6 new food types I'm adding to the simulation (evolution sim devlog 3-4)
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- I'm working on evolution simulation game The Sapling, my solo indie game project. It's a game where you can basically do two types of things: on the one hand, there are a number of scenarios tasking you to design an ecosystem that meets specific requirements, on the other there is a sandbox where you can build your own plants and animals, turn on 'random mutations', and see how they evolve.
In this video I explain 6 new food types in the simulation
Questions: thesaplinggame.com/faq
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/99...
Itch: woseseltops.itch.io/thesapling
X: / thesaplinggame
Fan initiatives:
* Discord / discord
* Reddit / thesapling
0:00 intro
1:04 bark
1:22 sap
1:50 scavengers
3:18 blood
5:03 filter feeders
7:22 milk
9:49 outro - Ігри
This devlog is actually really breathtaking, seeing all this new content really makes the world of The Sapling feel more alive.
Yes
Definitely WAY better than Species EVER could. No more ugly, eyeless, sausage creatures.
@jaysonklein6018 The species dev is actually really nice and still working on the game. There's no need to pit two wonderful games up against each other.
fun fact! aquatic mammals like dolphins and whales don't carry their young underneath them, but they do boost them up to the surface of the water on their backs, so they don't drown! that would be a very cool behavior if you choose to add it
Just make the kid cling on back if the animal is acuatic
Ha cool didn't know that
@@TheSaplingfired!!
@@TheSaplingYO what about you add some insects
There are insects. @@GuidiBalkan
As a plant-insect scientist, ii can’t wait for this update!
True
I'm very impressed that a plant-insect actually became a scientist!
As we are
@@eddiebendigo7317its a great step for plant-insect kind 🫡
I’m jealous of the people that make these top tier commenta
This guy is a
Musician , developer , cool person , youtuber , calm person , smart person and likes biology
I love it
Can you make it so that the algae can glow? Also maybe add plants that float on top of the water.
Like a Lillie pad?
Yeah, kinda like a lily pad, or duckweed. @@blox4funbrosthecousins
Lilypad
Glowing algae and duckweed, pretty good.
@@blox4funbrosthecousinsmore like pistia stratiotes or limnobium
For the babies riding the mom, it would be cool that depending on the size of the babies, multiple can ride on their back. The baby size could be a thing too, where babies of different species could have a different adult to baby size ratio. You could also make it so babies can ride in their parent's mouth or add a pouch that they can ride in too. It would also be cool if the adults could carry around eggs on their body like some bugs and frogs. Another thing is that it would be cool if you could place body parts of different types in the same spots so that you don't have things like eyes and ears far away from eachother which is something that has been bothering me. You could also have forward facing eyes that don't have to bulge out the side or top of the head this way. Unless it's too intensive on the simulation it would be cool to see those things.
Yes please!
Without making promises, all ideas I like!
I wonder whether carrying eggs and mammalian reproduction would be functionally different from each other at the detail level of this simulation. I guess it could be made different in terms of whether you can pick off the eggs separately from the mothers, and also in that technically the egg carrying job doesn't have to be connected to them mom (and indeed some species have the male protect the egg)
There also are strategies such as animals eating *their own eggs* when it turns out that the current situation is infeasible and they'd rather recoup the costs and try again in better circumstances later. Mammals have a harder time with strategies like that. (Can still happen to some extent though. Some rodents will eat the weakest of their own young to better care for the others for instance. Even those that have a "vegan" diet will do this btw.)
@@Kram1032 Rodent mothers also eat their young if they're overly stressed-out.
@@VioletWhirlwind for the same reason: They feel like they aren't capable of adequately caring for their young then, hoping for a better chance later, as the current situation might endanger both the mom and the offspring if it tried to pull through. Or that's the assumed reason anyways.
Raising kids is a huge commitment of resources and energy after all
The evolution of an evolution game. Looking forward to see all of this in the game
It's mosquito time
Ye
What about, EL MOSCO?
This guy is a f**king master of game development
One thing that would be interesting is a announcement system. Example: (The Fish "Name" begun its life on the land)
The game has that actually! I've never really seen playtesters pay attention though ;)
been a while since i saw something as cursed as a bipedal fly with udders
I wish too bleach my eyes and drink unsee juice (((((((BEEG SIP)))))))
I see people walking worse abominations at the local park
lmao
Love your content as always! How about changing skin types to make an exoskeleton, so that they can defend themselves and look more like insects. Can you also add insect like wings, but they only work at small sizes? Love your work as always!
Without making promises, all ideas I like!
@@TheSapling Thank you for replying! I have a question, do you have a Discord?
Maybe insect legs
5:00 in ants, particularly their larvae too, seeing food in their abdomens is possible. It is entirely realistic for abdomens to show solid food, but they have to be the less armoured kind and extended for the transparency.
It also happens with incredibly small hairless baby mammals, like baby rats and mice! Only the babies tho
Thank you for this knowledge B)
@@TheSapling If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend reading The Superorganism. It’s a brick but one worthwhile in reading and has great insights in how animals develop social and eusocial traits.
For visual indicators of other food types, maybe a body part like a camel's hump which grows bigger/smaller depending on food storage? And providing a similar advantage of being able to survive longer without eating. (Though the actual humps are more for water, it seems like a better equivalent than something like the animal just growing fatter.)
Also, fingers crossed on parasite and other symbionts now that creatures can attach to each other.
I completely agree that they should add parasites and other creatures of that variety
Haha yeah now that I think of it, it's kind of a missed opportunity to have creatures holding each other AND blood as a food source, but no parasites
Actually camels dont store water in thier humps, they use humps to store just fat😊
@@Borkiiborksquitealot That just makes it more accurate, then!
I don’t know how the algorithm brought me to your channel, but I’m so happy it did. I’ve rewatched every single devblog twice now and I’m about to watch all of them again. Your documented insight into what it’s like to solve the unique problems that arise is amazing. As an aspiring game designer, this channel is gold. I’m frothing at the mouth to get this game. I’m almost an adult, but this game is special enough to ask for it for Christmas like a little kid lol
it's lovely wessel listened to the feedback!
even though it's mainly the last devlog's livestream
While player feedback is indeed incredibly important when deciding what goes into the next update, each video takes roughly a month to create, so chat in one video will not influence the next one ;)
“i can't wait to see what you guys do with this new stuff”
Weird people: *laughs with evil intent*
Love the update, and the baby carrying element. Some animals do carry their young on their backs, so perhaps that could be implemented as an alternative. Maybe the tradeoff could be less safety, since the child is more exposed; meanwhile, the benefit is less strain on the parent to hold the child, freeing up their hands. Could see different species taking different routes depending on what is more beneficial.
Right now the choice to have the baby below is simply because it hides the child limbs clipping into the parent ;)
The fact that you've made all this on your own is incredible. I remember when the sandboxwas just the one valley with the lake. It's been great watching this game evolve, and I look forward to playing with the new changes.
what an incredible update! the implications of adding milk as a food source, the possibility of creatures evolving a maternal instinct/bond with their offspring if they have mammary organs, awesome stuff!
After watching the dev logs, I am now more excited for the update than I ever thought I would be! At last our worlds won’t be plains of dirt and clear blue water, and the animals will no longer be bots. The game will look bright, colorful, and truly alive. I’m going to stay with this game till it’s complete and beyond!
I admire! It's really great work. You have been doing it alone. That's incredible!
Amazing game, one of the most ambitious projects i've seen! It would be very interesting to add larvae that occupy a different niche than the adult 🤔
Without making promises, definitely an idea I'm interested in
Like making baby have different instincts and morphology to the adult but with some bounds like same amount of limbs mouths and eyes or something like that
I'm so damn hyped for the update
I love the passion that comes off when you make these vlogs. I appreciate you putting in the effort to consider all these food types, it makes for so much extra potential for biodiversity.
You make the game so much cooler with every update. Also, love the kurzgesagt evolution poster in the background.
You will love tomorrow's video then ;)
I can't explain why, but watching you in nature, just talking makes me relax
Your development progress is incredibly inspiring. Not everyone has the energy and willpower to persist for so long on their own, or make something amazing like this game. Thank you for sharing!
Yes!!!!! I hope this comes out as soon as possible, these updates would make the game way more amazing than it already is!
It’s amazing to see this game evolve with its creations.
I’m really happy you figured out the issues with grass. You replied to a comment I made on an old devlog and I never replied simply because I couldn’t think of a good solution. Congrats!
New to your channel. I'm absolutely loving these dev blogs! I love how you video yourself outside! It adds a different spin and makes you stand out a little more than with typical dev blogs.
I can't wait for this game!
I absolutely love these rapid-fire devlogs the game has grown so much!
I’m so excited for this update and to just wait and see what happens in my own simulation with it
Absolutely loving these dev blogs! I went out searching for evolution simulators a few months back and there really aren't many super detailed ones. Really appreciate the work you're doing!
This vid was recomended to me when it first came out, and i decided to start watching from the begginning.
Im so glad i did, because the progress you have made on this game is truly incredible. While i dont have a PC (only mac), i happily look forward to seeing your continued development!
Is parenting a thing I see? Thats epik now the funi insenct rodent things can actually take care of their children
Would not work for me since patent dies before child hatches.
Yes and no
I looked at the description and it says milk but it also says blood so it could be a parasite cus blood or it could be a child on the parent cus milk
Ohhhh that would be nice, I remeber like 2 years ago I asked him if he could add parasites and he said he would think about it, tapeworm thing go brrrrrr
Looks like it nurses its young too, it has an udder underneath where the baby hangs from. I'm so stoked to see what kind of unique things can come about once this game gets more and more updates.
Not sure if anyones commented on it but I really love how you're just out squatting in nature for half the devlogs.
Haha yeah I don't own a tripod so all of my shots are low to the ground :P
Man, I can't fricking wait for thid to release, I always had problems with The Sapling looking blunt and dry, this will make it feel soooo much more alive I can't even comrehend it!
this is all so exciting!!! I got the game earlier this week and just unlocked the sandbox today - I can see how much this game is just getting better and better
I've been watching your videos for months now and decided to open up steam and buy the game as soon as I saw the baby hanging on to its mother. Thinking to myself "Oh that's cute, I want to see that in game." Then you talked about how "cute things get folks to buy" and basically went "Oh." So you're completely right, throwing in cute things does work!
Haha good to know :). I can see these sort of things very clearly in the stats as well
Great work. Nice to see how this game gets more and more diverse
i bought sapling a few days ago and i can't wait for these updates haha
Oh my gosh, this might be my favorite update yet! I can't wait to play this game in the future, this is absolutely amazing, the animals and ecosystems are starting to feel "real"
Nice you finaly added food type, the perfect way to have speciation and niches. This way you will have a lot of unique species
I'm very excited to see all of these new features be implemented into the game and make it feel more alive (especially the grass)
This looks really great! Having more variety in the food types sounds really interesting and could potentially allow for a lot more niche partitioning among animal species. I'm also looking forward to seeing how the more K-selected animals would work out. And having more algae types in the ocean should look really cool.
Really cool stuff! Side note my favorite real life fossil is the Tully Monster. I think once I buy the sapling I will make a Tully Minster and see how far its lineage can go.
Thanks for introducing me to the Tully Monster! It's amazing how something that looks so weird and alien was alive on our planet at one point!
Ah no problem
These updates have been amazing! I’m so happy for this game.
I love the little references in the body types to Biblaridion's alien biospheres series!
I'm very excited for this update! I haven't played in awhile so I'm gonna be busy seeing all the new features added.
i think that adding visual incidators for what animals are up to and how their doing is a great idea when applicable, great job on this!
So excited for this update!! I have a feeling it's going to overtake my whole life, haha.
Thats actually insane leves of dedication. It's amazing how much you improved!
I bought the game the other day and I have been really much enjoying it. I have spent hours just watching things grow into there own thing
This game has come such a long way, it's one of my favorite things now
Very excited to see all these new features and changes in game :D! I'm looking forward to the vampire bat mouths especially, you've represented them well. Big fan of their cute little teeth and big smiles :3 bats are so cool. I'm gonna have to see how batlike a species I can create in game
Im I the only one that is amazed with all the content in each video?
Like even just the first devlog would make for a great update, but it just keeps piling up cant wait to play it
The only thing I didn't really like is that the abdomens get too big and bright, but that's just my opinion
Thanks, both for the compliments and the feedback!
I‘d love to see a new simulated planet series after this update to see how all of these adaptions play together!
Exactly. The diversity from this update will be immense.
Me too! A possible outcome might as well be that just one of all these new features emerges though ;)
I love that you don’t just show us video of your game, but that you actually go outside and show us the plants and animals that you want to model for your game.
Hey watching your videos inspired me to buy the game and I gotta say it’s super cool so keep up the good work and I look forward to the update!
With each devlog, you show us your love, dedication and hard work into making such a detailed simulation. Keep it up
This all looks really cool! Just one thought regarding K strategy, I think you should really add pouches of some kind, because while giving hands an extra function is good (and I'm loving the marvelously weird idea of alien-dolphins with hands to carry their young), from an evolutionary standpoint passive-carry (a pouch, or like some reptiles and arthropods, carrying their young on their back) would be more advantageous than evolving an entire set of limbs to carry the next generation.
Without making promises, pouches are indeed an idea I like!
I just saw utters and didn’t realise there’s a baby on the mom
Also what wierd is that the baby is one the Character editor with the mom?!
So maybe they will spawn with the mom ❤
cant wait, ur a majestic soul my friend
Honestly the next update would give the depth I was craving (I played in the game a bit but they rarely evolved something more unique than the basic mouth and legs outside of forcing them so that would force them more by the environment
The 6 new foods are blood, filter feeding, milk, tree bark, and sap! And if you think i some how cheated no i didint its in the disc
Bro really spoiled us the contents of this update before the premier even starts
A lot food basen on sucking something, "The suck update"
FILTER FEEDING LESS FUCKING GOO
YEEEEEEE @@Leyva0scarVRL
You chose to read the comments, when the desc also spoils it too. Someone has gotta talk about it, idk what you expected. @@Denneth_D.
9:29 now we just need pouches and then we can have full on kangaroos xD
Seeing as how you seem to have the proper code in place, I'm wondering if it'll be too much of a stretch for parents to carry their babies on their backs, like primates. This would free up the hands of the parents while still boosting the baby's chances of survival from predators (unless the parent gets caught).
I'm also wondering if pouches couldn't be implemented from this system. Like the aforementioned piggybacking behavior, the pouch would serve as a safe place for the young to live in while giving the parent more autonomy. Additionally - as in marsupials - this could serve as a place where the nipples could be attached, so it could possibly an additional nipple part. The one downside is that, if the parents get caught, both parent and baby die.
All in all, I think this very well could be one of the biggest and best updates to the game yet! So much more complexity in terms of relationship and so many more new combinations of animals to make!
Thanks! Both babies on a parent's back and in a pouch would be technically possible, but for now I chose to not do it because (1) carrying babies below hides the fact that the child's limbs are clipping into the parent and (2) I don't really know how I can get pouches to look cute as in most cases it would mostly be a floating head ;). Will definitely reconsider later though
Lampreys are a part of Agnatha, which is a group that includes fossil mouthless fishes, and which also predates jawed fishes, (Gnathostomata)
Agnatha evolved around 500 million years ago and Gnathostomata evolved about 400 million. Pretty cool group of animals.
Awesome, thanks, good to know! My decision makes even more sense in that case :)
So the zooplankton thing got me thinking. With plankton added, I feel like it would be cool to have an option for animals to have life stages. Egg, larva, pupae and adult for example. For sea animals, a plankton stage would simply mean once and egg hatches it looks for neighbouring plankton patches and joins one randomly. If the plankton patch isn’t eaten, then when the game remembers the larva it turns it into an adult (or another form). This would give animals in the sea with life stages more diverse, like the jellyfish and the octopus. Without simulating full small creatures, we can give players the option to use plankton as a womb for their creatures.
Life stages on land would also be cool but quite ressource heavy. I mean now we have to track what stage the animal is and what it looks like at each stage. I don’t really have an idea to fix that.
Anyways the project is looking great! Have been a long time watcher of this channel, I think I’ll finally buy it.
Without making promises, life stages is definitely an idea I'm interested in!
every day that passes make me wonder if predatory plants will ever be added
This could definitely be interesting. In real life, most predatory plants grow in nutrient poor soils and evolved predation as an alternative source of those nutrients rather than as a source of energy. I don't think nutrients are in the game currently, so it might have to wait for that sort of system.
Alternatively, maybe we could have a "spec evo" addition where certain plant parts that harm animals can also give the plant energy. And if we're delving into alternative plant food sources, perhaps we could also have decomposers like mushrooms (even if they aren't actually true plants IRL) or parasitic plants that steal from other plants (which would require a system for allowing epiphytes, though perhaps such a system could be based on a similar sort of code that enables animals to carry babies or perch on plant branches).
Without making promises, it's an idea I'm definitely interested in
Awesome as always! I've watched this video 5 times already, it is amazing to see how much this game has evolved since the first time I played it back in 2021.
I've loved watching this devlog so far and the game looks so good and interesting. I'm already planning on getting it soon
Personally, I think this devlog has a lot of potential, but I think if all the Ecosystems are the same the Fauna and Flora will evolve into the same thing everytime, the only difference being mutation.
Solution (I love your vids btw)
Procedural Made Environments/Biomes that have different combinations of a lot of variables for a lot of combinations/possibilities so you can really see if ur design will survive in the game! or maybe I dont want to mess with ur ideas so I might just make a project on this myself in the future. Anyways I do indeed loev ur videos!!!
what do you mean? there arent any set ecosystems
Each habitat will not be the same as any other habitat
@@Leyva0scarVRL
it's getting more and more beautiful
Hey this was unexpected thanks for adding this!
I personally would like to have a more intuitive way to create landmasses and oceans in sandbox, or even being able to use campaign maps in sandbox
I get this question more often! I chose to do random generation for now because it was faster to realize, but I might revisit that decision later
@@TheSapling ah, understandable. Continue doing gods work mate
2:12😂😂😂
This project has so much potential. Here are some ideas that came to mind after more than 40 hours of play (I don't know if the introduction has already been planned but in any case I hope it can give various ideas):
Algae and plants
1. More complex plant-like editor, adding a floating habitus
2. Possibility to implement a manual transition from algae to terrestrial plant editor
3. Fan leaf for plants (Gingko)
4. Teasing species of plants and aerial roots (mangroves and epiphytes)
5. Carnivorous plants
Animals
1. Increase in the complexity of the "covers" (hair and feathers), adding the possibility of developing spines, as well as a possible third way: osteoderms (armor, shells, etc.)
2. With the addition of arthropod mouthparts, I would also add a similar exoskeleton, articulated limbs and wings
3. A smaller 5th size type
4. Crocodile mouth from which the aquatic one similar to that of marine reptiles can derive, mouths of various dinosaurs
5. Cephalopod tentacles and arms
6. Shell
7. Adjusting the size of limbs, eyes, jaws etc.
8. After adding parental care such as carrying and breastfeeding, I would also add the possibility of brooding
9. Venom structures (snake bowls, spines, tail)
10. Parasites
11. Fossorial animals
Editor
1. Ability to manually terraform from the planet editor
2. Addition of the temperature as a parameter that can be modified directly from the seasons editor
3. Extinction events programmable as periodic (e.g. adding a timer)
4. Volcanoes
All I can say is that I like very single one of these suggestions. Thank so much for writing this all down and organizing it all too :). Also, I wasn't aware of the Gingko leaves, cool!
Him saying zoo o plankton is killing me
Adding more food types and more specialization and speciation? Exactly what the game needed~
The question is have you seen these species evolve naturally?
Not really... so far, the random mutations function is still mostly broken ;)
I'm liking that you did stuff for old meat, blood, and filter feeding.
Also lol to YAGNI and milk.
Very small, insect-like animals are hard to implement because of the exponential increase in computing power required to render them.
But what you could potentially do yo make animals with very small bodies viable, you could take a similar route to what you did with the plankton - once an animal goes below a certain size, it renders as a particle, or perhaps just a single triangle of a specific color.
You would still be able to see and analyse its body in the editor, but not in-game, to make it actually possible to render.
(Speaking of insects, they makes me think of wings! Is that something that has been considere in the future?)
I only discovered this channel and game recently, and don't know much about coding. So of this is something you have already considered and abandoned because of technical concerns I did not myself know of, then I'm sorry for wasting your time.
Thanks for thinking along, I think you are correct! Haven't really decided yet how small I want to go exactly.
Can’t wait for armor and shells to be added, so we can get stuff like terrestrial ammonites with goofy shells, Or wannabe Macroeuphractus (a giant and extinct carnivorous armadillo)
Let’s go!! I have my bet that you will develop the most enjoyable evo sim there!
I like this, I actually wonder how a nutrient cycle would start up with this, considering algae are producing energy via starlight. Are detritovores going to be a part of the eco systems? Similar niches as vultures, isopods, beetles, worms and composting bacteria
Right now there isn't really a cycle, but it's a nice suggestion :)
I think that we definitely need more space to place things like ears and eyes. It is very limited with only 2 spaces on the head. And Im not talking about the head but the body in general. So I hope you look into it and take my feedback into account
Without making promises, agreed!
brilliant and beautifully
Great stuff. A lot of catching up to do.
I'm not sure if this already in game, but having natural disasters that change the course of evolution randomly would be cool. Kind of like how when the asteroid hit earth, only smaller bird-like animals were able to survive the aftermath.
I really do like this idea yes :)
No Idea Why, But the mic change in the start startled me a bit 😆
A suggestions to add more cuteness to baby animals: First, implement a system for neoteny to make them have larger eyes and faces. Second, add more infant vocalizations that seem to indicate they're asking for attention or food/milk. Third, add an assuring brooding sound coming from parents (some kind of constant purring or chirps perhaps) that assure the babies that the parent is around, and making the infant's attention vocalization stop to indicate the baby is assured.
Without making promises, I like these ideas!
So excited for the update! By the way, do you ever intend to create a setting for the maximum number of animals, plants, and algae? I don't run the best system, and my PC starts dying after the 2000 entities mark.
I indeed intend do exactly that as a first step when I'll be focusing on performance again!
Top five cool things you could add
1: fruits that grow on the ground
2:a new food source,insects
3:mushrooms
4: diffrent areas and climates example:tundra,swamp,desert,etc
5:deep water like,midnight zone deep,and animals that specialize in deep water
the climates are dictated by the combination of temperature, terrain, humididty and wind force already
@@Leyva0scarVRLoh,okay
@@Leyva0scarVRL wait, that's seasons,right
Without making promises, indeed ideas I like!
I am actually so hyped for this
Ok new go to work fore the simulator on rendom mutation😅
When are you adding Intelligence and civilisations?
Love the vids
seing as now animals can carry their young that could open the doors to the idea of babys riding on the backs of their parents and not just underneath. it also could lead to pouches like marsupials have.