Life simulation game

Life simulation games (or Artificial life games) are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem". This genre often includes the following subgenres:

• Biological simulations may allow the player to experiment with genetics, survival or ecosystems, often in the form of an educational package.
• Pet-raising simulations (also known as artificial pets or digital pets) focus more on the relationship between the player and one or few life forms. They are often more limited in scope than other biological simulations. Notable examples include Tamagotchi, the Petz series, Viva Piñata and Nintendogs.
• Social simulation games base their gameplay on the social interaction between game entities, such as The Sims.

Overview

Life simulation games are about "maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms". Games may involve a population or one or many organisms. Games may simulate animal or human intelligence.

Artificial life games are related to computer science research in artificial life. "Because they're intended for entertainment rather than research, commercial A-life games implement only a subset of what A-life research investigates."

Players are given the power to control the lives of autonomous creatures or people, which can sometimes appeal to the fantasy of omnipotent power.

Subgenres

While life simulation games are a relatively young genre, it includes several subgenres.

Biological simulation

Various games simulate either entire ecosystems controlled by the player where the organisms may evolve (similar to God games) or the life of an individual animal whose role the player assumes (similar to arcade or role playing games).

A typical representative of the biological "God game" variety is SimLife, which, albeit rather abstract, aims to simulate ecosystems similar to those of the Earth. Another example is Darwinbots, an even more abstract artificial life program which seeks to simulate the general principles of biology, but is also used as a programming game with shooting "bots" similar to Robot Battle. While these two focus on the simulation of life itself rather than the entertainment value and feature no fictional story or fantasic elements, such may be found in the Creatures series and in a multitude of games in the tycoon genre (e.g. the Wildlife Tycoon series or Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis): these nevertheless also attempt to simulate, in a detailed and partly realistic fashion, the natural behaviour of animals, plants, and sometimes ecosystems (as in Wildlife Tycoon) and genetics and evolution (as in Creatures).

Another group of biological simulation games seek to simulate the life of an individual animal whose role the player assumes (rather than simulating an entire ecosystem controlled by the player): these include Wolf and its sequel Lion, the similar WolfQuest, and the more modest Odell educational series.

In addition, a large number of games have loose biological or evolutionary themes but don't attempt to reflect closely the reality of either biology or evolution: these include, within the "God game" variety, Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life and Spore, and within the arcade/RPG variety, a multitude of entertainment software products including Bird Week, Eco and EVO: Search for Eden.

Pet-raising simulation

Pet-raising simulation games can be "simulations of real animals, as in the Petz series" or "fantasy ones like the Tamagotchi". The pets are called 'virtual pets'. Unlike biological simulations, the pet does not usually reproduce. They generally do not die.

The pet is capable of learning to do a variety of tasks. "This quality of rich intelligence distinguishes artificial pets from other kinds of A-life, in which individuals have simple rules but the population as a whole develops emergent properties". For artificial pets, their behaviors are typically "preprogrammed and are not truly emergent".

Pet-raising simulations often lack a victory condition or challenge, and can be classified as software toys. A large amount of pet-raising games can be found on the Nintendo DS. There are also numerous online pet-raising/virtual pet games, such as Neopets or wajas.

Social simulation

Social simulation games explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives. The most famous example from this genre is The Sims, which was influenced by the 1985 game Little Computer People.

Example titles

Biological simulations

• Bird Week - a simple game for the Famicom where the player assumes the role of a bird feeding its young
• Creatures series, by Creature Labs/Gameware Development
• Lion — the sequel to Wolf
• Odell Lake and Odell Down Under, simple educational games about aquatic life and food chains
• Science Horizons Survival — an early game which also teaches about food chains.
• SimAnt — a Maxis game that allows the player assume of control an ant colony
• SimEarth
• SimLife — Another Maxis game which experiments with genetics and ecosystems.
• Seaman — a virtual pet game that simulates the raising of a talking fish with a human face that develops into a frog-like creature.
• Wolf — simulates the life of a wolf.

Loosely biology- and evolution-inspired games

• Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest - an action adventure game by Nintendo, similar to E.V.O.
• Eco - an early game similar to E.V.O.
• E.V.O.: Search for Eden — an arcade game which portrays an evolving organism across different stages. "Evolutionary points" are earned by eating other creatures and are used to evolve.
• flOw — a Flash game similar to E.V.O.
• Lack of Love - a role playing game; as in E.V.O, the player assumes the role of a creature which gradually changes its body and improves its abilities, but this is done by means of more varied achievements, often involving social interactions with other creatures.
• Seventh Cross Evolution - an action game similar to E.V.O.
• Spore - a multi-genre god game. The first and second stages are biology-themed and similar to E.V.O., although the second stage also has more role playing game elements, similar to Lack of Love.

Social simulations

• Alter Ego — a personality computer game released by Activision in 1986
• Animal Crossing (series) — a life simulator series by Nintendo. It has also been dubbed as a "communication game" by the company as had Cubivore, Doshin the Giant and GiFTPiA.
• Eccky — by Media Republic.
• Façade (interactive story)
• The Harvest Moon series — by Natsume, farming simulator, role-playing game, and dating sim rolled into one.
• THE iDOLM@STER - an idol raising sim by Namco.
• Jones in the Fast Lane — by Sierra Entertainment is one of the earliest life simulators.
• Little Computer People — by David Crane, published by Activision for Apple II and Commodore 64 (1985)
• Money Game - a Famicom life simulation about balance love with high finance
• The Money Game II: Kabutochou no Kiseki the Famicom sequel to Money Game
• My Life My Love: Boku no Yume: Watashi no Negai — a life simulation for the JapaneseFamicom system
• The Princess Maker series — by Gainax, a raising sim which the player have to raise an adoptive daughter until she reaches adulthood. The final result varies from a ruling queen to an ordinary housewife, or even a prostitute if the player looks after her poorly
• Real Lives - an educational life simulator by Educational Simulations where the player is randomly "born" somewhere in the world and often must deal with third-world difficulties such as disease, malnutrition, and civil war.
• The Sims — by Will Wright, published by EA for the PC (2000), and its sequels, The Sims 2 (2004) and The Sims 3 (2009).
• True Love — (1994), a Japanese erotic dating sim, is unique in the genre for also being a general life simulation game where the player must manage the player's daily activities, such as studying, exercise, and employment.
• The Virtual Villagers series — by Last Day of Work.
• Moon RPG Remix Adventure - a social RPG game released only in Japan, created by the same designer as Lack of Love and GiFTPiA

See also

• God games
• Simulated reality
• Social simulation