Relaxing nature sim 'Equilinox' is out, seems to be a hit with users

I was quite suprised by the cheap price (8.50 €) of the game.
Looks very interesting, I will put it on my wishlist.

Sounds like just the right thing when stressed out from work :)

It's a nice game, but be careful : it is NOT an evolution simulation.

It's much closer to a City Builder, or even a Puzzle game, a little like Reus, where you unlock plants, fungus and animals with very specific tasks.

Instead of roads and buildings, you place grass and animals.

You will NOT see evolution in this game as you are the one placing everything. You make the steps, and a squirrel will evolve from a rabbit, a pig from a ship, etc, if and only if you set the correct environment for the new species to grow, and if you hit the "mutation" button. The only thing is from time to time, a white flower will mutate, giving a blue flower as a "baby".

It's a nice peaceful game, yes, but again, it has almost nothing to do with evolution or simulation of life.

For this, go have a look at Species ALRE (released on Steam Linux this week).
https://store.steampowered.com/app/774541/Species_Artificial_Life_Real_Evolution/


Last edited by Tchey on 30 November 2018 at 3:05 pm UTC

Quoting: TcheyIt's a nice game, but be careful : it is NOT an evolution simulation.

It's much closer to a City Builder, or even a Puzzle game, a little like Reus, where you unlock plants, fungus and animals with very specific tasks.

Instead of roads and buildings, you place grass and animals.

You will NOT see evolution in this game as you are the one placing everything. You make the steps, and a squirrel will evolve from a rabbit, a pig from a ship, etc, if and only if you set the correct environment for the new species to grow, and if you hit the "mutation" button. The only thing is from time to time, a white flower will mutate, giving a blue flower as a "baby".

It's a nice peaceful game, yes, but again, it has almost nothing to do with evolution or simulation of life.

For this, go have a look at Species ARLE (released on Steam Linux this week).

Sounds like you've got some hours into equilinox already.
How is the game progression and endgame content?
The concept looks fresh and nice but how long does it take until it becomes repetitive and boring?


Last edited by theghost on 30 November 2018 at 1:06 pm UTC

Quoting: TcheyIt's a nice game, but be careful : it is NOT an evolution simulation.

I agree it's a nice, well-designed game. But I want to add another point: it's also not an ecosystem simulation.

That is, there are aspects of ecosystems in here, but essentially, plants and animals don't spread through the environment. Instead they form populations that stick to certain areas on the map. Within that area there are some ecosystem interactions, but it means grass doesn't spread and sheep don't go to new areas of the map.

I understand why this is done: the resulting ecosystem would probably be extremely unstable, the situation may be more costly to run, and it would be difficult to present players with incremental goals.

I was disappointed to discover this during game play, as I enjoy this sort of thing. I kept waiting for my seaweeds to spread through the lake and the chickens to spread throughout the lands.

So if you like a nice city-builder style puzzle game with a lovely style (it really is delightful), this game is awesome. For people like me, I will have to take a look at Species ARLE next.

Quoting: theghostSounds like you've got some hours into equilinox already.
How is the game progression and endgame content?
The concept looks fresh and nice but how long does it take until it becomes repetitive and boring?

Yes, i've played about 6 hours to the current version, and made an article and a video (in french) :
https://jv.jeuxonline.info/actualite/55538/equilinox-simulation-eco-systemique-hamsters-transforment-ecureuils

The game progression is quite linear. You start with only one kind of grass, then you unlock sheep, some trees, then some flowers, some algua to turn water into river to add some fishes, etc.

After you complete "tasks" you will unlock a new kind of grass. Grasses are the key to spread new biomes (biomes don't exist by themselves, you make them by planting grass and other plants, each plant spreading biomes in some extend). Then inside this biome you can add new plants, animals or fungus, and you will unlock a new grass after completing tasks.

And again.

The nice part however is soon you have enough to actually have to think about how you want/can colonize empty lands, and how you need to cross biomes to support variety of life forms.