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EvoLife

$9.99
Release Date:
Developer:
Mihaly Sisak
Publisher:
Mihaly Sisak
Platforms:
Windows
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About This Game

Genesis

At the start of the simulation cells with random DNA are spawned. 99% of DNA is not viable so most die pretty quickly.

  • Purple gas bubbles, inspired by hydrothermal vents

  • White dead cells, inspired by marine snow

  • Colorful alive cells, inspired by the diversity of unicellular organisms

  • Grey rocks, inspired by rocks, duh

First viable cell

After a while the first viable cells appear. There is a lot of gas everywhere which can be broken down for energy, so the first cells are pretty simple. An organelle to break down gas and a DNA instruction to multiply is all it takes to conquer the world.

Competition

As primitive cells fill the world, competition for gas bubbles increase. Some cells start to break down dead bodies for additional energy. Some grow flagella to fill spaces not accessible by passively riding the water flow.

Swimming upstream

The simulated physics can present barriers for life. Cells evolve to swim upstream, into the dense gas bubble flow, specializing with smaller body size and a stronger flagellum. Life always finds a way.

Stromatolites

First the world created physical barriers, now the cells are making them. Some cells release biomaterials that accumulate, much like real stromatolites. These materials can be broken down, but unlike gas bubbles or dead cells, doing so costs energy. As a result, they build up just like stromatolites in nature.

  • Biomaterials displayed as colorful circles with a square in the middle

Early multicellularity

In a strong current even multiple flagella may not be strong enough. These cells stick together after dividing, relying on each other for support. We are witnessing the birth of multicellularity!

🦠🦠🦠

Steam Workshop

Evolution takes a lot of time. I run the simulated worlds for weeks, waiting for evolution to happen. I implemented Steam Workshop support, so you don't have to! Some Workshop Items are not just a simple savefiles, but sequences of savefiles! Download the sequence and use the in-game "savefile list" feature, so you can step evolutionary time forward by weeks with one click!

Demo

I am just a solo dev, I could test the simulation on an RX 6750 XT, a GT 710 and an NVS 4200M. To remedy this issue I want to provide a free demo you can try out, to check if the game works on your machine.

Please make sure you have the newest drivers installed for your graphics card.

Demo limitations:

  • Only the smallest world size is available

  • No DNA editing

  • No Steam Workshop access

Lore

For this simulation my vision was to simulate a whole ecosystem of cells. There are many grid-like simulations, where artificial life exists in a grid. There are many game-like simulations where whole creatures are simulated. Sadly none of these fills the niche I am interested in.

I am specifically interested in the boundary of single celled and multicellular life. How did multicellular life come to be? How cells work together as an organism? How many ways can multicellularity evolve? There are only theories as the answer lies in the un-fossilized past.

To achieve this I simulate individual cells, and their individual organelles. I do not want to force multicellularity by having dedicated types of cells. Each cell can perform multiple things, can decide which organelles to grow. I want single celled life to be just as feasible and diverse as multicellular. I want the local environment to decide how the most successful life form should look like.

This simulator is my pet project, 10 years in the making! It is running entirely on the video card. You don't need a supercomputer, just a mid range card to simulate hundreds of thousands of cells. The world in the trailer is the result of running the simulation on my RX 6750 XT for a week. Hopefully the advancement of video cards makes even bigger worlds a possibility!

Screenshots

User Reviews

Mostly Positive
7 user reviews
71%
Positive
38 hrs at review
Not Recommended

{{{few months down the line now, the developer has continued to disrespect people that have come from me having recommended the game before this drama, i've seen that he's now banned at least 4 people from his reddit as well as 2-3 more from the steam forums. This developer is rude and properly narcissistic. He has managed to ensure that I am unable to interact with his communities in any way whatsoever due to the issues provided below. To all the people seeing this and abstaining from the game, you're welcome to send me a friend request and I can provide the screenshots from the discussion as it happened and how disrespectful the developer was when speaking with myself and my boss. I will most likely continue to make noise in this community, on videos made about it, etc. I will have my voice brought back, I will not accept this disrespect and it will live rent free in my head till I am given the respect a paying customer that wanted genuinely nothing more than to help the developer of...

13 helpful
359 hrs at review
Recommended

Really well done and very performant using the GPU for basically all calculations. Because of this it can run well over 100,000 objects on my 3060 laptop. Objects can be things like organisms, gas bubbles, dead cells, etc. The simulation is also quite complex. For example, their are about 21 different types of organelles that can be expressed. And even within a given type of organelle, it may have multiple possible functions. For example an organelle that produces biomass could create any of 25 different biomasses in the game. Cells can have different numbers of DNA instructions. They can have different sizes. The possible types of organisms is huge. Their are over 1200 different kinds of spike genes! They differ in terms of how much damage they do, how much energy is used, how much time it takes to develop the spikes, etc. With all these possible options and the settings that can be made, the software can be a bit overwhelming at first. Fortunately, there are some good videos on y...

2 helpful
1 hrs at review
Not Recommended

what is happening? none of the creatures are moving on their own, and they just die after a minute or two, and they dont eat, what is hpapening???????? why do they just spawn and die??? ok i left the game on fast mode for a hour, now everything is in these clumps of things grabbing onto other things grabbing onto dead bodies and gas bubbles and cells, i still have no idea whats going on.

1 helpful 3 funny
22 hrs at review
Recommended

Possibly best life and evolution simulation. I can run it for hours and hours. More complex and interesting than Bibites, much more performant, on the level of the alien project. Just with full AMD GPU support. It seems like it works on everything, even my Linux PC and AMD GPU. No need to tinker.

1 helpful
2 hrs at review
Recommended

I haven't played it for that long, but I can definitely say it's a remarkable game. The developers has put a lot of effort in. It's fascinating watching hundreds of different cellular species compete for food in a game of natural selection, and if it's this good in early access I wonder how amazing it'll be when it's fully released. I would definitely recommend this if you like this type of genre. 10/10 would definitely recommend!

36 min at review
Recommended

Fun Little game

54 hrs at review
Recommended

I love evolution sims, and EvoLife is one of the best I've ever seen. The dev has really put thought into this, to make a sim with lots of possibilities for interesting behavior and situations. Some aspects of it are stunningly advanced, to the point that it can be tricky to wrap your head around, even as a veteran of evolution sims. One of the first things you notice about EvoLife is that it's an excellent fluid simulator, and also that it can handle huge worlds with thousands of objects; way more than you're used to seeing in an evolution sim. Tens of thousands. Probably hundreds of thousands, but it gets hard to say, because there's nowhere I can find to see the total population of my worlds. And that's my niggle with EvoLife, that it's not always very user friendly. Some things which seem basic to an evolution sim are harder than they should be, in my opinion. What's the total population? What generation is this cell? Even just telling the species apart can be very difficult, mov...

System Requirements

Minimum

Minimum:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 64bit
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: OpenGL 4.3+ capable
  • Storage: 1 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Tested and working on Ubuntu 22.04 with Wine

Recommended

Recommended:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10+ 64bit
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Graphics: OpenGL 4.3+ capable, 2GB VRAM
  • Storage: 1 GB available space

FAQ

How much does EvoLife cost?

EvoLife costs $9.99.

What are the system requirements for EvoLife?

Minimum: Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 64bit Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: OpenGL 4.3+ capable Storage: 1 GB available space Additional Notes: Tested and working on Ubuntu 22.04 with Wine Recommended: Recommended: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10+ 64bit Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: OpenGL 4.3+ capable, 2GB VRAM Storage: 1 GB available space

What platforms is EvoLife available on?

EvoLife is available on Windows PC.

Is EvoLife worth buying?

EvoLife has 71% positive reviews from 7 players.

When was EvoLife released?

EvoLife was released on Sep 16, 2022.

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