Niche - a genetics survival game

I set out to create the cutest, most beautiful species I could, only to learn that beauty means nothing if it can't survive. Love alone won't keep a species alive.

This is a game that promises rich genetic mechanisms for you to play with, and then delivers it with awful design. The interface is designed ipad toddlers - big round buttons, as little text as possible, zero shortcuts. As little sound as possible. The creature designs are charming but lack any animation other than head model following your cursor. Everything looks like an unfinished game designed for mobile devices. It will not get any updates either. I had fun with this game, but it's worth a small fraction of its price.

Rogue males keep impregnating my females with garbage genes, so in retaliation I make their young stay far away from the pack and have them pick berries for the rest of the pack before leaving them behind on an island where they'll never be seen again. Nature is beautiful.

One of the most thoughtfully designed genetics games I've seen. The island travel mechanic solves population control in such a nice way that I bet most people who play don't even notice that was a hard game design problem. It's not super realistic, mainly in having single-gene controls for very complex traits like gills or spikes, but the departures from reality seem deliberately chosen to make the experience more enjoyable. The average person who plays this is still going to learn a lot from it. There's even an X-linked gene. I also like that the game saves on exit automatically, so that don't have to remember to click "Save" all the time. So nice to have that taken care of. The rest of the game has similarly good attention to detail. The survival aspect is interesting and cohesive, but maybe a bit on the easy side. Or perhaps I got distracted with the genes and didn't travel the islands as fast as intended. There's still more of the game I haven't reached, so I'll see. This game had a lot of love poured into its creation, and it shows.

Напоминает бюджетный "Spore". Игра использует научные принципы, такие как доминантные и рецессивные признаки, мутации, естественный и половой отбор. Можно скрещивать виды и будут получаться как уродцы, так и красавцы. Сам темп медленный и в игре буквально "ничего не происходит", всё время всё нужно разгонять самому. Графика очень скудная, наверное даже слишком, но за идею и реализацию можно поставить палец вверх. Получил через Humble Bundle, так бы естественно не купил.

i blame this game for my intense interest in genetics since i was like 12

Disclaimer: I was gifted a copy by another steam user (not a dev afaik) Interesting concept. Gameplay was so-so. I wouldn't call it great but it wasn't bad either. Here are a few random thoughts: [list] [*] My hw specs are significantly better than the recommended specs. However, I found the game CTD'd and froze my pc a bit at first. After playing w settings, I found that knocking graphics to lowest settings had no effect. But running in windowed mode and reducing game res to 1024x768 despite my desktop res being 1920x1080 made the game much more stable for me. Considering that I have played much more graphically intensive games than this without issues, I think there are probably some bugs with their fullscreen mode. Also, I suspect that your character's heads tracking the mouse could be part of this so I am really disappointed that there is no option to turn off the heads following the mouse behavior. [*] Basic game format is similar to a CRPG but instead of humanoid characters you control animals called "nichelings" and instead of a "party", you have a "pack". Instead of "nichelings" having "health"/HP, they have a short life span ("age") and taking damage basically shortens the total lifespan. No MacGuffins or big plots here. Main goal (for story mode anyway) is for your descendants to eventually make it back to the home island. [*] Like some CRPGs, characters move in a hex pattern. But honestly movement in this game got progressively more annoying to put up with as put more time in with it. First, you can't click just anywhere in the hex to move but only within a little circular icon in the center of the movement tile that has a blue paw icon most of the time... which is easy to miss when you zoom all the way out. You also do NOT get a minimap. And if you have played CRPGs with nice features like selecting some/all of your party then clicking somewhere on the map and having them move as far as they can each turn unless interrupted... then, like me, you'll be constantly wish that this game had that kind of system. NOPE. Instead you get to click each nicheling one at a time and try to click the small action icon inside a specific tile every turn. IMO this grows very tedious after you have put in a large number of hours. Really wish this game had a more refined movement system. [/list] Also, I know some people dgaf about achievements so listing random thoughts on those separately for easy skipping (may contain minor spoilers): [list] [*] There are at least 2 achievements that involve playing the RNG gacha/lottery. I really hate achievements like that bc there is no player skill or accomplishment involved. Except maybe the patience and determination to overcome monotony... but the whole point of games is that they're supposed to be FUN. So IMO RNG cheevos should gtfo of the gaming industry. [spoiler] There's 1 for breeding a pair of twins, that one wasn't too bad. There's also one for breeding a pair of identical twins... that one was a royal pain in the behind and I had to have bred well over a 1000 offspring before I got that one to unlock [/spoiler] [*] One of the achievements has an extremely misleading description that leaves out some very important qualifiers [spoiler] "Globetrotter" description fails to mention that a) it must be completed in story mode, b) it is bugged (if forum and my experience are to be believed) such that you need to meet all of the requirements in ONE SESSION (no save and continue later), c) while not required I also find it annoying that there is no in-game mention of the current map's name despite there being in-game references to them by name from the Whale Island and elsewhere [/spoiler] [*] At least 2 other achievements have other misleading details [spoiler] IIRC, both the "Racoon" (their misspelling not mine) achievement and one of the named breeding cheevos have setups where even if you look up the exact requirements online, there is some part of the combo where one of the genes needs to be in a very specific gene slot (think like it says "you need x type paw" but actually its "you need x type RIGHT paw") [/spoiler] [/list]

I have evolution based autisim and I saw a youtuber play this years ago which is what initially made me get the game. I find the critters to be cute, it took me a minuet to get how the genes thing worked but I really enjoyed how I got to see my little group of critters grow.

Chill but also high stakes, worth buying

its okay i guess. only played it for like 30 minutes