Exo Keeper is submitted. The game looks and sounds really well, thanks to the great music from Dónall O'Donoghue and the artwork from Tatiana Kondratieva

Does it play well? Well, you'll have to judge for yourself. When we started, we set out to make a game similar to Will Wright's SimEarth, a game that is more considered an interesting simulation than a game (SimEarth was considerably less popular than SimCity, by the same author). And Exo Keeper will probably get similar criticism. But still, unlike SimEarth this game has a neat goal, and you as the player have to take actions towards that goal.

Exo Keeper is a science-based simulation of an ecosystem on an alien planet. This may sound difficult. We tried to make it easier by providing event-based pointers to help you on your way, but I worry that it's probably still hard, here and there, to understand what's going on, why this particular microbe is not growing as it should. I wanted to add more hints, tool tips, and perhaps charts, but that unfortunately will have to wait for a later update.

In Exo Keeper, you turn a barren, frozen world into a lush paradise by intoducing microbial lifeforms. The game is a science-based simulation of an ecosystem, inspired by Conway's game of life, SimEarth and Terraforming Mars.

There is a lot going on in this game, and not everything is clear at first glance. I wanted to explain the thinking behind it, so I put together this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1PgdhizHl0

And of course, here is the game itself: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/exo-keeper