GenVo

GenVo is a creature survival and evolution game where you don't just play one life.

You begin as a small creature trying to survive in a living ecosystem. Find food and water, avoid predators, build a shelter, find a mate and raise young. Your family moves around on its own, and your young can learn from what they see you do.

When one of them grows up, you can continue playing as that descendant.

Over time, the way your family lives starts to matter. A lineage that spends generations around water can become better suited to it. Others may wander farther from home, defend territory, dig in, or settle somewhere new.

Populations can spread out and become separated. They can compete, meet again later, mix back together, or continue changing in different directions.

There isn't a menu where you simply pick what species you want to become. You live first, and the lineage develops from what actually happens.

The original goal is to make it through eight generations, but generation 8 isn't the end. You can keep the family going and watch the population continue to change.

Right now GenVo8 includes family raising, inherited traits, teachable behavior, shelters, migration, predators, multiple populations, changing home ranges, and developing lifestyles including aquatic, nomadic, guardian, and burrowing lineages.

The game is still in development. I'm continuing to add more ways for populations to change, survive, spread out, and develop over longer runs.

Controls

WASD / Arrow Keys - Move
Shift - Sprint
E - Interact, eat, drink, or bite
Q - Change nearby food target
M - Find nearby mates
C - Court
B - Shelter
N - Build or repair
F - Store food
L - Family journal
H - Continue as an eligible descendant
T - Home range
O - Population
K - Migration
G - Follow a migration route
R - Give nearby family guidance
P - Pause
? - Help
U - Audio