Games like The Sapling

Chasing that replayable and relaxing feeling you got from The Sapling? Give these games a try when the craving hits.

Planetary Life
Shape a dead planet into a living world. Move mountains and seas, tune the climate, then seed cells and watch them evolve into plants, animals and strange chimera of your making. Guide every step or sit back and see what 50,000 years cook up. A calm, colorful sandbox for anyone who ever wanted to play at being a very patient god.
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
94% of 948 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 17$11.99
Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution
Play with evolution! Species: ALRE is a scientifically-grounded, emergent simulation of natural selection. Creatures evolve and speciate in response to in-game mutation and selection forces, allowing you to experience and tinker with evolution in real-time.
Replayable, Relaxing
73% of 975 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 1$19.99
Ecosystem
Seed a simulated ocean with random creatures and watch evolution do the rest. They learn to swim, hunt, mate and adapt while you sculpt reefs, tune their DNA and track the family tree. Slow, strange and oddly relaxing.
Replayable, Relaxing
76% of 611 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 4$19.99
Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox
Polygons eating polygons eating polygons. An evolution sandbox where the genetics really are simulated. Seed a world, walk away, and come back to species neither of us designed. Watch populations boom, bust and go extinct. Best left on a second monitor.
Replayable, Relaxing
53% of 98 Steam reviews are positive$0.76
Equilinox
Equilinox is a relaxing nature game where you build your own ecosystems from scratch. Place plants and animals, keep every species happy, and spend earned points on genetic tweaks that turn ordinary sheep into bouncing rainbow oddities. Gentle music, low-poly cuteness, and a world that grows at your pace.
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
93% of 2,608 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5$9.99
Birthdays the Beginning
The origins of the world are yours to decide in this engaging and open-ended builder experience! Shape the geography, control the temperature, and give rise to diverse lifeforms. Witness the birth of an entirely new ecosystem, made with your very own hands!
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
63% of 903 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 4$19.99
Thrive
Start as the first spark of life on an alien planet and steer your species across billions of years. Build your microbe from real organelles, hunt or photosynthesise your way to survival, and watch rival species evolve against you. A calm, science-driven evolution sandbox where every run plays out differently.
Replayable, Relaxing
92% of 1,726 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 21$4.99
Creatura
Seed, Breed, Create. From single cell organisms to complex ecosystems. Evolve every part of your own unique aquarium / terrarium by applying scientifically accurate principles of natural and artificial selection, in Creatura - ultimate Virtual Evolution Vivarium Simulator.
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
67% of 219 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 1$14.99
SPORE™
Grow one species from a tidepool cell to a starfaring civilization, shaping its bodies, huts, trucks and starships along the way. Five short stages keep changing what you do, and your earlier choices follow you forward. It is bright, silly and easy to pick up.
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
92% of 67,348 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 751$19.99
Gridworld
Gridworld is an artificial life and evolution simulator. Watch creatures evolve through natural selection as they learn to find food, avoid danger, and compete with other creatures for survival.
Replayable, Relaxing
85% of 238 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 1$1.99
Strange Seed
You start as a blob that fell from a very unusual tree. Eat DNA, evolve new body parts and build your own creature from over 40 species, then take it through forests, beaches and volcanoes to fight bosses that hit back. A colorful creature-evolution adventure where the build you make is the game.
Replayable, Cute
85% of 456 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 15$14.99
ANLIFE: Motion-Learning Life Evolution
A relaxing evolution simulation where AI-driven block creatures move in unexpected ways. There are no complex ecosystems—just pure movement learning through a physics engine. Watch as these creatures scurry, stumble, and evolve in their own unique, unpredictable ways.
Replayable, Relaxing, Cute
83% of 168 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 3$13.99

Cheaper than The Sapling

Planetary Life

Terraform a barren world, tune its climate and watch the life you seed evolve across millennia, all at your own unhurried pace.

$11.99

Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox

Polygons eating polygons eating polygons. An evolution sandbox where the genetics really are simulated.

$0.76

Thrive

Grow a microbe into a species, choosing every adaptation as your alien world changes around you.

$4.99

Equilinox

Fill a low-poly landscape with plants and animals, balance each ecosystem, and unlock genetic quirks that make your creatures wonderfully strange.

$9.99

Creatura

Seed, Breed, Create. From single cell organisms to complex ecosystems.

$14.99

Gridworld

Gridworld is an artificial life and evolution simulator. Watch creatures evolve through natural selection as they learn to find food, avoid danger…

$1.99

The Bibites: Digital Life

Digital life that actually evolves. Bibites are tiny creatures with neural network brains and genes of their own: set up a world, let natural…

$9.99

Strange Seed

Eat DNA, grow new body parts and fight your way from forests to volcanoes as the build you design.

$14.99

ANLIFE: Motion-Learning Life Evolution

A relaxing evolution simulation where AI-driven block creatures move in unexpected ways.

$13.99

Heliopedia

A fictional universe sandbox/exploration game. 🪐☄️✨ Shape your own solar system by terraforming planets.

$4.99

DinoSystem

A living prehistoric ecosystem that does not revolve around you.

$7.99

Vilmonic

Vilmonic is an artificial life simulator and genetics and evolution sandbox game.

$14.99

Hidden gems like The Sapling

Planetary Life

Terraform a barren world, tune its climate and watch the life you seed evolve across millennia, all at your own unhurried pace.

$11.99

PolyPine

Plant a few seeds, watch a living woodland take shape, and gently nudge the animals that call it home.

$8.99

The Bibites: Digital Life

Digital life that actually evolves. Bibites are tiny creatures with neural network brains and genes of their own: set up a world, let natural…

$9.99

Simultree

Simultree is a short incremental game about monitoring life simulations.

$6.99

Strange Seed

Eat DNA, grow new body parts and fight your way from forests to volcanoes as the build you design.

$14.99

ANLIFE: Motion-Learning Life Evolution

A relaxing evolution simulation where AI-driven block creatures move in unexpected ways.

$13.99

Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar

Play as Animals, Live in Nature! Multiple game modes include Realistic Lifecycles, Survival, Sandbox, Fantasy and Exploration.

$14.99

Ecopunk

Ecopunk is a survival and colony management simulation game set in a post-apocalyptic world.

$22.99

Wildmender

Bring a dried-up world back to life, one canal and one strange plant at a time, alone or with friends.

$8.49

BioEden

As a Keeper sent by the Cosmic Collective, you turn a barren planet into BioEden: recycle debris, wire up solar power and water, clean rivers and…

$21.99

Sipho

Sipho is an action survival game with an intricate building system. Grow your own creature and take over the local ecosystem.

$17.99

Creature Crafter

Design creatures from body parts, watch them come to life, and explore open worlds with friends.

$7.99

Newest games like The Sapling