The Sapling
The Sapling is a simulation game where you design your own plants, animals, algae and fungi, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!
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Planetary Life on Steam
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Manipulate climate, add plants and evolve creatures in this planet and life sandbox simulation game. From cells to civilizations, spread life throughout the whole planet. Or just enjoy watching your creation burn!
Planetary Life is a god game, sandbox and simulation game
developed and published by Sotenbox.
Released on August 15th 2025 is available on Windows, Steam Deck and Steam Machine
in 9 languages: English, Spanish - Spain, French, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian and Japanese.
It has received 917 reviews of which 862 were positive and 55 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 11.79€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Planetary Life into these genres:
God Game
Sandbox
Simulation
Science
Strategy
Nature
Education
Procedural Generation
Life Sim
Relaxing
Management
Colony Sim
Cute
Resource Management
Funny
Family Friendly
Atmospheric
Space
3D
Colorful
Here is the detailed breakdown of supported languages for Planetary Life:
| UI | Subtitle | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | |||
| German | |||
| French | |||
| Italian | |||
| Spanish - Spain | |||
| Simplified Chinese | |||
| Russian | |||
| Japanese | |||
| Portuguese - Brazil |
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Planetary Life through various videos and screenshots.
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: 2.8 GHz Dual Core or equivalent
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 560
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Steam Price & Best Deals
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Let me start this by saying that I do actually like this game, but I'm going to be listing what it's lacking more than what’s good, because it is just lacking that much (at this point in time of development) This is a SPORE-esk game. I loved SPORE growing up however so far, this seems to stop at creature level. You don't swim around in a primordial soup in the beginning like you did with SPORE but this isn't SPORE am I'm perfectly ok with that. However I do find myself wishing for the level of creation that SPORE had. The ability to create the creatures atm is very limited and they all come out just.....bad looking. Nothing looks right or normal about the creatures yet. Their bodies dont work quite right, the legs really are always wrong, and your choices for creating a variety of creatures really does run out very quickly. And since creature creation is as far as this game goes at the moment, that means there really isn't much game time yet. The creatures always look creepy. Their bodies always look very compact, their legs are never really under them and lifting them up, they clip together all the time, movement just does not look well with this game. And they do all move sort of the same. A lot of the body parts just look....wrong. For example, the mouths are too long and narrow, and you cant adjust the width of them, only the up and down placement and their length, but with the adjustment of the length it adjusts the width in lock with it, so then it gets shorter but now its as narrow as a toothpick. And I can't tell you how many times I've created a creature that should in theory work just fine, but just randomly dies and the game will NOT tell me what is killing them. I long dearly for the level or creativity you could express in SPORE with the creature creator. Also, evolving and de-evolving certain aspects of creatures and plants is sooooo needlessly exhaustive. Let me click the branch icon, then click the evolve icon, then click the next level up icon, then click the check mark. Rinse and repeat SIX TIMES for every single plant you want to evolve to full amount of branches. Want to get rid of a needless or overly redundant thing? Click it, click to upgrade, click devolve, do this however many times as is required to get it back far enough into the evolution where you have multiple choices, then go through the entire process to evolve it back up into the version you want. It would be FAR easier if I just got to select the number of branches, or just be able to select from all the legs instead of having to go through the entire evolution/de-evolution-re-evolution process. I would say that my favorite part of the game is probably actually the plant terraforming, which again, is not to the level of SPORE in many ways. I do like the ability to adjust the rain and reflectivity of a planet, but also thats about all there is to is. (Why is the rain like only at the equator too?) And it is SUCH a pain to try and do edits to the land when the CLOUDS are blocking your view. (Side note, the zooming feature needs to be reworked because I’m either zoomed way far out or have my face smooshed into it) The planets all seem very small and the tools are very large so you can’t do any *real* creative work with the planets. The best you can do is make either a couple of continents or a bunch of very small islands. If you have a large enough continent, you might be able to put a huge lake in the middle of it, but nothing like rivers or anything. The tools for adjusting the altitude are too large even at their smallest settings and make big and very sharp changes, even the smoothing tool. And the land shifts so much while you're trying to do anything with it. Im wondering if this uses like a sand table mechanic of some sort. You try to adjust the height of something but then sit there for a few minutes waiting for land you didn’t touch to stop shifting around so you can see the actual effect of your editing. But the topography doesnt seem to be able to be varied correctly compared to the water. So your oceans have to be very deep and your land extremely tall with cliffs down to the ocean if you want any real amount of land above water. Idk, overall, it's too generalized. Most of the other tools seem generally pointless. Maybe the air quality tools will come more in handy in the future, but as of this moment, the only one worth touching is the vacuum one occasionally. The water tools work exactly like the topography tools, that is to say that they’re a bit of a pain, but they get the job done. I haven’t used any of the fire tools. They cause destruction, that’s it, without a reason. The Earth tools (topography tools) are by far the most useful, but I've already stated their few issues. Half the life tools are rather pointless. I mainly just use the mutation tool, the reproduction tool, the place life tool, and the pickup creature tool. The others I never touch. I don’t’ use the pickup plant or fungi tool because I can just evolve them manually once they’re on land. Healing creatures is pointless because they will just die again the second you look away. Idky you'd use the repeal creatures from an area tool because like I said, the planets are already very small and space is limited. I did have fun randomly joining two creatures together and seeing what popped out the other side for a while. (Done with the creature pick up tool). I will say though that they always seemed to take on the lower body form. They might end up with two sets of eyes, but if one didn't have a mouth or if one had more body segments, they ALWAYS lose the extra. At least, I've noticed that to be the case with the things evolving in the oceans. Join a mouth and head segment with a head segment that has eyes? You get just another head segment with eyes, without the mouth, in a color that comes from mixing the two original colors. You join a head with eyes with a head with a body segment? You get a head with eyes in a different color. ALL OF THE ABOVE SAID THOUGH, I actually think this game is starting off strong. I really hope that the developer keeps up with it and really fills out the essence of SPORE but with modern technology and game engines. I hope we get some better mechanics and more personalization in the creative aspect of the game, and more body parts. I hope we get a few more customizing tools and better/faster ways of choosing body parts. I hope that this developer really sticks with it and makes a fully launched game and this doesn’t get stuck in Early Access H*ll. I eagerly look forward to what this develops in to. I have high hopes for it.
While the simulation of evolution is fun to watch on you first free mode run, you quickly realize that the organisms instead of adapting to the environment and players actions seem to dive head-first into non-sensical evolutions. The game tries its hardest to wipe your first organisms out in the beginning and later treats you the player like some social welfare agency to keep them alive. This is not how real evolution works, and real evolution would be much more interesting to a player. Rather that the player and the environment having to cater to life, life should adapt on its own and search ways to survive in a world that is hostile to it (especially if the player adds more stress to it) until a certain threshold is reached for inhospitality. I really love all the environmental considerations the game takes, but I fear that it will take the spore approach with the coming civilization update now before evolution has been properly fixed and the editor for organism allowing more freedom to customize your organism. (Currently in my world I have fish flying over terrestial land, with the only difference they have to their aquatic counterpart is that they carry spikes on their butts. Biodiversity is incredibly limited, and too random - as in it doesnt even prioritize adaption to new environments and food sources, but experiments before its own needs are even met.) I have seen similar games like The Sapling and Species Artificial Life Real Evolution REPEAT the same mistakes. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING FIX THE EVOLUTION SIMULATION AND GIVE THE PLAYER MORE FREEDOM
I like it! — For an EA game, it gives you enough things and stuff for you to play around with for a while. It's fun to see what life will emerge on your specific world, where it's either thriving or struggling to survive on your death world. I enjoy the planet customisation. While I wish there would be more options for liquids on planets for the more extreme, exotic kinds of like out there (for example, pools of sulfuric acid on a water world that life could grow to become resistant to), the game provides the players the tools to fully customise the layout and climate of your planet. It makes for very interesting combinations with the life that can emerge given the conditions. There are a few minor things that I dislike, however. I feel like at one point all your life becomes super random to the point that your just looking at a stupid assortment of animal parts joined together into one horrific chimera. I understand that a pro of the game is seeing what your single-celled organisms will become many years later, but I feel like there should be a toggleable setting that allows for the evolution to take more linear paths after a briefly random one, or at least change the rates of doing so that there could be defined taxonomic classes on the planet each with a shared trait. I wish there was more cataclysms in the game that could serve as a great stress test for the life on the planet. Sure, you can influence the atmosphere in some ways, but I wish that things like meteors went beyond just incinerating anything in a slight radius where it hits, but also causing impact winters which can change the course of life as you know it on the planet. Overall, this is a pretty solid game! Could have a few additions overall, but for what it is, it's fairly unique in an expanding sea of evolution simulators, and I will certainly be paying attention to this game in the future, especially whenever the civ update comes out.
Think Spore but where you are a god that can interact and shape the planet and all species on it instead of focusing on only one species. Fun game that could use some additional balancing but is very enjoyable for an early access product. The dev is active and adding new features so I am excited to see where this goes!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Planetary Life is currently priced at 11.79€ on Steam.
No, Planetary Life is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 11.79€ on Steam.
Yes, Planetary Life received 862 positive votes out of a total of 917 achieving a rating of 8.84.
😎
Planetary Life was developed and published by Sotenbox.
Yes, Planetary Life is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Planetary Life is not playable on MacOS.
No, Planetary Life is not playable on Linux.
Yes, Planetary Life is playable and fully supported on Steam Deck.
Yes, Planetary Life is playable and fully supported on Steam Machine.
No, Planetary Life does not support VR.
Planetary Life is a single-player game.
No, Planetary Life does not currently offer any DLC.
No, Planetary Life does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Planetary Life does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Planetary Life is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Planetary Life.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 30 September 2026 23:26 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 18 October 2026 15:15 UTC |
| Steam price | 26 October 2026 19:20 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 20 October 2026 07:56 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Planetary Life, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Planetary Life
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Planetary Life concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Planetary Life compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
23
Developer
Sotenbox
Publisher
Sotenbox
Release
15 Aug 2025
Platforms