Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution

About this game

Species: Artificial Life Real Evolution is an evolution simulator that allows you to create, destroy, observe and tinker with life on it's never ending, harsh march of refinement! Simulated from the very first principles of evolutionary science:

Variation

• Every creature is uniquely defined by its genes.

Mutation

• Child creatures are slightly randomly modified versions of their parent(s).

Natural Selection

• The environment affects every creature in their struggle to survive.

Observe or Guide

Whether you just want to observe, watch and study as the tree of life constructs itself from a single species, or you want to be an active influence on the development of the species in the game, the choice is up to you! Take a hands-on approach by using the nursery, an isolated area where you can tinker with the gene pool to your heart’s content. Use rovers to decide which creatures get to eat today and which ones starve! Create global catastrophes like an ice-age or a world-spanning flood to weed out the most vulnerable species. Or simply sit back and watch the life-and-death saga unfold!

Tell Your Story

However you treat your evolutionary sandbox, we give you the tools to tell it’s story! View every single evolutionary step in detail using the clade diagram, see where each species are living using the satellite map, get a better picture of how varied your gene pool actually is with the web of life, and view every possible detail on each creature using the creature inspection tools.

Latest news

• Patch Notes·25 Nov 2022Official

  0.14.2.6

  0.14.2.6 Changelog Added localizable strings and tooltips for emotion names, descriptions and adjectives. Added localizable strings for a large number of AI routine names, as utilized by the thought logger Added localizable strings for energy delta’s, shown on the “Energy” details tab Added missing localizable strings on the Customize Creatures menu page Added missing localizable strings for creature behavior states. Added missing localizable strings for temperature reporting If you’ve been translating the game (shout out to s.t.andgo and magmacube!), you’ll find all these new strings appended to the bottom of “Species ALRE\Language\en-AU.txt”. Copy them into your own language txt file to begin translating. And also, thank you! 0.14.2.5 Changelog Fixed an egg-related crash that happened when loading a game.
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• Patch Notes·7 Nov 2022Official

  0.14.2.4 Experimental

  Changelog Tentative fix for a creature teleportation bug associated with pouncing attacks. Main menu buttons are now localizable (they don’t look quite as good as before, but it’s not too bad). Fix a crash when tutorial header text is translated into any other language. Added language name to the localization strings. Fix some typo’s in the English localization. 0.14.2.3 Changelog Tentative fix for MacOS version crashing on startup. Fix creatures inside eggs in the nursery dying before they hatch. Fix imported creatures dying as soon as they are imported. Fix a number of localization errors introduced in 0.14.2.2
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• Announcements·24 Oct 2022Official

  Where to next? - 0.15.0

  Lately I've been moving towards fatigue, sleep, temperature and exposure to the elements all needing to be much more important survival needs than they are right now. Let's put all of these mechanics under the umbrella of 'habitat'. Eventually, habitat will be almost as significant as food as far as survival and selection pressures go, one they will need to balance against seeking food in order to survive long enough to reproduce. Unfortunately, I find the current vegetation model wholly inadequate to support my plans for this stuff. It has failed me for the last time. So it's time to take what I've learned, throw the whole system into a volcano, and build a cleaner, more elegant and far more ambitious replacement. Here's the design goals for the new system, in rough order of priority: The tree's need to be 3 dimensional structures. Multiple 3d interaction points for fruit, foliage, shelter, perches and nests. The tree types need to serve a purpose in the ecosystem. Shelter tree's should not provide food and food tree's should not provide shelter. This will allow me to ensure the two do not generally grow in the same location. The tree's need to be performant. They're not the centerpiece of the simulation: their role doth not merit that they drink deeply from the fountain of FPS. The tree's should evolve. Evolving tree's is probably the second most requested feature, after flight. It was always planned, though never as a centerpiece of the game. So, let's discuss! You can read the rest of this post over here, on the development blog.
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• Announcements·10 Oct 2022Official

  0.14.2.0 released to experimental

  0.14.2.0 is now live on the experimental branch. This update does not include any gameplay changes, but instead enables the creation of localization mods and introduces new music. See the blog post here: https://speciesdevblog.wordpress.com/2022/10/10/0-14-2-0-released-to-experimental/ The three new music tracks were made by discord user Poliostasis.
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• Patch Notes·2 Oct 2022Official

  0.14.1.14

  0.14.1.14 Changelog * Fix a memory leak introduced in 0.14.1.12 that was causing an escalating series of freezes, ultimately leading to the game becoming non-responsive.
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