The Sapling

About this game

Design algae and plants Whether you want a small flower that glows in the dark black algae specialized for planets without a lot of sunlight or a forest of giant trees covered in spikes it s up to you.Design aquatic land and flying animals Want a brightly colored fish that drags itself onto land to hide its eggs in burrows Or perhaps a land animal that gives birth to live young and quickly runs from flower to flower to drink nectar Or what about a flying carnivore specialized for diving and catching its prey underwater Again it s up to you.Scenarios learn the simulation step by step While the simulation in this game can be deep and complex it s introduced to the player step by step it never becomes overwhelming Each scenario tasks you to build an ecosystem that meets specific requirements and introduces a small number of new concepts.Sandbox build your own planet The sandbox offers the same functionality as the scenarios but obviously with everything unlocked but also much more play with the procedural planet generator to get the exact planet you want whether it s a desert world an underwater world or whatever you come up with It even allows you to define up to8 seasons to spice that ecosystem up a little While playing you can continue to change things the next ice age is always only a few clicks away.Turn on random mutations and see what evolution does with your ecosystem The most exciting feature of the sandbox at least according to solo dev Wessel Stoop is random mutations See your algae plants and animals evolve to quickly fill available niches see how some species are outcompeted immediately while others bloom for thousands of years only to die out when their food source evolves a new trick to escape and a completely different clade jumps in the now vacant niche

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