A small development studio by the name of Murphy’s Toast Games is prepping the release of a new mobile game called Evolving Planet, and it sounds incredibly interesting. Set in the year 3016, you’ll lead an archeological research team on an expedition to the planet Kepler-1138 to try and discover what happened to the Lovans, a humanoid species that used to inhabit the planet but is now mysteriously extinct. You’ll accomplish this goal by taking on a series of missions where you simulate the evolution of the Lovans. Each mission will allow you to tweak various attributes like Trade, Warfare, and Cultural Influence and then you’ll set direction of the dispersal of the population and see where that leads. The actual gameplay plays out similarly to Plague Inc ($0.99), which the developers say was a definite inspiration for Evolving Planets, but instead of eradicating life you’re actually creating and following its evolution along with the planet itself’s changes.
While an overhead map and groups of little colored dots maybe isn’t the most visually impressive thing in the world, there’s actual science backing up Evolving Planet’s simulations. Xavier Rubio-Campillo is part of Murphy’s Toast Games and currently works at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center leading a team of researchers who conduct social simulations on a grand scale. The science behind Evolving Planet is based on the same science and techniques they use in their real-life research, but at a smaller scale. Evolving Planet is also related to SimulPast, a project that applies simulation to archeology in an effort to understand human behavior. Crazy stuff! According to Xavier in our forums, Evolving Planet will be released in the coming weeks, and we’ll give you a heads up when it arrives.
