species-alre game sourced
Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution
A solo-developed evolution simulator in which creatures defined by numeric genes mutate, breed, and speciate in real time across a 3D world while the player observes, edits the gene pool, and alters climate.
parts
8 mechanics, as Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution does themcore · 2
Natural selection
No fitness score exists; creatures that cannot pay skeleton-derived energy costs, reach food, or tolerate local climate fail to reproduce, so trait averages drift and lineages speciate.
Trait inheritance
Each creature's body and behavior come from numeric genes; offspring are randomly modified copies of one or more parents, with most mutations a random value in [-1, 1] times a modifier for background mutation rate and radiation.
supporting · 6
Agent inspection
Creature inspection shows each individual's DNA and stats.
God powers
The player triggers ice ages and world floods, programs rovers to feed or kill creatures by genetic distance to a target genome, and edits genomes in an isolated nursery.
Habitat suitability
Climate varies across the map, and climate control devices create local cold, hot, fertile, or dead ground.
Lifecycle and aging
Pause and speed control
Stats dashboards
Species averages over time, a clade diagram (Tree of Life), a satellite range map, and a web-of-life view of genetic variety.
core loop
creatures feed, pay energy costs, and reproduce -> offspring genomes mutate -> environment and rovers decide who eats and who starves -> trait averages drift and lineages split into species -> player edits genes, climate, or triggers ice ages and floods -> watch the clade diagram branch
design notes
Species, built by a single developer known as Quasar, simulates evolution with no fitness function: genes are numbers, most mutations add a random value in [-1, 1] scaled by a background mutation rate and radiation, and survival is whatever the body and environment allow. Energy costs come from analyzing each creature's skeleton for internal forces and torques, so morphology has a physical price, and creatures can eat only what their head reaches. Species are not predefined: a species is a population that can interbreed within a genetic distance, and it splits only when intermediate forms die out, which the clade diagram records. Species defined at runtime by genetic distance are not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal runtime-speciation). A free alpha (0.4.0) was public from 2012, and the Steam Early Access build from 2018 has not reached 1.0.
appears in
the paper, 2 sections · 1 chapterbacklinks
computed from other recordsclaims
2 with sourcesThe free Proof of Concept Demo Alpha 0.4.0 was publicly released on 2012-05-27, and the game entered Steam Early Access on 2018-09-28 without a later 1.0 release.
src-quasar-2012-species-alpha-release, src-steam-2026-species-alre
The developer is credited only by the handle Quasar on Steam and the development blog; no personal name was found in the sources checked.
src-steam-2026-species-alre, src-revolutionarygames-2016-thrive-vs-species