You know what? The idea of a speculative evolution simulator game is too good to just wait and hope that EA gives a shit. Of course, it will probably need a name that isn’t related to Spore, so the IP Police don’t get pissy.

My idea is that the player can seed a planet however they wish. Whether they want to start from scratch with an alien biosphere, where they can create their own body plans, or they want to start with a “terraformed world,” using organisms from a database that includes Earth organisms (both extinct and extant; extinct life forms will have their most recent reconstruction at the time of the game’s release) and life forms created by them and their fellow players.

To seed a planet, aquatic organisms are required, but terrestrial ones are optional. This is because a lack of aquatic organisms would be more dangerous to a biosphere than a lack of terrestrial organisms. 

To add an organism during the seeding process, the player must also add the organisms that it eats. Though all organisms are subject to evolution, and may evolve to eat other things, they still need to eat now.

The planet’s plate tectonics can either be randomized, or the player can choose the starting locations of subduction zones, seafloor spreading, and hotspots. From there, plate tectonics are run by the computer.

Currents and climate are controlled by the computer, because it’s too much to expect the player to keep track of what causes what changes in climate. All the player does is tweak the organisms to give them adaptations. The chosen adaptations will take time to develop, depending on how derived they are. Extinction can occur if an important adaptation takes too long to develop.

Every distinctive transitional form of an organism will be saved to the player’s library so they can look at it later.

Organisms are organized in phylogenetic trees. Players get to name new species and clades.