From the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex to the ocean-dwelling orca, Ecosystem Architect gives you the power to control what inhabits your world. What would happen if an elephant shared it's habitat with a Spinosaurus? As the player, you have the power to find out - and influence the outcome.
If you're more of a botanist, flora is just as important of a factor when constructing your ecoysystems. You'll need to strike the proper balance between plants, herbivores, and carnivores, or else it all could fall apart. And remember - not all creatures are created equal.
With over 20 species available and more to come, every choice you make can lead to a thriving ecosystem, or one that is thrown into chaos.
Ecosystem Architect gives you the ability to play in whatever sort of biome you would like. Whether it be a terrain inspired by the likes of real life locations, like Yellowstone National Park, or an original one carefully crafted from scratch, you have full control of the setting of the story you're building.
Most game modes include a powerful terraforming toolset as well. This allows you to raise/lower terrain, smooth terrain, or paint the terrain with new textures. But be careful - altering the terrain could impact the flow of rivers and lakes, which make have ripple effects on the local wildlife.
Another important aspect of any biome is of course, the weather. Seasons naturally come and go across most of these maps, bringing with them changes in temperature and rainfall. Weather can influence some creatures and how they act, so make sure you keep an eye out for that.
You have three available game modes to choose from:
Campaign - Inspired by real-life conservation efforts and ecological studies, these levels are meant to give you a challenge with a designated goal in mind. Each campaign will give you some objectives at the start, such as growing a specific creature population or naturally reintegrating a species into an environment, which you will have to strategically figure out how to accomplish given your resources. Completing a campaign level will unlock special rewards which you can use in the other game modes.
Challenge - Carefully craft and grow your environment over time with limited resources and ability to directly influence your ecosystem. Figure out how to create a thriving ecosystem with any combination of creatures that you would prefer. Shape your vision in this mode designed to be a mix of creativity and strategy.
Sandbox - A true creative experience. Unbound by resources or terraforming limits, create the ideal world for your creatures with ease.
Resource Management - There are 14 resources that will be used to craft creatures. Every creature has a production value, which gives you passive resources over time, so you need to be strategic about what creatures you have in your ecosystem in order to progress quickly.
Adaptations - You can use DNA in order to adapt your creatures. These adaptations improve your creatures stats, and some have the potential to improve the species' AI as well.
Environment Upgrades - You build up 'Conservation Points' from keeping your environment balanced over time, as well as through releasing creatures to the external wilds for conservation. Use these conservation points to unlock great buffs or improve your ability to directly influence your habitat.
Simulated Creature Conservation - You will be able to carefully track the current conservation statuses and populations of every species in your game. These change dynamically over time based on a multitude of factors. By releasing creatures into the external wilds, you will get 'Conservation Points' based on the current conservation status of that creature. Your efforts influence these numbers as well, so keep this in mind when building your ecosystem!
Animal Combat - Most combat is simulated based on creature stats and calculations, but you can jump into the important battles and help influence the outcome in turn-based combat, if you choose to. As creatures level up, they unlock powerful moves that might be able to swing the battle in your favor!
