Ecosystem simulator

Ecosystem simulators are type of life sim where players oversee complex simulated life on a large scale, taking into account the play area's geography, climate and traits of multiple species to form a self-sustaining, simulated ecosystem that react to player influenced changes within the environment.

While other types of Life sims, particularly god games, have a player control or influence types of artificial life, ecosystem sims differ in a few key ways. While God games focus on influencing a individual or small groups of NPCs, Ecosystem sims focus on large scale groups of deeply simulated species. The simulation part also tries to depict life in a realistic manner in order to be used as a basic educational tool for life sciences.

The genre began in the early 90's through Maxis published games, with many ideas found within SimEarth: The Living Planet cumulating with SimLife: The Genetic Playground, which were later followed up with SimIsle: Missions in the Rainforest, SimPark and Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life. Today, the genre is very niche, through continues within the edutainment market and smaller indie titles such as Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution and Ecosystem.