Similar Games

[UnfunnyBone]

After all these years I can't find a game quite like this. The closest thing might be Species, Spore, or Equilinox.
Someone out there must know of games that have genetics as a factor on Steam!

[Ocelotus]

I'm looking too... I've tried Equilinox and I'm not finding it as good a niche. I'm looking into the Creatures series on GOG at the moment.

[Vndtta]

Have either of you given a decent shot to Dwarf Fortress? It's a nonprofit game freely available on the web. Sounds crazy, but without mods - having only patience and a desire to self-punish, along with spreadsheet-level attention to itty bitty detail, customization, etc. - you can simulate genetics.

Plus, the dev(s) are like, 1.5 units of brothers put together and made omnipotent. The tight spiral of Dwarf Fortress was so massive and complex and it (sometimes) even worked! The king of procedural generation is coming to Steam soon, I can't wait. I'm gonna not spoil my surprise by looking at any WIP features but I encourage you guys to see what's been added lately in preparation for the steam debut, because there's no way it's not amazing.

I like the more genetic focus, the mechanically significant kind of genetics in a game, too. I remember being ultimately annoyed at The Sims because of how much dedication it took to focus on genetics. I never could find a balance of "light roleplay" to "winning the game"; sim games where you have to pick one or the other are obnoxious.

Doing some immersion-breaking tasks for a while and sacrificing RP/realism would be ok if it wasn't mandatory to not prematurely lose the game if you don't spend 80% of your focus on staying afloat. Kinda hard to implement quirky scenarios if you game over at the start a billion times.

Anyway sorry for the ramble. I recommend to you DF because it has the broadest, most realistic, and most fascinating butterfly effect I've ever found. Think less like, a game, and more like a story generator, world simulator hybrid beast. Please give it a chance for your own joy ;)

Everyone I've met, with no exceptions, when they finally forced themselves down the Dwarf Fortress rabbit-hole and kept going, they haven't regretted it. Their psychiatrist has, maybe. :D

[Pola]

I remember a really old game that was a RTS or turn-based strategy involved splicing animals together, so you'd say have the neck of a giraffe with crab pincers a spiders body and eagle wings or something like that. Can't quite recall the name, but it was on PC probably 1995-2005, around about there.

An even older one that I'm pretty sure was in the 90's I think I played via emulator, possibly SNES, it was 2D sidescroller/platform, where the focus was on evolution but you only play a single entity. You start off similar to spore, I think you were mostly blue, and you went through different biomes, collecting DNA or something like that, fighting some boss creatures and evolving yourself along the way. I think it may have been fairly flexible in how you played, such as a sea or land based creature, or it required you to adapt depending on the level, flight was also possible. Again, it's probably been 15-20 years since I played it, so I can't recall the title.

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One title that I can remember is Monster Rancher 2, this is yet again another old one that I think came out around 2000 or maybe a little earlier on playstation 1. You can get an emulator for it if you can't get a hold of a PSX these days. There are other versions of this game, though I don't know how well they compare. This game is probably closest to niche in the sense of breeding with minimal control/influence on the outcome beyond "genetics".

However, you focus on one creature at a time, training it's stats and fighting in tournaments, a little like pokemon, but it's real-time with 1 axis of movement(left/right) which based on distance from opponent allows you to use different moves/techniques, you unlock those through special training or breeding(and usage of the skill in battle), beyond the battle there is some interactions on the ranch, sort of like treating the "monster" as your pet/friend, and a little bit of a story feel(more than niche offers) as you have various conversations, there's also an expedition/exploration event.

You can also generate new monsters from "disc stones", which was via CD-ROM discs, music, data, movie, whatever as long as the game could read data off the disc, it'd be able to generate a monster, sometimes you would find it's not available to generate until you unlock that monster type in the game (there's quite a few).

Aesthetics / Breeding wise, there is a primary type and a secondary type of breeds per monster. Sometimes these only amount to "skins" of the secondary type changing the colour of the primary type body/shape, but quite a few times you can also find neat blends/mixes where it has more influence.

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I realize none of those are on Steam, they're just too old. I believe I have played some others that might be relevant but nothing else coming to mind right now.

If you like puzzles and the theme of genetics, then I think there's a pretty nice one called Splice, should be on Steam.

There's also Plague Inc, which you've probably heard of, you play as a variety of virus types(one per playthrough, unlocking them as you go), and evolve to spread across the world until everyone is infected, before they can research a cure. This has some additional fun modes to unlock later, Planet of the Apes style virus, Vampires, Zombies, etc that change up the gameplay adding a bit more strategy to it.

[Pola]

Incredipede might be kinda relevant, but isn't really genetics/breeding oriented. More of a side-scrolling puzzle, but you are some weird creature with limbs you can manipulate the number and length of, then you try to maneuver the level via physics.

Massive Chalice was another title in my library, that vaguely applies. It's just humans having kids to keep the game going, who train and become a class of warrior to go on missions(turn-based strategy) with a little story. Plenty like that though, so probably not exactly what you're after.

[Mickmane]

Talking about games from way back when the Earth was still flat, there was SimLife in the 90s.

Looking for a review or summary, I see it might also be SimEarth that I remember. Here's some pages I found about both (but didn't read more than the beginning of):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimLife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimEarth

What I remember most is the "O-la-LA" sound it sometimes made. :)

[Vndtta]

Originally posted by Pola:

An even older one that I'm pretty sure was in the 90's I think I played via emulator, possibly SNES, it was 2D sidescroller/platform, where the focus was on evolution but you only play a single entity.

I remember that one! It was called Evo.

[Ocelotus]

I'll have to look into all of those! I've just gotten into Creatures Exodus from GOG. Very steep learning curve, but with three different active discords and a website of people willing to help. The genetics editor mod is overwhelming and awe inspiring! I have high hopes for it.

[OpticalShadow]

Originally posted by Vendetta:

Originally posted by Pola:

An even older one that I'm pretty sure was in the 90's I think I played via emulator, possibly SNES, it was 2D sidescroller/platform, where the focus was on evolution but you only play a single entity.

I remember that one! It was called Evo.

Evo Search for Eden, was a fantastic snes game.

[DizzieDawgie]

Originally posted by UnfunnyBone:

Someone out there must know of games that have genetics as a factor on Steam!

Not on Steam, but rarebreedgames.com has a couple web-based breeding games that make extensive use of genetics.

For example, their Dog Breeder Game ( dogbreedergame.com ) has a very extensive dog genetics implementation, with 60 dog breeds (with more on the way), over 80 diseases (including both genotype and phenotype genetic diseases along with conformation diseases). For just dog coats and color alone they've modeled 15 genes with 42 loci. Also modeled are 62 conformation traits and 26 personality traits.

Now imagine the fun you'll have breeding dogs with select traits for showing in their Dog Show and Sports competitions, or to supply dogs to NPCs wanting the perfect family pet, hunting dog, or water-rescue dog.

Fair warning: it's Free2Play with a premium currency you can buy with real money and an "energy" mechanic that means you can only play for so many "turns" before you have to wait a while to play more.

I described the Dog game here, but they also have a Reptile Breeder game and two "under development" games, one for breeding Guinea Pigs and one for breeding Dragons.

[mikeydsc]

Rues is not quite genetics but it has similar stitching together of things to progress and get higher and higher scores to move onto next world.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/222730/Reus/

There is also a clicker called Cell to Singularity

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977400/Cell_to_Singularity__Evolution_Never_Ends/

[DizzieDawgie]

"Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition" is a new game on Steam that came out yesterday that claims to let you "Breed your own horses with an in-depth genetic breeding system". It might be worth a look. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1166860/Rival_Stars_Horse_Racing_Desktop_Edition/

[DizzieDawgie]

Originally posted by DizzieDawgie:

"Rival Stars Horse Racing"

Never mind. There is nothing "in-depth" about that breeding system.

[SoupZorg]

Originally posted by Jenka Wolf:

I'm looking too... I've tried Equilinox and I'm not finding it as good a niche. I'm looking into the Creatures series on GOG at the moment.

I literally grabbed this game because of playing the creatures series. This game is what Creatures wanted to be but with a vaster world and superior genetics. I would not be surprised if the trilogy inspired niche. :)

[Strategy Informer]

@SoupZorg huh wut.. Creatures and this seem nothing alike. I played creatures to death way back when and from what I know about this its not even the same type of game. Fond memories of creating norns who where addicted to coffee and liked being slapped.

[zvinija]

i know its not on steam but in facebook,but there is this game you can play if you are willing to agree to the text that pops up every 30 days asking you to spend an actually not that big amount of money to play for 30 more days,and it is mainly focused on breeding.it also has quite a lot of genetics there too,it should be obvious...but incest is nothing there,its the same as breeding two completely unrelated animals,and you can only breed animals of the same species(there is cats,dogs,birds,farm animals,fish,rodents,and more!even dinosaurs!),so no hybrids.