Life simulation game

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Life simulator games, or life simulators, are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lives.

A life simulation game may focus on the biological or social aspects of life:

Biological simulations may allow the player to expermient with genetics, survival or ecosystems, often in the form of an educational package; SimLife and Spore for example. Evolution games are a sub-genre of this type of game.
Social simulations base their gameplay on the social interaction between game entities; such as The Sims or any dating sim.

A third type of life simulation are virtual pets; popular examples being Tamagotchi, the Petz series (consisting of the Catz and Dogz series) and Nintendogs, simulations also known as digital pets. These titles are generally more limited than "full" life simulators and interaction with the digital pets are commonly restricted to petting and playing.

1 Example titles
- 1.1 Biological simulations
- 1.2 Social simulations
2 See also

[edit] Example titles

[edit] Biological simulations

Creatures series, by Creature Labs/Gameware Development
Lion — the sequel to Wolf
Odell Lake, a fish life simulator
Science Horizons Survival — an early game which teaches about food chains.
SimAnt — Maxis's ant simulator.
SimLife — Another Maxis game which experiments with genetics.
Wolf — simulates the life of a wolf.
Seaman - simulates the raising of a talking fish with a human face that evolves into a frog-like creature.

[edit] Social simulations

Alter Ego — a personality computer game released by Activision in 1986
Animal Crossing — a life simulator series by Nintendo. It has also been dubbed as a "communication game" by the company.[1]
Eccky — by Media Republic.
Façade (interactive story)
The Harvest Moon series.
Jones in the Fast Lane — by Sierra Entertainment is one of the earliest life simulators.
Little Computer People — by David Crane, published by Activision for Apple II and Commodore 64 (1985)
My Life My Love (Boku no Yume - Watashi no Negai) — a life simulation for Famicom
Real Lives — simulates living a random life from cradle to grave.
Second Life — an Massive Multiplayer life simulator
The Sims — by Will Wright, published by EA for the PC (2000), and its sequels, The Sims 2 (2004) and The Sims 3 (fiscal '09 title).
True Love — (1994), a Japanese erotic dating sim, is unique in the genre for also being a general life simulation game where the player must manage the player's daily activities, such as studying, exercise, and employment.