What is Wilden Dawn?
TLDR: An evolution simulation where you follow (and soon control) animals in a world with no predefined species. Everything emerges from genetics. Species evolve, mutate, and go extinct in real-time. Energy cycles from soil to plants to animals and back. Your actions spread through your species, letting you subtly guide evolution itself.
An Evolution Simulation and a Multiplayer Video Game
Wilden Dawn is an evolution simulation where digital life evolves continuously, whether you're watching or not.
Nothing Is Predefined
No species is predefined. Everything emerges from genetics and survival.
Each organism has a unique chemical composition made up of elements like oxygen, carbon, iron, sulfur, calcium etc. These compositions determine everything about them: their energy needs, what they can eat, who they can mate with, and which species they belong to, both animals and plants.
Species form automatically when organisms with similar genetic compositions group together. The simulation doesn't have "lions" or "rabbits" defined in code. Instead, it clusters organisms by genetic similarity. Two organisms with nearly identical compositions are the same species. As genetics drift through mutations and generations, organisms diverge. When enough genetic distance accumulates, new species branch off.
This means species constantly shift. A successful species might split into two as populations adapt to different regions. Mutations push genetics in different directions. Over hundreds of generations, what started as one species becomes several, each specialized for their own survival strategy.
Watch Any Life
You can follow any individual animal in the world. Watch them hunt, flee, reproduce, and die. Switch between animals freely. Leave and return days later to find descendants of the animals you followed, or discover your entire species has gone extinct.
Every organism is unique, living its own life, with its own genetic makeup determining its traits: size, speed, energy capacity, reproduction rate, lifespan, mutation tendency and much more. No two animals are genetically identical.
Evolution Never Stops
While you play, or while you're away, evolution continues. Species have a chance to mutate with each generation. Beneficial traits spread through populations. Unsuccessful lineages die out naturally by the rule of "survival of the fittest". New species branch off from existing ones. Predators and prey evolve in response to each other in endless evolutionary arms races.
You might play a small, fast herbivore one day and return to find their descendants have grown larger and slower, adapted to new food sources. You might see your species thrive and dominate vast territories. Or you might return to find them extinct, outcompeted by a more successful species.
Mutations drive this change. Every offspring inherits genetics from both parents, blended and mutated. Most mutations are small adjustments: slightly more energy, a bit longer potential lifespan. Occasionally, large mutations create dramatic variations. Over generations, these changes accumulate. Species drift apart. New survival strategies emerge.
The Energy Cycle
Energy flows through the ecosystem in an eternal cycle. Elements in the soil feed sessile organisms, the plants. Motile organisms, the animals, feed on plants and on each other. When any organism dies, its chemical composition returns to the soil, feeding the next generation of plants.
This creates a closed loop where energy constantly transforms but never disappears. Populations rise when energy is abundant. They crash when resources grow scarce. Predators flourish when prey is plentiful, then starve as they deplete their food source. Balance is delicate and constantly shifting.
Survival and Death
Organisms die from starvation, old age, predation, or disease. Diseases spread between organisms with genetics suitable for the disease, adding unpredictable threats to the ecosystem. A successful species might suddenly face a plague that targets their specific genetic profile. Resistance evolves, and the cycle continues.
Animals make decisions based on their needs and knowledge. They remember which foods gave them energy and which drained it. They learn which species are dangerous and which are safe. This knowledge spreads through populations and passes to offspring, creating cultural adaptation alongside genetic evolution.
Fear drives social behavior. Organisms feel safer near others of their species, forming loose groups that move together. When threatened, they flee. When hungry, they hunt. Their decisions emerge from simple rules, but create complex, lifelike behavior.
Following Life
Right now, you can follow any animal in the simulation, tracking their entire life as they navigate their world. Click any organism to follow it. Click the "following" label to jump to a random animal anywhere in the world.
What's Coming Next
Soon, you'll control them directly. Move where you want. Choose what to eat. Decide whether to fight or flee. Find a mate and reproduce. Lead a flock or wander alone. Play as a predator stalking prey, a herbivore foraging in peaceful meadows, or a social animal leading their flock.
Your actions will subtly shape your species' future. Keep your animal alive longer and it reproduces more, passing its genetics forward. The knowledge you gain spreads to others in your species. Other individuals will pick up your behaviors, learning from your successes and failures. Where you lead, others may follow. Your choices in mates influence which traits propagate.
This influence blends across the entire species. Multiple players controlling different individuals of the same species will each contribute their strategies and discoveries. The species as a whole adapts through this collective knowledge, creating an emergent playstyle unique to that species. Over time, playing strategically can guide a species toward survival, while careless play might drive them toward extinction. You become part of natural selection itself.
The simulation doesn't pause when you play. Evolution continues around you, responding to your choices and to millions of other interactions happening simultaneously.
Track Your Impact
Leaderboards will track your legacy across species:
- Which species you've played and how they fared
- How many offspring you've brought into the world
- How many animals you've killed
- How many different species you've experienced
- Which of your lineages survived the longest
- Whether species you played dominated the world or went extinct
- Which other users have contributed to the same species as you
You're not playing against others, you're participating in evolution itself. Your choices ripple through generations. The species you play might thrive or collapse based on how you live, reproduce, and adapt.
An Ever-Changing World
When all life goes extinct, the world resets. New random genetics spawn a completely different ecosystem. New species emerge. New evolutionary paths unfold. Each cycle is unique, driven by chance and the emergent consequences of countless individual decisions.
Wilden Dawn isn't scripted. Nothing is predetermined. The world evolves based on genetics, energy, reproduction, mutation, and survival. You're not following a story someone wrote, you're watching evolution unfold in an ecosystem that never stops changing.