How about we get in our digital grass touching for the day? Well, I suppose we can’t just yet, as Polyzonia, an ecosystem sim set in the Amazon rainforest, isn’t out just yet, but it has caught my eye at the very least.
There’s an immediate Spore-like quality to be found in Polyzonia, judging by its trailer at the very least. Not in the birthing of an alien lifeform kind of way, more the starting out with nothing and breathing life into something bit by bit. Everything comes down to clicks. After choosing one of a number of biomes, you add plant life to it here and there. When you’ve got enough of that to start with, you introduce animals, helping them live out their lives. You might click on a capybara so it can poop before you then click on a jaguar so it can eat the capybara.
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It’s even possible to focus on the micro, clicking on individual flowers to help pollinate them, contributing to their cycle of life. Or maybe you prompt some frog spawn hanging on a branch to fall into a river to turn into a tadpole, and subsequently a frog. This is all just the starting point though, as eventually the ecosystem starts to be able to run itself through automation, “until the rainforest can sustain and develop on its own.”
The game’s Steam page makes it sound like the devs are trying to be quite mindful of the flora and fauna in the game, noting that “plants and animals are not decorations, they interact with the world around them and you can influence them.” There is this objectification that happens in video games whereby people create a sense of distance between themselves and what’s on screen, forcing characters and animals alike into particular circumstances because there’s no real-world material consequences. So I’m quite keen to see whether Polyzonia is successful in allowing its animal denizens to live a respectful, even if sometimes dangerous, life.
There’s no release date attached to Polyzonia just yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam while you wait.