FERALIXby nanonix

Creature simulation / in development

Grown from its genes. Kept by you.

Feralix is a desktop simulation of small creatures. Each one is built from its own genome: its body, its colour, its temper and its ailments. It eats, sleeps, sulks, fights and breeds by its own lights, and it passes all of it on to its young.

See what the genes do Meet the eleven types

In development for Windows and Linux. There is no download, price or release date yet.

Specimen 01 / mammalidle
Type
Mammal
Coat
Fur
Legs
4
Colour
#000000

Drawn by the game's own renderer from the genes of eleven founders, one of each type (world seed 3). No retouching.

01 / Built from genes

No species.
Only genes.

There are eleven types, from mammals and birds to octopuses, slimes and plants. A type sets the range. The genes decide where in that range each creature falls: how long the body is, how many legs it stands on, whether it has wings, horns or a crest, how large its eyes are, and what colour all of it turns out to be.

Three rows of creatures, one column for each of the eleven types: mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, fish, insect, spider, octopus, squid, slime and plant. No two are alike in shape or colour.
Three founders of each type, drawn by the game. The differences within a column are all genetic.
01 / BODY

Built to its genome.

Torso length and depth, fat, frame, neck, the bend of each joint, foot shape, toes and claws. Each is a gene with two alleles behind it.

02 / PARTS

Wings are earned.

Leg pairs, wings, fins, tentacles, antennae, horns, dorsal crests, armour plates and tails appear when the genes call for them, and not otherwise.

03 / NATURE

Looks and temper, one source.

The same genes feed its stats, conditions, temperament and drives. A nervous creature with a heavy jaw is usually both for the same reason.

02 / An inner life

It decides for itself.

Nobody steers a creature. Each one weighs its own state, in this order, and does what that state calls for.

  1. Safety. Flee what could kill it.
  2. Health. Seek help when it is badly hurt or ill.
  3. Survival. Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, sleep when spent.
  4. Bonds. Keep its place in the hierarchy and its friendships.
  5. Growth. Train and learn.
  6. Curiosity. Everything else.

Conditions form from its genes, its surroundings and what has happened to it. There are 538 of them, each with a cost and, now and then, an unexpected benefit. Emotions chain into moods. Rank in the pen runs from alpha to omega, and it shows.

The Research screen for one creature, listing its active conditions and what each one does to its stats, needs, behaviour and fighting.
Research: every condition a creature carries, and exactly what it does to it.

03 / Keeping a pen

Food and water
come from you.

There is no trough. A pen left to itself goes hungry and then thirsty, and the simulation does not soften that. Each type has habitats it suits and habitats it does not; an octopus kept in a paddock is warned about first and suffocates second, which is regrettable and entirely by design.

The Feralix pen: six young creatures in a wooden paddock, each a different colour, with a name and mood above each. Panels on the right show the selected creature's needs, health, rank and environment; the care bar runs along the bottom.
  1. 1Creature tabsEvery creature in the pen, by name and type.
  2. 2Zone and warningsThe zone on show, and anything it lacks for the creatures in it.
  3. 3ConditionsWhat the selected creature is carrying today.
  4. 4The penEach creature drawn live from its genes, with its name and mood above it.
  5. 5NeedsEnergy, happiness, health, hunger, hygiene, oxygen and thirst.
  6. 6Vitals, rank, surroundingsBody temperature and immunity, place in the hierarchy, and the zone's weather.
  7. 7Care barFeed, water, play, clean, heal, rest, train, socialise, groom and comfort.
  8. 8MenuPen, creature, research, breeding, combat, market, codex, awards and settings.

Habitats

A woodland paddock with grass, a shelter, bowls and a log.
Woodland paddockMammals, birds, insects, slimes and plants.
A reef tank with sand, coral and water.
Reef tankFish, octopuses and squid. Nobody else for long.
An arid terrarium with sand and rocks.
Arid terrariumReptiles. Hostile to amphibians, fish and most of the rest.
A wetland habitat with a pond, reeds and mud.
Wetland habitatAmphibians and reptiles.
Two rows of near-black melanistic creatures of many types, and a row of blue and violet axanthic ones.
Rare morphs among 440 founders: black (melanistic, top two rows) and axanthic, which has no yellow or red pigment (bottom row).

04 / Breeding

Colour that breeds true.

Each parent passes on one copy of every gene. Recessive traits can skip a generation and return. A pedigree keeps count of how closely related a pair is.

Colour is built the way skin, scales and feathers build it: a yellow-to-red pigment layer over a blue-to-violet structural layer, darkened by melanin. Yellow over blue gives green, as it does in a tree frog. Young therefore look like their parents, and colour can be bred for over generations. A handful of single genes give rarer results: black, pastel, white, and the axanthic blue that two green carriers can produce once in four.

How the genetics work

05 / The Pit

Sixteen ways
to settle it.

Fights are automatic. The creature chooses every move from its fight style, its genes, its conditions and the skills it has trained. One may only decide whether to send it in.

Every style sets the pace of a fight: an aggressive creature deals more and takes more, a tank deals less and takes less. Six also have rules of their own. An ambush predator hits hardest on its first turn and tires after. A pack hunter grows stronger with each ally. A burrower goes to ground every second turn. A grappler tightens its hold with every unbroken hit. An endurance hunter starts soft and builds. A territorial creature fights hardest at home.

All sixteen styles
The combat screen: the arena, the creature's combat stats with each modifier from its genes and conditions, and a list of opponents.
The Pit: combat stats, with every gene and condition that moves them listed.

06 / Neighbours

A closer look.

Players on the same network find one another without any setup, and an arena and a market run between them. There are no accounts and no central server; each copy of the game is a peer.

One creature's card: portrait, mood, needs and vitals.
One creature's card: mood, needs, vitals and conditions.
The breeding screen listing possible pairs with their compatibility and genetic diversity.
Breeding: every possible pair, its compatibility and diversity.
The codex listing genes, conditions, traits, skills, diseases, consumables, species and equipment.
The codex: every gene, condition, trait, skill and disease.
The market listing food, medicine and tonics with stock and price.
The market: food, medicine and equipment, paid for in gold.

07 / Status

Not yet.

In development. Feralix is being built for Windows and Linux. There is no download, no price and no release date, and this page will say so plainly until there are.

Questions and suggestions are welcome at support@nanonix.net.

Start with a genome.
See what grows.

Open the field guide