Free online ecosystem & evolution simulator

Watch life adapt to the world you design

Tiny creatures look for food, flee predators, breed and pass their genes on with small mutations. Change the rules and see which traits survive — generation after generation.

Free · Runs offline as an app · No account needed

Watch life adapt to the world you design

A real simulation, not just an animation

Genes you can inspect

Speed, vision, body size, metabolism, diet, caution and ideal temperature are inherited and mutate. Click any creature to see its genome, lineage and why it acts as it does.

Ecosystems with trade-offs

Speed costs energy, big bodies need more food, sharp eyes cost upkeep. No trait wins everywhere, so the environment decides what spreads.

Experiment and compare

Adjust food regrowth, temperature, seasons, movement cost and mutation live. Every change is logged next to population and gene charts.

Reproducible and shareable

Worlds come from a seed, so a share link recreates the same starting conditions for friends, classes or your own A/B experiments.

How it works

  1. Sense and decide

    Each tick, creatures check nearby food and danger and choose an action by priority: flee, hunt, eat, find a mate or rest.

  2. Spend and gain energy

    Living, moving and sensing cost energy; eating plants or prey restores it. Run out and the creature dies.

  3. Inherit and mutate

    With enough energy, creatures breed. Offspring inherit their parents' genes with random mutations — selection does the rest.

Seven ready-made experiments

Start from a calm garden, isolated islands, harsh scarcity, predators and prey, changing seasons, a mutation storm or sexual reproduction.

Frequently asked questions

Is Digital Life free?

Yes. It runs entirely in your browser at no cost and can be installed as an app for offline use.

Is this a scientifically accurate model of evolution?

It is an abstract, rule-based simulation designed to make natural selection visible and explorable. It is not a prediction of real ecosystems, and the creatures are not conscious.

Do I need an account?

No. Saves are stored in your own browser, and you can export them as JSON files.

Can I use it in class?

Yes. Share links recreate the same world for every student, which makes it easy to compare what different settings do.

Which devices are supported?

Any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone. Desktop handles the largest populations best.

Start the simulation