life simulation game part of a series onsimulation video games subgenres construction and management simulation business simulation game citybuilding game government simulation life simulation game digital pet god game social simulation game dating sim eroge bishjo otome sports game racing game sim racing sports management game vehicle simulations flight simulator amateur flight simulation combat flight simulator space flight simulator space combat game space trading game submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat game history chronology of business simulation video games chronology of citybuilding video games chronology of god video games list of space flight simulator games vte life simulation or artificial life games definition life simulation games are about maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms history artificial life games and life simulations find their origins in artificial life research including conways game of life from 1970 in 1986 the early biological simulation game bird week was released in the mid1990s as artificial intelligence programming improved true ai virtual pets such as petz and tamagotchi began to appear around the same time creatures became the first fullblown commercial entertainment application of artificial life and genetic algorithms in 2007 also came the game spore in which you develop an alien species from the microbial tide pool into intergalactic gods types digital pets digital pet digital pets are a subgenre of artificial life game where players train maintain and watch a simulated animal digital pets are usually designed to be cute and act out a range of emotions and behaviors that tell the player how to influence the pet game designers try to sustain the players attention by mixing common behaviors with more rare ones so the player is motivated to keep playing until they see them today online games which allow you to raise show dogs or sim horse games are also quite popular biological simulations some artificial life games allow players to manage a population of creatures over several generations and try to achieve goals for the population as a whole 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 dont 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 arcaderpg variety a multitude of entertainment software products including bird week eco and evo search for eden social simulation social simulation game see also dating sim social simulation games explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives the most famous example from this genre is the sims examples biological simulations bird week 1986 a simple game for the famicom where the player assumes the role of a bird feeding its young creatures series by creature labsgameware development lion the sequel to wolf simulates the life of a lion odell lake and odell down under simple educational games about aquatic life and food chains saurian simulates the life of nonavian dinosaurs in the hell creek formation science horizons survival an early game which also teaches about food chains shelter simulates the life of a badger family made by might and delight shelter 2 simulates the life of a lynx family made by might and delight simant a maxis game that allows the player to assume control of an ant colony simearth another maxis game that deals with terraforming and guiding a planet through its geological and biological development simlife another maxis game which experiments with genetics and ecosystems simpark seaman a virtual pet game that simulates the raising of a talking fish that develops into a froglike creature star wars the gungan frontier simulates a planet which the player populates with creatures that compete for limited supplies of food wolf simulates the life of a wolf made by sanctuary woods wolfquest loosely biology and evolutioninspired games some games take biology or evolution as a theme rather than attempting to simulate cubivore survival of the fittest 2002 nintendo an action adventure eco 1988 ocean evo search for eden 1992 enix an arcade game which portrays an evolving organism across different stages evolutionary points are earned by eating other creatures and are used to evolve evolites simple evolution simulator 2006 reflect games a simple life simulation where you indirectly control the fates of a countless number of tiny unique creatures known as evolites as the evolites evolve naturally various tools are at your disposal to save destroy create and interact with them you may let things run their course or you may directly intervene and make sure that only your chosen strain of evolites survives flow 2006 jenova chen a flash game similar to evo lol lack of love 2000 ascii entertainment a role playing game 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 seaman video game 2000 vivarium a virtual pet video game for the sega dreamcast seventh cross evolution 1999 ufo interactive games an action game spore 2008 electronic arts a multigenre god game the first and second stages are biologythemed although the second stage also has more role playing game elements creatures artificial life program 19982002 creature labs an early artificiallife program the creatures franchise features creatures called norns each of which has its own digital dna that later generations can inherit the norns are semiautonomous but must be trained to interact with their environment to avoid starvation social simulations academagia a fantasy magic school life simulator made by a father for his daughters and released to the public due to demand alter ego a personality computer game released by activision in 1986 animal crossing 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 faade an artificialintelligencebased interactive story created by michael mateas and andrew stern the story of seasons series by marvelous entertainment farming simulator roleplaying game and dating sim rolled into one the idolmaster an idol raising sim by namco jones in the fast lane by sierra entertainment is one of the earliest life simulators kudos series by positech games life the social game is a social game inspired by conways game of life little computer people by david crane published by activision in 1985 the money game a famicom life simulation about balancing 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 japanese famicom 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 thirdworld difficulties such as disease malnutrition and civil war tenshitachi no gogo one of the earliest dating sims the sims by will wright published by ea for the pc 2000 and sequels the sims 2 2004 the sims 3 2009 and the sims 4 2014 tomodachi life by nintendo true love 1995 a japanese erotic dating sim and general life simulation game where the player must manage the players daily activities such as studying exercise and employment the virtual villagers series by last day of work moon rpg remix adventure a social rpg released only in japan created by the same designer as lack of love and giftpia new york nights success in the city a social simulation created and designed by gameloft released for mobile phones shenmue an open world video game series that simulates life in japan and china in the year 1986 yakuza a video game series based in modernday japan featuring beat em up mechanics developed and published by sega vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 