is not the first campus in the country to have its own video game studio, but “Polymorphic Games,” a video game studio led by UI Biology Professor Barrie Robison and Computer Science Professor Terry Soule, may be the most inclusive.

“We have students from almost every department helping us in some way. We even have brought in law students to help us with licensing,” Robison said. “Without student involvement none of this would have been possible.”

Courteousy of Polymorphic Games | Argonaut

Courteousy of Polymorphic Games | Argonaut Four screenshots of the different menus and gameplay from UI Polymorphic Games Studio.

The pair first explored the idea of starting a video game studio two and a half years ago, when Robison, an evolutionary biologist, approached Soule, with the idea of developing video games that would utilize the Darwinian concept of survival-of-the-fittest.

Soule, a specialist in the subfield of artificial intelligence, jumped on the idea.

Their advances have built upon ideas to create enemies that react to the player. The enemies evolve based on which units come closest to defeating the human player. The “fittest” of these enemies pass on their traits to the next group of enemy units, these traits even include random mutations that help the enemy defeat the human player.

Through the development of this system, the two self-described video game nerds see ways for even the most advanced AAA titles, like Call of Duty and Total War, to be improved.

“I’ll play video games now and think of ways to make them better,” Robison said.

After the two fully developed their concepts, they realized the campus brought together many students that could be a major asset to the project, Robison said.

They began hiring various undergraduate students from different departments on campus to help them create their games. Their core principle is to use evolutionary science to make games better.

“Evolution makes games very hard,” Robison said, “We’ve had a clear vision from the beginning, but we weren’t sure if it would be possible.”

Fears of the impossible have been alleviated in recent months. Their newest and most advanced game, “Darwin’s Demons,” is almost completely finished and cleared to be released on  platform “Steam,” said Robison.

After “Darwin’s Demons” is released, they plan on developing a new game immediately after.

“We’ve secured funding for another round of students to help us on the project” Soule said.“We have lots of ideas to draw from, but we tend to set our sights high.”

Balancing the role of both UI faculty and “Polymorphic Games” developer has proved a challenge for Soule and Robison, who have found solace in how supportive the school has been.

“We’ve enjoyed a ton of support from all of the levels above us,” Robison said.

Instead of bemoaning the time spent on the project, department heads across campus have expressed excitement at the real world experience it has given students.

Art students have been developing the look of the game, Video Technology and Design students have been designing the graphics of the game and music students have been writing a score.

Soule and Robison hope that “Polymorphic Games” continues to grow their presence on campus, so that students can continue to experience the trials and tribulations of developing video games. Soule and Robison encourage students from any major that wish to get involved to contact them.

“The interdisciplinary aspect is what makes it fun,” Robison said. “I can’t think of a medium that is more interdisciplinary.”

Sam Balas

can be reached at

[email protected]

Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.