Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Discover the incredible (and hilarious) ways that video games can simulate evolution. From Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ to Evolution by Keiwan, we’ll look at how games and other simulations can reproduce natural selection.
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- Games and Simulations Featured -
Conway’s Game of Life:
Game - golly.sourceforge.net/webapp/golly.html
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Life Engine:
Game - thelifeengine.net
Channel - youtube.com/@EmergentGarden
The Bibites:
Game - leocaussan.itch.io/the-bibites
Channel - youtube.com/@TheBibitesDigitalLife
Cute Mold:
Game - erytau.itch.io/cute-mold
Creator - itch.io/profile/erytau
Clusters:
Game - ventrella.com/Clusters
Creator - ventrella.com
Lenia:
Channel - youtube.com/@bertchan9774
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenia
Evolution by Keiwan:
Game - keiwan.itch.io/evolution
Creator - keiwan.itch.io
Evol Pedal:
2D Game - evolgames.itch.io/evolpedal
3D Game - evolgames.itch.io/evolpedal-3d
Creator - evolgames.itch.io
Swimming Soft-Bodied Creatures:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=4ZqdvYrZ3ro
Paper - researchgate.net/publication/301771428_Evolving_swimming_soft-bodied_creatures
Evolving Soft-Bodied Animats:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=CXTZHHQ7ZiQ
Paper - https://direct.mit.edu/isal/proceedings/alife2014/26/239/98735
Flexible Muscle-Based Locomotion for Bipedal Creatures:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=pgaEE27nsQw&t=2s
Paper - goatstream.com/research/papers/SA2013
Accelerated Policy Learning with Parallel Differentiable Simulation:
Video - short-horizon-actor-critic.github.io
Paper - openreview.net/forum?id=ZSKRQMvttc
Spore:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/17390/SPORE
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)
Adapt:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/888780/Adapt
Creator - itch.io/profile/paul-herve
The Sapling:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/997380/The_Sapling
Channel - youtube.com/channel/UCDRJbyCWc9cXEbdWWQf8krQ
Thrive:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/1779200/Thrive
Homepage - revolutionarygamesstudio.com
OpenWorm:
Game - openworm.org
Channel - youtube.com/@OpenWormOrg
Thumbnail by: twitter.com/HotCyder
This video is about evolution. Not the biological evolution you’re familiar with, where living organisms adapt to their environment. No, this is about virtual evolution. About discovering the extent to which video games, neural networks, and machine learning can shatter the natural order and let us experiment with the building blocks of life itself. …And the extent to which they can make us laugh.
The ambitious dream of using computers to simulate life dates back to Conway’s Game of Life, and you might be amazed at just how far the technology has come with games like Spore, Thrive, and Adapt.
So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll take natural selection into our own hands, and see how far we can push this concept before things get out of control...
0:00 Simulating Evolution
1:00 Dawn of Life
3:59 Cellular Models
6:09 Stepping onto Land
8:45 Machine Learning
11:12 The Dream of Spore
13:25 Biosphere Simulation
15:15 The Ultimate Game?
17:35 Unlimited Power
19:28 What Comes Next…
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Mysterious Green Fluid, Sanity Unravels, Haddonfield Horror, Alone in the Dark, Dusk, The Witch, The Vanishing, Tenebrae, The Guardian
♫ Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
♫ Classical Music:
Requiem 1 Giuseppe Verdi - Dies irae
Mozart - Requiem - Dies irae
Discover the incredible (and hilarious) ways that video games can simulate evolution. From Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ to Evolution by Keiwan, we’ll look at how games and other simulations can reproduce natural selection.
---
- Games and Simulations Featured -
Conway’s Game of Life:
Game - golly.sourceforge.net/webapp/golly.html
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Life Engine:
Game - thelifeengine.net
Channel - youtube.com/@EmergentGarden
The Bibites:
Game - leocaussan.itch.io/the-bibites
Channel - youtube.com/@TheBibitesDigitalLife
Cute Mold:
Game - erytau.itch.io/cute-mold
Creator - itch.io/profile/erytau
Clusters:
Game - ventrella.com/Clusters
Creator - ventrella.com
Lenia:
Channel - youtube.com/@bertchan9774
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenia
Evolution by Keiwan:
Game - keiwan.itch.io/evolution
Creator - keiwan.itch.io
Evol Pedal:
2D Game - evolgames.itch.io/evolpedal
3D Game - evolgames.itch.io/evolpedal-3d
Creator - evolgames.itch.io
Swimming Soft-Bodied Creatures:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=4ZqdvYrZ3ro
Paper - researchgate.net/publication/301771428_Evolving_swimming_soft-bodied_creatures
Evolving Soft-Bodied Animats:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=CXTZHHQ7ZiQ
Paper - https://direct.mit.edu/isal/proceedings/alife2014/26/239/98735
Flexible Muscle-Based Locomotion for Bipedal Creatures:
Video - youtube.com/watch?v=pgaEE27nsQw&t=2s
Paper - goatstream.com/research/papers/SA2013
Accelerated Policy Learning with Parallel Differentiable Simulation:
Video - short-horizon-actor-critic.github.io
Paper - openreview.net/forum?id=ZSKRQMvttc
Spore:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/17390/SPORE
Info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)
Adapt:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/888780/Adapt
Creator - itch.io/profile/paul-herve
The Sapling:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/997380/The_Sapling
Channel - youtube.com/channel/UCDRJbyCWc9cXEbdWWQf8krQ
Thrive:
Game - store.steampowered.com/app/1779200/Thrive
Homepage - revolutionarygamesstudio.com
OpenWorm:
Game - openworm.org
Channel - youtube.com/@OpenWormOrg
Thumbnail by: twitter.com/HotCyder
This video is about evolution. Not the biological evolution you’re familiar with, where living organisms adapt to their environment. No, this is about virtual evolution. About discovering the extent to which video games, neural networks, and machine learning can shatter the natural order and let us experiment with the building blocks of life itself. …And the extent to which they can make us laugh.
The ambitious dream of using computers to simulate life dates back to Conway’s Game of Life, and you might be amazed at just how far the technology has come with games like Spore, Thrive, and Adapt.
So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll take natural selection into our own hands, and see how far we can push this concept before things get out of control...
0:00 Simulating Evolution
1:00 Dawn of Life
3:59 Cellular Models
6:09 Stepping onto Land
8:45 Machine Learning
11:12 The Dream of Spore
13:25 Biosphere Simulation
15:15 The Ultimate Game?
17:35 Unlimited Power
19:28 What Comes Next…
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Mysterious Green Fluid, Sanity Unravels, Haddonfield Horror, Alone in the Dark, Dusk, The Witch, The Vanishing, Tenebrae, The Guardian
♫ Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
♫ Classical Music:
Requiem 1 Giuseppe Verdi - Dies irae
Mozart - Requiem - Dies irae
