A(rtificial)-life games / “videotoys” and similar
I wanted to write down a few a-life “games” for others to check out, and potentially others sharing some too. I did avoid naming evolution or genetics themed videogames even though these inspired a lot of people too. The genres I made here are just provisional and you could change which games go where or make different names. Perhaps someone else knows more or can make another iteration of this, a shared spreadsheet or wiki maybe? Also I possibly made mistakes I didnt play each game and Im not a researcher that knows all those terms. Maybe someone even just wants to talk about a-life here.
Classic A-Life-Software:
– Conway’s Game of Life
– Tierra
– Polyworld
– Avida
– Framsticks
– Aevol
– SmoothLife
– Lenia
– alien (Artificial Life Environment)
– soup of life (soupof.life)
– Gridworld (steam game)
Cognitive A-Life “Games”:
– Creatures series
– Uagi-Saba series
– Wobbledogs
– Grandroids/Phantasia
Neural Programming:
– Crescent Loom
– soul interface
AI Agent Games:
– Galapagos
– Black & White series
Genetic Algorithm Experiments:
– SodaRace
– Evolution (itch game)
Evolution Sims:
– SimLife
– Darwin Pond
– Gene Pool
– Species ALRE
– Vilmonic
– More Seeds
– Critterding series
– Creatura
– Neuraquarium
– Thrive
– Ecosystem
– The Sapling
– The Bibites
– Evosim
– Planetary Life
Digital Pets:
– El-Fish
– Fin-Fin
– Petz series
– Seaman
Life Sims:
– Little Computer People
– The Sims
//Edit: theres mistakes but i will make a new version
Wouldn’t put wobbledogs in the same category as this and creatures. Uagi-Saba 1 and 2 are way different games from each other also.
I’ve really enjoyed bibbites personally. It’s fairly non interactive if you aren’t into the mechanics of the genomes and neutral networks, but it’s still a relaxing aquarium sim to let play out at as screensaver or just leave running on a second monitor while you fiddle around on the computer.
https://alien-project.org/ is a cute multicellular microorganism sim that’s a lil more modern than the classic “swimmer” models. Pretty to look at too.
Edit: I see you do have it in the list. still I endorse trying it.
Yo okay, I made a new iteration. Its better at least but not perfect, but I will potentially update it. It makes use now of Google Sheets:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YCDxAIZcoik_FKw9NaCiGXBzlHBgQwhoVypulnCg2qo/edit?usp=sharing
Also thanks for the suggestions, Bibites and alien are great projects I think.
