The Sapling

The Sapling is a simulation game about designing life and building ecosystems on a planet. You create algae, plants and animals, then see how they develop and interact within the environment.

Design living things

You can make plants such as flowers that glow in the dark, algae suited to planets with little sunlight, and forests of giant, spiked trees. Animal designs can combine traits in varied ways: a brightly colored fish might drag itself onto land to hide its eggs in burrows, while a land animal might give birth to live young and run between flowers to drink nectar. You can also create a flying carnivore that dives underwater to catch prey.

Scenarios

Scenarios introduce the simulation’s concepts step by step. Each one asks you to build an ecosystem that meets specific requirements while adding a small number of new concepts.

Sandbox

In sandbox mode, all the functionality of the scenarios is available with everything unlocked. You can use the procedural planet generator to create a planet to your specifications, such as a desert or underwater world, and define up to 8 seasons. You can continue changing the ecosystem while playing, including bringing on an ice age.

Evolution and mutations

You can enable random mutations and watch algae, plants and animals evolve to fill available niches. Some species are quickly outcompeted, while others flourish for thousands of years before dying out when their food source evolves a way to escape. Other groups can then occupy the vacant niche.