The Sapling
Wessel Stoop Developer
Wessel Stoop Publisher
2019-12-12 Release
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Very Positive
(1357 reviews)
Public Linux Depots:- The Sapling Linux [149.82 M]
Running The Sapling for 7 days straight: this is what happenedIt seemed a rather innocent idea: a week before the release of the flower update, rent a cheap gaming setup in the cloud, let it stream The Sapling with random mutations on, and watch what happens. When testing this idea, however, it turned out that there is a lot of time for things to go wrong when streaming 24/7... so everything that can possibly go wrong will eventually: think of memory leaks that only show up after hours of play, or connection hiccups that make the streaming software stop (switched to StreamLabs last moment, which solved everything). It all resulted in many sleepless hours, but also in many fixed bugs.
To make sure that a crash of the game didn't result in multiple days of progress being reset, I implemented a mechanism that made regular backups of the save file. It wasn't needed in the end, but had the unintended side effect that I can now go back to various stages in the 1 week simulation and relive what happened. To share this experience with all of you, I made a video of it:
[previewyoutube=flmm-Y5KePo;full][/previewyoutube]
The next devlog will be an interactive dive into the details of the optimizations I have to make the flower update work; it will be published around a month from now. Follow The Sapling on Twitter or subscribe to the newsletter if you are interested!
[ 2020-10-06 11:15:44 CET ] [ Original post ] The Sapling is a short simulation game where you design your own plants and animals, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!
Features
- Design plants and animals.
- Fast-forward time to and watch the ecosystem work like a charm or slowly fall apart (probably the latter :) ).
- A sandbox mode where you can skip time and turn on random mutation, allowing true evolution.
- An instinct system where you can specify what an animal should do when it hears or sees something.
- A procedural animation system so any animal can perform any animation.
- Procedural music mixed on the fly.
- Everything set up to be easily extended by players.
This looks just like Spore!
Wessel Stoop has wanted to play a simulation game where you can build your own plants and animals, put them in a world, and see what happens since 2002. You can imagine his excitement when Will Wright, the father of simulation games, demoed his latest game Spore to an enthusiastic crowd. When Spore turned out to be all game genres except simulation, Wessel decided he wanted to try to make the game by himself. The Sapling is the result of that attempt.
MINIMAL SETUP- OS: Ubuntu 16 or newer
- Processor: A processor with SSE2 instruction set supportMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities.
- Storage: 150 MB available space
RECOMMENDED SETUP
16.79$ (16%)
19.59$ (22%)
15.11$ (24%)
12.59$ (16%)
4.47$ (78%)
24.87$ (17%)
24.87$ (17%)
5.32$ (79%)
4.24$ (92%)
3.75$ (75%)
16.57$ (17%)
4.47$ (55%)
4.00$ (80%)
25.74$ (57%)
7.68$ (87%)
7.54$ (16%)
8.27$ (17%)
8.39$ (16%)
4.47$ (55%)
4.24$ (92%)
9.98$ (50%)
4.24$ (79%)
5.03$ (16%)
16.57$ (17%)
5.36$ (82%)
12.84$ (79%)
4.87$ (19%)
33.17$ (17%)
12.42$ (17%)
8.47$ (15%)
1.0$ (80%)
2.25$ (89%)
0.56$ (81%)
1.05$ (85%)
9.0$ (70%)
1.5$ (70%)
0.75$ (92%)
30.0$ (50%)
3.52$ (82%)
2.0$ (90%)
1.0$ (90%)
3.6$ (80%)
3.0$ (70%)
2.64$ (82%)
0.6$ (88%)
1.7$ (91%)
5.0$ (80%)
4.0$ (90%)
0.42$ (79%)
6.16$ (82%)
1.6$ (90%)
3.0$ (80%)
10.0$ (75%)
5.22$ (74%)
0.87$ (91%)
3.48$ (83%)
8.0$ (60%)
2.0$ (90%)
10.91$ (22%)
5.0$ (80%)
1.10$ (93%)
13.49$ (55%)
2.99$ (85%)
1.09$ (82%)
1.19$ (88%)
1.09$ (91%)
17.49$ (12%)
11.49$ (71%)
0.99$ (75%)
1.71$ (91%)
14.29$ (43%)
14.99$ (57%)
42.49$ (15%)
1.99$ (60%)
22.49$ (10%)
1.99$ (80%)
1.99$ (80%)
7.79$ (40%)
1.19$ (76%)
1.09$ (84%)
2.49$ (50%)
2.99$ (95%)
3.99$ (73%)
8.99$ (70%)
1.29$ (91%)
2.49$ (88%)
1.19$ (88%)
7.94$ (21%)
15.99$ (20%)
5.99$ (85%)
FANATICAL BUNDLES

Time left:
356354 days, 18 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
11 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
21 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
26 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
10 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
32 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
6 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
6 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
40 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
55 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
33 days, 1 hours, 16 minutes
HUMBLE BUNDLES

Time left:
0 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
7 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
8 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
12 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes

Time left:
17 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes
by buying games/dlcs from affiliate links you are supporting tuxDB
🔴 LIVE
reallylazybear
Redout 2
[No commentary] Driving from home to work 10 times | Arch Linux gaming
banilla__
Art
They/Them | Laid back late night art time | !sounds
rw_grim
Just Chatting
Making Pidgin The Universal Chat Client on Twitch! | C/GTK
elementyle
Path of Exile 2
Loot Patch LOG IN | SSF 90+ Chaos Lich
mir_ppc
Science & Technology
Mir updates their Jellyfin Server 2025-05-01
texasancap
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
We're going on a pilgrimage Oblivion Remastered Stream Begins! #...
canadianbluebeer
Planet Crafter
[EN] [18+] Slugs'n'bugs hunting now. Almost breathable on Hu...
carolineofmaine
Always On
Gaming, Mammoths and Music! classical, country, rock, techno, jazz, b...
nexustix
R.E.P.O.
Modded R.E.P.O. with friends @corixthestarseeker @marvektheelemental @...
tuxramus
Star Wars: The Old Republic
The Old Republic! Server: Satele Shan (Drops Enabled) Commands: !disco...
onibakuman
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
\_( )_/ the tomato is fully ripe - he can speedrun existence
brodieongames
The First Berserker: Khazan
He really is kind of berserk
hypnotik_games
Software and Game Development
Rogue Like Run System - !game !raffle - Raids:
Really Lazy Bear
[No commentary] Driving from home to work 10 times | Arch Linux gaming
sconebonevideo
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Circle Of The Bone! | Castlevania - Circle Of The Moon (Day 2) !nobs ...
certifiedgta
Leisure Suit Larry: Greatest Hits and Misses
Leisure Suit Larry 1: In The Land of The Lounge Lizards (EGA Original ...
N0Viewers
Gaming in Linux!!! Feel free to join and chat :-)
thez3ngarden
Microsoft Flight Simulator
FBW A320 | KLAS-> KLAS | Back to Landing School - Alaska later
radvilardian
Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut
Ghost of Tsushima - Act II on Nobara Linux