Factsheet

Developer:
Wessel Stoop
Based in Nijmegen

Release date:
December 12, 2019

Platforms:
Steam
Itch
GameJolt
Kartridge

Website:
http://www.thesaplinggame.com

Regular Price:

USD$7.00
EUR€7.00

Description

The Sapling is a short simulation game where you design your own plants and animals, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!

History

Wessel Stoop has wanted to play a simulation game where you can build your own plants and animals, put them in a world, and see what happens since 2002. You can imagine his excitement when Will Wright, the father of simulation games, demoed his latest game Spore to an enthusiastic crowd. When Spore turned out to be all game genres except simulation, Wessel decided he wanted to try to make the game by himself. The Sapling is the result of that attempt.

The first major update, released in September, 2020, adds pollination, flowers, a whole new sandbox where you can cause global warming or cooling, bioluminescence, rhythm for the prodecural music, and a UI overhaul.

Features

  • Design plants and animals.
  • Fast-forward time to and watch the ecosystem work like a charm or slowly fall apart (probably the latter :) ).
  • A sandbox mode where you can skip time and turn on random mutation, allowing true evolution. You can also cause global warming or cooling.
  • An instinct system where you can specify what an animal should do when it hears or sees something.
  • A procedural animation system so any animal can perform any animation.
  • Procedural music mixed on the fly.
  • Everything set up to be easily extended by players.

Videos

Trailer YouTube


Images

AnimalEditor.png
DetailView.png
PlantEditor.png
SoilLevel.png
WorldView1.png
WorldView2.png
FlowerUpdate_plant.png
FlowerUpdate_cliff.png

logo


About Wessel Stoop

Boilerplate
Wessel Stoop works with language and machine learning during his day job, and creates games by night. For more about Wessel, see http://wesselstoop.ruhosting.nl/ .

More information
More information on Wessel Stoop, our logo & relevant media are available here.


The Sapling Credits

Wessel Stoop
Graphics, programming, music


presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks