Gridworld

Gridworld
N/A
Metacritic
85
Steam
70.095
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$0.99
Release date
24 December 2015
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
85 (209 votes)

Gridworld is an artificial life / evolution simulator in which abstract virtual creatures compete for food and struggle for survival. Conditions in this two-dimensional ecosystem are right for evolution to occur through natural selection.

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Gridworld system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 64-bit or higher
  • Processor: 2.0 Ghz Quad Core CPU
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Storage: 200 MB available space
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
396890
Platforms
Windows PC
Linux
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Casual, Indie, Simulation

$19.99 xDr: 90.75
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Aze
Aze

Gridworld is an exceptionally intriguing concept held back by a poor UI and insufficient explanations of mechanics..

Gameplay:
Gridworld isn’t really a game, and is better described as a simulator. Thus, the gameplay consists mostly of messing with world settings and waiting to see how this will affect the creatures that have evolved in it. That being said, the game does present a fairly large number of ways to interact; almost anything is possible, ranging from changing food distribution to creating flowing rivers of lava.

User Interface:
The UI is, quite frankly, horrible. In a game where the only fun thing to do is change settings, doing so is painfully difficult. Menus are unclear, and the entire UI is unintuitive. Furthermore, the cursor runs as slowly as the game; even on solid computers it will drop to around 10fps, making menu navigation even more frustration. If the UI were completely revamped, this game may become far more playable.

Gridworld has serious potential to be a fascinating simulator, but I would suggest thinking very carefully before buying the game. If you're willing to navigate a confusing UI and don't mind being confused, then Gridworld is worth the hurdles it presents.

SilverKnightGG
SilverKnightGG

I can't not recommend this game, but I do so because it's price is so low, and with a word of caution:

If you are expecting this to be an actual "game" that you play, you will be sorely disappointed.

You will be better served by having an open mind, and a fair amount of curiousity mixed with general interest in science and evolution.

You also will want to have a LOT of patience. Unless you find the various ways in which you can artificially accelerate evolution, you will be waiting many HOURS before you start seeing anything interesting happening. Take solace, however, because you can mostly just leave this running on its own in the background and check back after a few hours. You will find out things have advanced in somewhat predictable, but also somewhat random ways. Eventually, you will have rather functional little creatures running around in your world doing things that actually make sense. It takes a VERY long time for this to happen, however.

It would be nice if the game had some sort of guide or at least a link to a guide detailing what the various colors and squares mean. I have still not quite figured out what they all mean, and I'm ~12 hours in according to Steam.

Rin
Rin

nice game development
nice game design
nice game developer

Su*king java8

₳џtῺẛN₣ªŋti¢ῒdE
₳џtῺẛN₣ªŋti¢ῒdE

This is an interesting idea but the execution leaves something to be desired. in it's current build the game crashes when it's trying to autosave, making progression impossible. if it could save however, the game is still very rough. terrible framerates despite pixel graphics, deeply flawed and clunky user interface, and all this for bascially a petri dish simulator. This product is unfinished and i would in no way suggest you give it your money, there are countless free flash games 100x more polished than this turd. it could have been a decently fun game, but the developer released a broken product, shame. 2/10

Νικόλαος
Νικόλαος

This simulation is amazing , but you need patience to see something happening . For the price is really worth buying it ;D

Zalaegerszeg ザラエゲルセ
Zalaegerszeg ザラエゲルセ

its worth it. its fun and pretty cool

Bushwacker
Bushwacker

The gist is, this game simulates life. I'm going to leave it on for as long as possible and see-
01000100 01100001 01111001 00100000 00110100 00110010 00110011 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01100101 01101110 01110100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100101 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110101 01110100 01101000 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101101 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101101 00101110

rebbietheprideslayer
rebbietheprideslayer

I found this game over the steam winter sales and thought, oh another simulation game that made you feel like a genius for observing fake organisms, and then after seeing that it was only 99 cents decided what the hell. I bought the game and started playing, trying to figure out how to make something that was self-sufficient whenI realized how much time I was spending. This game is bound to keep you entertained for a few hours, it did for me, and more often than not the random creatures spawned will beat what you're trying to make, but will completely fail for a while, so have fun with it.

Lydia
Lydia

Unless you want to wait 10 hours, no, it is not fun, at all
It's more "pretty" than anything else.

Abe Simpson
Abe Simpson

Oddly fun game. I'm not sure how I sat there and played for 30 minutes my first go. I would recommend setting aside a large block of time and really getting into this!!

A little bit of gameplay the first time I loaded up the game.

https://youtu.be/AqO94-2KGiI

schattenklinge
schattenklinge

As long as you dont expect a game where you can actually play, you wont be disapointed.
It has more the feel of an experiment simulation. Set the parameter and see where it will go over time.

At the moment, it gets patches often enough to see a progress on the program, wich is a good thing, because stability and speed still need allot of work.

When you can live with a minimal graphic petri dish simulator, this one is great in what it dos. If you look for a game, search on.

Personally, i would like to see the menu improved some .... just bring it into this milenia would be enough .... and of course an improvement in the calculation speed with lots of liveforms in bigger enviorments would be mutch apreciated. (is the program making use of multiple cpu cores at all ??)

Jysovi
Jysovi

Seperated the world by lava into quadrants to see what would happen. How diffrent would the species be? What would happen when i removed the barrier?

One section developed fast to efficent little critters.
Witnessed one little guy cross the lava barrier.
Watched as 1 master spicies dominated the world before 3 more distinct ones formed that I wanted.

Created a new world hoping I'll get something more exciting this time.

JacksCleaner
JacksCleaner

In depth simulation of "evolution" - for fans of dwarf fortress or similar games.
Go get it, it's a materpiece

ERROR_BUG
ERROR_BUG

Let me say one thing first!
I've discovered cellular automatas almost a year ago. since that day, i've tried every f*cking program, file, srcipt, code and so on. all of these programms were just like a piece of something bigger.
Today, I've found the biggest i could have, with Gridworld.

Dear Developer,

YOU ARE FUCKING AWESOME!

I don't know how long you coded for this, but this IMHO the best wat i've ever get on my screen.

The first 1h was Menuelearning. Such a great, changable deep.
Then the watching what's goig to happen startet.

After 1 Minute, my Decision was much more than sure.

For the Future is an Upgrade to another Automata for me not thinkhable. (Besides: If the Develeoper of this one would ever make a "better" one, than i would think about new Upgrade).
At the moment of the Gameversion, there are Bugs and some must been get tweeked a little bit.
But alltogether? A Detail of a Detail at every Detail.

I didn't play long enough, after the bought today :D, but critism is there nothin! If i think about new Patches, than there is 0 unsolvable issue.

BTW.: On Monday, I get my first raspberry pi2. i bought him, to use it as a retropie. not longer. ;) Let my first Project be, "The Touchable PiGridworld. I always want to have such a glass of sand with ants inside, finally I get it :D

As you can see, and know about the emptiness of deep life automatas, i would say, this Developer deserves a big Cookie.

10/10 I will bang it forever :D

SilverFox
SilverFox

Interesting idea.

Something nice to have would be the ability to see how many different types of species you have. Something like, There are 80 creatures in 23 species. Would also be cool to see bloodlines.

Is there a way to create custom creatures? Anyway, good start and only 99 cents, get it.

DarkDork
DarkDork

I literally have no fucking idea whats going on.

The colors are pretty though.

BaconPilot
BaconPilot

Got bored quickly. Good for a short laugh. Now, can I have my money back?

Moon Shadow
Moon Shadow

It's as if you are Lisa Simpson and have your very own Tooth Civilization, Rick and Morty's battery, or that one Twilight Zone. An awesome digital petri dish simulator.

Sequestered Carbon
Sequestered Carbon

This artificial life simulator is amazing.

Watched life evolve from nothing to dominating it's environment.
None of the actions are scripted. They are all emergent from the neural network each creature has, and evolve over time.
Changing the rules or environment even slightly has major effects on what evolves.

The sim is worth the $1, even with the horrible UI.

Hopefully the DEV continues working on it as it is the best artificial life simulator I've played.

Altaïr
Altaïr

Very interesting Life Simulation. I have much fun experimenting with it, you should get it! :)

cubosaur
cubosaur

Pretty nice concept. UI needs to be a bit more user - friendly but you will find your way after a while. Nice one! Price tag is acceptable so don't overthink. Just buy it and I will buy you a coffee tomorrow.

AGDeveloper
AGDeveloper

I nearly pressed the Yes button but then i remembered all the times this game made me eat plastic explosive, wash it in with some bleach, shove a lit blasting wire up my arse into my colon past my intestine into my stomack where i would let it slowly burn into a giant organ firework.

Depressing Nostalgic Memories. Beautiful, Like Cancer. Which i wish i had after i bought this game.

obama
obama

a cheap neural network evolution game that has actual gameplay (tho i havent played any before tbh)
its pretty fun, launch it start a world press R i think that way game goes faster and go watch some mgs playthroughs (no commentary, otherwise you risk getting some cringy or boring shit ok) come back after half an hour and see that all your memes have died out
turn on the random meme spawner so it spawns random memes while you watch more mgs playthroughs
more time passed, you see all your memes keep dying
comeback again and witness racewars and parasitism

memes eat food and grow and evolve if they dont eat they die they also can hit lava and die too
first memes are random so its natural selection of memes, only best memes survive (i had dumb memes that could only spin around constantly and they died) and reproduce their behaviour becomes more compleks and stuff

very good game ok also works as a screensaver

GG
GG

Gridworld is a pretty fun toy, but it's 90% passive. Apart from setting initial parameters (world type, mutation frequency, etc.), it's mostly about letting your little petri dish world sit and develop. Checking in on it periodically is fun, as you can definitely see progress after several hours, but don't expect a whole lot of detailed interaction. The interface and details do take a little while to get used to, but it's cool to be able to look at fairly detailed information about each organism. I only wish the creator had put in more options to track "species" rather than just individuals.

If you like watching little worlds and systems develop on their own, this is the game for you (just don't go in expecting, as another user said, a world as detailed as Rick and Morty's battery). If you're less patient, or if you need to have more moment to moment control, you'd probably be better off buying another game.

Smokey
Smokey

i was looking for super cheap games, and for one dollar, i gave this a shot. Here is what i got out of it.
(NOTE: This is NOT a game however, so much as a simulation.)

Overview: GridWorld more or less introduces a concept of order coming from chaos. It starts by creating random bits of AI with random atributes. It has a custom grid that sections off these AI, and generates a field of food, with some basic enviromental conditions.

Gameplay: While this is more of an educational simulation with the express purpose of demonstrating how evolution from chaos works on a micro scale, there are afew key events to look for.

*The Kickoff-
The goal is to find an AI with atributes that can sustain itself and can have offspring (an organism that can eat, move, and reproduce). This is where most people get irritated because they dont understand how RNG works, and assume the game is broken. But in actuality it can take afew hours for the big "kick off" to happen. But once it does, the organism will spread like wildfire, consume the food on the map, and then reach a population equalibrium.

*Observation of mutation and AI-
From here on out, the dominant AI will have a random chance of mutation with each reproductive cycle. The mutation will either hurt or help the mutated AI. If it hurts, then the AI dies quickly. But if it helps, the mutated AI will slowly take over the pre-existing non mutated ones because of its better surviability. (my first time around, it was actually canibalism, go figure.)
Additionally, the AI has the ability to "learn" and can develop some interesting behavioral patterns, in a similar fashon to physical mutation. As an example, it may learn to avoid the lava boundary.

My opinion:
In my opinion, this is a well made simulation. It perfectly demonstrates order from randomness, and how evolution is a thing. I think the most irritating thing is the GUI, and id like a better explaination of all the functions, the different physical attributes, along with the AI copy function. Some things id like to see are achievements, as this is a gaming platform, i think some game type things are in order. I think the developer is working as hard as they can on improving these aspects, so i can forgive the games minor flaws. As for the negative reviews ive seen and complaints about how the game "doesnt work", RNG sometimes isnt in your favor, but thats not the games issue thats just how math works. Anyways, its an all around decent educational simulation, and its kinda an envigorating feeling to have your own little AI world. I would recomend it to anyone with an interest in computer AI, biology, or if you have 99 cents. Thanks for reading!

INUGAMI
INUGAMI

Microbiology: the game. $1 well spent for simulation fans.

sinfulJ
sinfulJ

My first not-review here goes. . . . Its less the £1 to buy. . .
I just wanted to give this a thumbs up and say that this game is interesting. I mean you are God yh'no.
Its watching survival of the fittest or survival of those that survive.

Flaming Badger
Flaming Badger

A novel little simulation, well worth a dollar. Just make sure you know what you're getting into before you buy it. It's a "leave running overnight, come back and see what you've got, tweak the environment and try again" sort of a game.

The devolper is keen on feedback and keeps making incremental improvements. A bit of knowledge of neural networks might aid your enjoyment of what's going on under the hood, but I don't know too much myself and I follow along just fine.

1978 FIFA World Cup knockout sta
1978 FIFA Worl…

This is the worst made 'game' I have ever seen:
PROS:
+ Awesome concept
+ Idle game
+ Circle Spinning AI
CONS:
- Little to no interactivity, and more likely to hurt you little being than help them
- The AI is the worst I have ever seen.
- Horrible graphics (I do not care, but some people do)
- Eyebleed green map
- Bad music (if any, I havent played since early 2015)
- It costs $.99, and it still disapoints me...

Mr. Miata
Mr. Miata

An amazing, yet underated game. You don't have to be a biologist to play this. It will start out slow, but give it a few minutes, and everything starts getting exciting. Must play 11/10

goosticky
goosticky

-opens up game
-picks Genisis on a 150x150 map
-little cell thingies do stuff for a while while it is in the background
-come back and decide to build a wall to keep the mexicans out
-i notice two groups: non aggressive slow blues and fast aggressive reds
-i want my little pretties to be cold blooded killers
-i then proceeded to purge the blues with fire
-reds begin growing at an alarming rate
-i break the walls and let them free to do stuff
-all of a sudden
-random extinction; reds start dying rapidly
-im sad because they are all gone
-then i see a little blue guy eating and splitting
10/10 would recreate the Holocaust in a retro evolution sim again.

$ad Boy$@ skinhub.com
$ad Boy$@ skin…

a very fun, minamalistic game about squares evolving. It's more of an idle game than anything else, but entertaining non the less.

SuperEngineer
SuperEngineer

Quite simply, it is not a thing I enjoyed in any way. Even collecting the trading cards was a pain.
Would you enjoy it? Yes, if you're not a gamer.

Stinky Meatbag
Stinky Meatbag

Yes well, 44 hours in.. now that's a dollar well spent.

Buy it.

July7
July7

Cool game, well worth the doller.

This game lets you fascinate yourself with watching and impacting the evolution of self learning creatures.

You can set up different settings, and watch to see if creatures evolve the way you expected. Test the viability of a ecosystem for life, or test the hardiness of creatures to changes in envirment.

The darwin effectof the AI adapting through mutation and breeding of the fittest is interesting to watch and toy with.

Overall, this game is good for the for those curious with watching and toying with evolution, a good game for those with intellectul curisoity for things like surival, breeding, evolution, and competion between creatures for survial.

Cons: Very simple gameplay and visuals, slow to start, with creatures taking a long time for a viable one to appear. Game requires patience beyond what many are willing to give.

-----

Overall enjoyment rating: 7 out of 10. Interesting, fun for its genre type, but slow pace and simplistic gameplay for the complexity of the game. Can get boring for those seeking exictment, this game gives pleasure like gardening does for those who like to watch flowers grow and guide their evolution and maturity.

Price ajusted rating, 8.5 out of 10 - Good bang for your buck. Well worth the dollar, But the game could be a bit more interactive.

Rating for its genre 8.5 out of 10... One of of the few games of it type, and it was done well.

Recommend for those with a passion for intellectual pursuites in this genre type.

And thats my review.

-|Jack The Ripper|-
-|Jack The Ripper|-

Gid world is the combination of keeping fish and being an old testament god. you watch helplessly as your creatues die through stupidity and your only recourse is to create a famin in the hope it will wipe out the bloodline those that displease you.

IwillforgetYou
IwillforgetYou

This simulation is the closest one to get a glimpse of what evolution means. Random creatures are placed in a world you can design and you can watch how they manage to adjust to the given environment and find ways to survive and reproduce.

faldor20
faldor20

this game is an epic idea.. it shows examples of evolution and great JavaScript coding in one package. its only downfall is that it is not multithreaded so you cant run the program very fast. but non the less it is a beautiful representation of evolution.

NebuTheGreat
NebuTheGreat

Be aware that this is not a game, it is a Petri Vase simulation.

Still, it is the best Sea Monkey simulation I've ever seen

Hoyt
Hoyt

An evolution simulator with a simple graphical style. The game allows for detailed control over how the simulation works. Ranging from things as simple as controlling the food supply to tweaking how likely the creatures will mutate specific traits. Not for everyone but if you like these types of games then this is well worth the small price.

[BMC]Nos_42
[BMC]Nos_42

Such a weird game if I can call it that.

Simulates digital evolution, if your into evolution its a must-get.

Do not expect to play you are there to observe and study, see how enviroment impacts a species.
Which i have a deep love for ever since Spore xD

Njoy Folks.

SlightlyIntoxicated
SlightlyIntoxicated

It is legit just pixels that do nothing for 10 hours.

Sabo-Tabby Ordinaire
Sabo-Tabby Ordinaire

This is a surprisignly complex artificial life simulator for less than a dollar. Seriously, if you like artificial life, biology, or just sitting back and watching life having dumb traits, just get it.

Kebab Master
Kebab Master

I'm not really a fan of these types of game, but I can't say it's bad. I would recommend this if you enjoy life simulation games of this kind.

Mental
Mental

Gridworld is a game that is great if you don't want to do very much, and still achieve amazing results. The variety and uniqueness of this game is what makes it so interesting. You can even play god with the world editor, if you feel like doing so. The only thing I want to see in a future update is a way to create custom creatures, neuron by neuron. This would be great, and will make gridworld even better. If you find the idea of evolution interesting, I highly recomend this game.

VACBanned-Cya
VACBanned-Cya

My requirements of a GOOD game:

Fun Game: ✔
Linux Port: ✔
Good developers: ✔

Optional:

Indie: ✔
Good fanbase: ✔
Immersive: -

Aikido
Aikido

Summary

The evolving, AI equivalent of sea monkeys! Or if you like, an evolving AI ant farm. Featuring actual neural network based brains. (Sort of.)

An artificial life, natural selection simulation. One of the few truly easy to use, easy (with some time) to comprehend, sims of its kind. Complex enough for real neural nets to exist and self-replicate (though there is not, to my knowledge, any deep or reinforcement learning happening here - just pure natural selection,) and for interesting behaviors to evolve over time.

Definitely not a game so much as a simulation though, and the user interface is a bit opaque, so expect a learning curve. Fortunately, the simulation handles most of the work for you, so you can simply let it run and observe until you're ready to make changes yourself and experiment.

Map editing tools allow creation of specific experimental designs intended to test how the simulation's natural selection process "responds" to specific challenges, and tweaking things like the energy consumption required for certain neurons to exist, the level of friction or damage in certain terrains, etc. allow for even more control.

Full review

Introductiom

I had been on something of a deep reinforcement learning kick when I stumbled upon this sim, and while it does not (that I can tell) feature any true "learning," it may be the finest, easiest to use natural selection AI simulator I've found so far.

I am by no means an intellectual - I have little education, and am a complete layperson when it comes to artificial intelligence. But here is a program complicated enough for more intelligent people to run full experimental studies with - assuming proper experimental design of course - yet simple enough for a dolt like myself to use, tweak, and observe effectively enough to still learn something. It truly is endlessly fascinating.

Complexity from simplicity - emergent behavior

The premise couldn't be simpler. A grid - size of your choice - which continually populates with food (the green squares,) and random creatures. Its border is (at least by default) surrounded by deadly lava. Each creature consists of a membrane (a colored square,) and neurons (inputs for sensing the environment, a middle layer, and outputs for affecting the world and the creature's actions within it: grabbing, turning, feeding, moving, signaling, etc.)

DNA, which mutates randomly, determines the neural network and the properties of the neurons. (E.g. what the neurons do is already established on a neuron by neuron basis beforehand, but the DNA tells each neuron what its specific threshold for signaling is, where in the network they are positioned, which neurons exist or get deleted each generation, etc. etc.)

Each membrane can hold a configuration of input, middle, and output neurons (a neural network) at a maximum of 9x9x9. So these are extremely rudimentary creatures, indeed.

However, the random generation of these creatures' neural configurations, combined with genetic mutation and drift over successive generations, means that natural selection over time takes place, and those creatures more specialized to find food, reproduce quickly, and avoid death, naturally tend to dominate.

Given enough time complex and interesting behaviors naturally emerge.

Epochs and equilibrium: Natural selection does not always result in linear, exponential advancement

One of the most intriguing things to observe in Gridworld, is how "eras" or "epochs" of specific traits seem to naturally emerge.

For example: early in the simulation, there tends to be a life explosion. This is quickly counterbalanced by food scarcity. Those creatures which survive the ensuing starvation then pass their genes on to subsequent generations.

Another example may come when creatures evolve to be more rapid, more efficient food seekers. A particular mutation - such as the ability to turn toward food for instance - may allow a creature with those specific traits to rapidly outproduce others, leading to their competitors' extinction and their own domination of the world. However, this too can be self-limiting, as eventually they can become so good at finding food, they begin to starve. Or, in the pursuit of food, they grow so fast that the speed with which they dive into the deadly lava at the world's border may outstrip the pace at which they can reproduce. In either case, and in others, they may eventually die out, or get out-evolved by another, more conservative species.

For this reason, faster/better/more neural activity is not always the recipe for success. A simpler creature with a better balance between food seeking, energy efficiency, and reproductive rate - perhaps with a random tendency to change direction more often, lessening the likelihood that they will run straight into the lava - may be more successful than bigger brained competitors.

All of this means the game goes through phases of rapid evolution and dominance by a single creature type, followed by some sort of impact on the world by said creature's ubiquity and behavior, until such time as a new equilibrium can be reached... either by the creature itself evolving to adapt, or a new creature outperforming it. This cyclical process of "epochs" is truly random, emergent, and unpredictable. Which makes it extremely compelling/entertaining to observe!

Speaking of the lava...

One of the most interesting and popular behaviors evolved by some, is the ability to detect and avoid lava. This is held up by many as an example of successful evolution, and many have expressed frustration and dismay at the rarity of this trait.

It's important to remember however, that we are not talking about true intelligence or learning, here. We are simply dealing with rudimentary natural selection. In practice what this means, is that an advanced ability such as the detection of danger and the capacity to steer away from it, is not necessarily always the greatest sign of fitness to survive in Gridworld. Simpler organisms that reproduce faster may overtake these more advanced creatures, by sheer numerical superiority and food consumption. Which of the two then survives that mass starvation will depend not on who is better equipped to avoid lava, but on who is best able to find food and reproduce.

This introduces an intrinsic and common limiting factor in Gridworld that some find disappointing. But make no mistake... it's entirely possible, however rare, for the perfect combination of food seeking, turning, danger avoidance, speed, and reproductivity to evolve. When and if that happens, you'll see very fast, very "smart" (not literally) agents avoiding danger and popping out babies like there's no tomorrow, while also not inducing a mass extinction because of their energy efficiency which requires less food.

Natural selection is not the same as learning, and as such, species can go "backwards," or reach evolutionary dead ends. Especially if you start changing the environment. Creatures well adapted to the previous status quo may die out, unable to cope with the changes, prompting newer adaptations to usurp their position in the food chain.

PROS

True neural approximations of brains
Natural selection driven emergent behavior & adaptation
Can be run passively, taking an extremely hands-off approach
Fascinating to observe
Easy for anyone to understand with some time and effort
Creature capturing, importing, & exporting between different experimental grids
User editing of world grids, energy cost, types of neurons that can be generated, amount & rate of mutation, & much more.

CONS

Very RAM intensive at high creature and neuron counts.
Somewhat difficult to understand user interface.
No reinforcement learning.
If you find sea monkeys or ants boring, you probably won't like this more than that.

Conclusion

Very accessible, powerful sim, demonstrating true natural selection.

Nforcer524
Nforcer524

I don't know what I expected...

Ⓜ₳[̲̅k̲̅]Я〄₦
Ⓜ₳[̲̅k̲̅]Я〄₦

Awesome game, although hard to understand, you can do some really cool stuff.

Simmi Simmi D
Simmi Simmi D

Overall a fun little sandbox but it would be nice to be able to modify or create creatures.

rcphoenix
rcphoenix

Note this isn't a game, it is a simulation. There are things you can do while the 'game' is running, but these are really like adding to and experimenting with the simulation.

There is a lot of depth to the simulation, but unfortunately a lot of it is not very easy to understand. A detailed workbook from the developers would really improve your ability to create the simulation that you want.

Does require decent processing power for a large simulation.

10/10 would watch pixels on my screen again.

TTV_8ToTheA
TTV_8ToTheA

interesting thing you can run in the backround and comeback to every once in a while to see if everything killed each other or not

Anonymous
Anonymous

This is the most impressive evolution game I've ever seen. The only limit on this game is your computer speed. You can evolve plants or animals and even multicelled organisms if you work at it. Super cool!

Taz
Taz

It's only a dollar and it's worth so much more than that.

Bluelfears
Bluelfears

I trained as a biologist but now I work as a chemist! This brings back the magic of why I went into biology originally. I just love watching the little creatures spawn, succeed, or not succeed. 5 hours in I finally got a sustainable colony that reproduced well and spread almost everywhere (and ate almost everything).
Normally I enjoy graphically beautiful, rich open world exploring games, but this is a beautiful one to have in the background whilst I do all my boring day to day admin, I keep coming back to see what's happened in my little biome.
Yes, the controls are hard to find and figure out at first, but given time you'll at least know how to view the help articles that tell you all the different menus.
There's a great guide available (check the discussion forum) which gives a break down of the DNA codes and node types (as many creatures die too fast for you to read the information if you click on them). I've not even looked into these yet, I was waiting for a well established colony before I started in depth analysis.
I've just cranked up the types of food available so I can't wait to see what else comes out of my wonderful little biome. I call tell this is a very well thought through game, with its roots in proper genomics. It's a life simulator like no other, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who ever wanted to run an evolution simulator like you hear about sometimes in the science news.

Infinite
Infinite

Amazing simulator. I managed to create bi-celullar organism that leached life from each other while performing photosintesis. Recommended.

KittyTac
KittyTac

Awesome simulation! It's not a game, though. And takes a while to get to the interesting stuff like creatures herding. But still good.

SpiceWater
SpiceWater

This is quite a fun little bit of software. Every time I've let it run for a while and checked on it later theres always something new and interesting. The coolest result i've had is an organism that copies it's own dna into other creatures, overwriting some but not all of their original capabilities. This allowed for them to evolve new abilities and incorporate them into the species incredibly fast, effectively supercharging their own evolution. Shit was like the borg, man.

As for downsides the only one I can think of is how obtuse the UI is. Its not bad once you get used to it and really start to understand the logic behind how all the sub menus work, but it is quite confusing at first.

Best idle game on steam as far as im concerned, and for under a dollar it's a must buy for anyone with even a passing interest in evolution simulators or machine learning.

Der Liebe Frankie
Der Liebe Frankie

---- Update -----

Upon clicking the word "Neuron" in a creatures stats:
"The regular neuron does not have special properties, but simply receives signals from other neurons and sends signals to other neurons when triggered."

THUMBS WAYYYY UP!

What makes this cool, is that creatures will eventually (by random distribution) have triggers from eyes that are connected via neurons (or a randomly formed neural network) to propulsion (jets or turning) to avoid the lava on the edge of the island. This is so cool!

-----------Original Review Below---------

Don't be fooled by the reviews saying this is like Skyrim! It's not even close!

This isn't really a game - more like a "listen to the birds chirp" simulator.

It takes a while before any survivable life shows up. It might take longer or shorter too, so if you think it takes too long, you should read the manual more carefully next time.

The most exciting is seeing something show up that has promise, like eyes and a mouth and other features that are needed.

The game lacks a lot of features that are in found in other games of this genre. Like there are no flaming swords, and no orc spawns. But it makes up for that by being dirt cheap! Also the game doesn't explain anything very well. Like it could have a tooltip when you hover over the title that says "this is not an adventure game huminado!" but instead I'm left to stumble through it and try to make sense of a jungle of various menus.

I actually like this game for what it is, which is a rather simple genetics and origins of life simulator. I would like to write a game like this - maybe. Probably. Not as bad as this one, but something like it. I used to be a Creationist, and the first time I played with writing my own genetic algorithm for training a neural network, I was very happy to see evolution happening on my computer. This game does that too - but it isn't quite as satisfying because it doesn't show you exactly how much it's cheating or really truly simulating things. I get the feeling the developer had way more fun writing this than any player will ever have playing. Otherwise, it's perfect. Yes buy it.

Fatelord
Fatelord

I feel bad only spending .99 cents on this game. I can see why since it looks so simple, yet infinite gameplay is what you get when you play Gridworld. Get bored? Take a few days, months, off- come back and create a mini universe.

Lyraël
Lyraël

Interesting. Leave to run in the background and check on it every so often.

dartimos
dartimos

Look, I know this is less than a dollar. However, the developer has obviously left it after an update that apologized for the long wait since the last update and claims the new patch was infrastructure for future updates. That was more than a while ago. The game is interesting to some extent, but it is obviously abandonware.

Gekko24
Gekko24

Really cool stuff! That amazing moment when complex behaviours evolve out of randomness is invaluable!

Drifter
Drifter

This isn't so much a 'game' as a self-sustained simulation. While I don't think it's for everyone, those with a liking of biology or programming would love it. I liken it to a virtual petri dish where you get to see the cogs of evolution turning, and I enjoy rooting for one strain or another. For what it is, I think it's a fun way to spend some time, and is definitely worth the dollar.

Andrea (a52)
Andrea (a52)

It's okay. Intriguing concept, but not much actually going on. It takes forever for anything interesting to mutate and there's no way to boost the game speed, the UI's kind of clunky and unintuitive, and there's very little in the way of visualization.

Some good graphs and diagrams, as well as more pleasing graphics, would do a lot to improve this game!

ssbibliophile
ssbibliophile

I still have a lot to learn about this "game", but I already highly recommend it. It's not a game like many people would define one, but rather it is a simulation and sandbox for Artificial Life experiments. It is directly implementing artificial (digital/software) "critters" and providing the environment for interesting evolution to occur and for complexity to emerge. If you like games like games like HOI4 and similar and like to do experiments where the AI plays everyone, then you'll love Gridworld and are able to affect a lot of factors more directly. Basically anyone interested in emergent complex systems, AI, Evolutionary Programming, Neural Networks, but more than anything: Artificial Life - then this is a winner.

AlienSoul
AlienSoul

I've used many genetic simulators and this one has as many features as any I have seen. At only 99 cents US (could change) it is a steal. ***** 5 stars of 5.

YoukCat
YoukCat

This game is great if you like simulations, but you'll have to be willing to learn the game. Calling it a game is also perhaps a bit vague, as it is more of an evolutionary simulator. Great for those who wanna play god with a bunch of creatures, and can let their computer idle for a day straight.

Saint Jimmy
Saint Jimmy

This SIMULATION is very interesting to watch. Although at times it seems like nothing is going on, once genesis occurs it is very interesting. I have sunk 26+ hours into one simulation and found creatures that learned tactics when fighting each other and even creatures working together in groups. This is not meant for impatient people but is very rewarding given enough time.

Zodiak
Zodiak

i am very much into artificial intelligence and evolution, and i must say, despite the (very) crappy graphics,
this is the best "game" of its kind.
if you have the time and wits to get into this, your creatures will learn and evolve and its a pleasure to watch (66 days of playtime now, off-steam)
there are a lot of options and youll need some time to experiment, but it is worth it.
i would pay 20 bucks for it....

Aggredevoir
Aggredevoir

This is probably the most worthwhile thing I have ever bought for a dollar. The level of control and attention to detail in this game is incredible, and the interactions you'll see are amazing. Watching life develop and clear the world of food in an instant was amazing to watch, but it was more amazing as I got to see concrete behavior develop, like creatures hunting in packs, fighting each other, using poison to trap their prey, etc. With patience and a watchful eye this game will let you see a lot of cool stuff, and it's really, really worth it. I think everyone should get this game, it's a dope experience.

[12e]Arjt27
[12e]Arjt27

Can have a steep learning curve and be difficult to understand. Although, once you understand it it is gold.

ItsOkToBeWhite
ItsOkToBeWhite

It's quite fun (not really a "game" more of a simulation)

Hard to compare it to anything. I wish evolution would happen faster but well

BuzzDieldrin
BuzzDieldrin

A slow burn but interesting to create your own little ecosystem and experiment with different settings.

Leave it running in the background while doing something productive or sleeping.

Rigatoni Meatball
Rigatoni Meatball

If you want to maintain at least 20 fps, any map size is fine IF:
- Max creatures are capped around 400-800ish.
- You are careful not to add too much lava. You can use the remove tool (one of the last tabs under world editor) to reduce some of the light sources added by any lava on your map. You can show lights in the sim rendering settings.

Also, for a good time: look at thickness and chance (under draw point, for each of the world editor's paint-like tabs) for painting in a airbrush style (I often use 20 thickness and 0.1 chance for a nice light spray pattern), as well as the line settings (one sub-tab over) if you want to draw long straight (or diagonal) lines easily.

Soxxox Smox
Soxxox Smox

It's not the prettiest and the UI is kinda bad, but I've yet to find a more detailed evolution sim. No other sim I've seen offers this level of depth in the types of adaptations that can form - poisons, mimicry, parasitism, pheromones, communication, altruism, multicellular organisms, senses of smell, sight, sound, sonar, and touch, multiple forms of movement. All of this means that your creatures could really go any number of directions given enough time.

So far I've never run a simulation long enough to get some of the really interesting stuff others have reported, but even watching my little critters learn to walk or change directions was exciting.

ethridge.burns
ethridge.burns

Very detailed. If you like these kinds of simulators it is a must have.

LimePotato
LimePotato

I dont know if its just me personally, but theres something relaxing about staring at randomized 'life' for hours on end. i love it. :espresso:

martin509
martin509

It's like an ant farm but you have no idea what's going on

Pissbaby Police
Pissbaby Police

controls are Frustratingly unintuitive (come on dude basic design convention has been SETTLED for like, 20 fuckin years now. get with the picture.
resolution options are "tiny little box" or "dropped like 50 pixels of the bottom of your screen sorry"
no windowed fullscreen, so if you have the ALL too common "cant see my mouse in fullscreen because windows is an asshole" bug, no fullscreen for you.
like, normally im not so critical of games that r just a buck,
but when you INTENTIONALLY go against convention, and its BAD like that? you Gotta be told.

NaiDoesHacks
NaiDoesHacks

One of my favorite games, I'm aware people like to call it a simulation but you can play it like a game as well.
Anyway really good!

Pungent Bonfire
Pungent Bonfire

Why did I buy this. It's basically a student project.

Zaxtor99® TTV
Zaxtor99® TTV

Ugly blips that move and disappear randomly is NOT a 'virtual AI' simulator as advertised.

It's also important to note that this is NOT a game or offer any kind of gameplay, and it's absolutely hideous to look at so that makes it very unappealing.

NOT RECOMMENDED.. Watching mold eat a piece of old bread over time would be more entertaining and cost you nothing.

Spray
Spray

Pretty impressive little simulator, I enjoy occasionally playing around with it to see what sort of weird species end up dominating over the others in my poorly designed environments. Chances are if you're considering getting this then it's already going to be worth your time for its price.

Chieth Kieth
Chieth Kieth

the game's very cool. minimalist graphics and generally slow-paced, but if you can get past that one of the most detailed and "real" evolution sims you can play

you've got your world, which can just be a blank space or more detailed, the terrain can be customized in a ton of different ways, from the type of food pixels that spawn on it to the speed creatures move over it and more

you've got your little guys. each creature is a blank square called a membrane, which serves as the body, and then a variety of "neurons" which serve as its organs and appear as pixels on the membrane. there are neurons that interact with the world, like mouths to eat, jets to move, various sensory organs, and more, along with various connecting and signalling neurons that can supply input to control the organs or connect organs together to make them communicate. they remind me of little evolving circuit boards or FPGAs

what really makes this game pop is that there's no hardcoded fitness functions or goals. the game randomly spawns creatures, most of which are non-functional and die. some can eat but can't move, some can move but can't eat, some can move and eat but dont' have a complete reproductive system and just spawn blank membranes, but eventually random chance gets you one that can move, eat, and produce functional offspring, and ultimately that's what it comes down to. each generation introduces slight mutations, and if those mutations make it better at moving, eating, and producing functional offspring then they proliferate and outcompete.

just like real life, without a hardcoded "goal" creatures tend toward the path of least resistance, and you may need to adjust simulation settings or modify terrain to create suitable stressors to get them to evolve more interesting functionality. but damn they can get interesting with the right parameters. all those random functions and neurons that don't do anything on their own combine, with enough time and survival stress, to produce sophisticated, intelligent, sometimes very bizarre solutions to the eat-and-reproduce problem.

some i've seen, in my games or friends' games, to give you an idea:

linear creatures that can only eat and move forward, and spawn their offspring to send them on perpendicular paths. in a high food map with minimal terrain obstacles this seems to be the ultimate lifeform and often maps like that will never evolve beyond this.

creatures that can see food and move towards it. self-explanatory, if food is scarce enough for it to be valuable you might see a species with the right neuron hookups to see food and redirect their movement towards it. obligate carnivores are rare but you'll often eventually see omnivores that can move towards other creatures, and no reason you can't evolve herbivores that use sight to run away from other creatures

creatures that use pheromones and paint to communicate. getting more sophisticated, but in very cluttered environments i've seen friends get creatures with pretty sophisticated food-searching patterns that also leave behind trails of paint or pheromones behind them. they and their conspecifics won't walk on existing trails, which lets them avoid areas that have already been scavenged.

wall-moss: you can set rock walls to have food supplies for creatures that run into them. with enough wall-food you eventually get creatures that just sit against the wall and suck food from it. neurons that allow sharing food between adjacent creatures let these clumps of moss get very big, and i've also seen them reproduce mobile creatures to colonize other food-walls.

agent smith: by far the weirdest thing i've seen. creatures reproduce by placing a blank membrane and then printing a neural network on top of it. these functions come from separate neurons and on two different occasions i've seen creatures that have somehow repurposed this functionality aggressively. instead of making new membranes they grab onto another creature and then print their neural network on top of it, producing a clone, which then goes off and does that to other creatures. just to give you an idea of how weird and unique the lifeforms this game can produce are.

there are neurons to attach, detach, share food, and signal between adjacent creatures so theoretically you could evolve multicellular life, but i've only seen very simple forms without any specialization or complex signalling.

overall, strong recommend, my favorite evolution sim. very simple but extremely sophisticated within that simplicity. needs a lot of experimentation and tweaking with the terrain and simulation settings to get the most interesting results, and it's not a fast or flashy game so if you're expecting to see awesome creatures doing awesome things an hour into the game you will probably be disappointed. requires a lot of work with the microscope examining creatures and puzzling out how their neural networks operate to really appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of the life you get. if that stuff doesn't sound boring to you, you will like the game. if it does, then yes, you will find it boring.