Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox is an abstract god game with fully simulated genetics and evolution. It is coming to Steam for PC and Linux on 12th May 2017. Press keys are now available for review or preview.

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In a universe driven by targets, a faceless corporation employs you to create an evolving ecosystem you can never hope to control...

Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox is a god game with fully simulated genetics and evolution. Create species of plants, herbivores and carnivores and try to control the ever evolving ecosystem. Design and create genetically modified organisms, but remember when you start tampering with genetics it is hard to undo your mistakes...

Key Features

Fully modelled genetics and evolution

The behaviour and appearance of each organism are determined by their genetics. How tall will a plant grow? How fast can an herbivore run? How often does a carnivore seek prey? These genetics are passed down generation after generation, with random mutations caused by radiation. Evolution is fully simulated, there are no tricks or statistical approximations. You are watching life evolve on your computer.

Weather and Climate Model

Temperature, humidity and wind are all modelled in the game. The weather and climate effect your organisms and perhaps your actions affect the climate as well…

Genetic Engineering

One of your key objectives is to investigate the organisms you create. Build collectors to harvest resources and research stations to observe the organisms. Eventually you will unlock the secrets of genetic engineering. Create your own genetically modified organisms, but be careful, once a genome has entered your ecosystem it may be hard to undo the damage…

Science to be Done

What do all those genes actually do? How is the world score calculated? What does world efficiency even mean? Much like a real scientist you will need to investigate, analyse and work with other players to try and answer these questions. To help you along the way the game outputs data in xml files so you can really get your science on.

Secrets to Discover

Who is employing you to create this ecosystem? Why are they doing it? Why are you doing it? What are those targets for? The answers to these any many other questions are out there, you just need to work together and find them...

I am a scientist and before that I was a teacher. In both these jobs there are an increasing number of targets enforced on you. Sometimes you are not told how these targets are measured or if you are you might not know how the measurement is calculated. I often spend time wondering what these targets mean and if they really made me a better scientist or teacher. With Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox part of my aim is to give you a taste of what wondering these kinds of things feel like. To make you think about what you are doing and why you are doing it.

More info at: www.pillbug.zone/intelligent-design-an-evolutionary-sandbox/