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Preylife Logo
🧬

What is Preylife?

Preylife is a digital ecosystem that demonstrates the emergence of complex evolutionary strategies through simple probabilistic rules.

Key Concepts

  • Emergent Behavior: Complex patterns emerge from simple rules
  • Natural Selection: Successful traits are passed down
  • Nash Equilibrium: Stable states where strategies coexist
  • Evolutionary Arms Race: Continuous predator-prey adaptation
🎮

How to Play

Basic Concepts

  • Watch the ecosystem evolve
  • Monitor population balance
  • Observe emerging strategies
  • Track evolutionary events

Interactions

  • Click entities to spawn more
  • Hover for detailed information
  • Adjust settings to experiment
  • Watch for seasonal events
⚙️

Controls & Settings

Keyboard Controls

  • Space: Play/Pause
  • R: Reset simulation

UI Controls

▶️
Play/Pause simulation
🔄
Reset to initial state
⚙️
Customize parameters

Resources

Static food sources that form the foundation of the ecosystem's energy cycle.

  • Regenerate over time
  • Form natural clusters
  • Create rich and poor areas

Seasonal Blooms

🌱 Primary Clusters
2x energy value
🌿 Secondary Clusters
1.5x energy value

Prey

Herbivorous creatures that consume resources and must avoid predators.

Attributes

💪
Strength (Green tint)
Movement speed & escape ability
🕵️
Stealth (Blue tint)
Predator detection & evasion
🧠
Learnability
Adaptation speed & social learning
⏳
Longevity
Lifespan & metabolic efficiency

Special Abilities

  • Resource Detection: Find food based on stealth
  • Predator Evasion: Flee with speed boost (strength-based)
  • Specialized Escape: Stealth prey use erratic movements
  • Energy Bonus: Gets 20% bonus from resources

Predators

Carnivorous creatures that hunt prey and maintain ecosystem balance.

Attributes

💪
Strength (Red tint)
Hunting speed & capture success
🕵️
Stealth (Yellow tint)
Detect prey & approach undetected
🧠
Learnability
Adaptation speed & hunting tactics
⏳
Longevity
Lifespan & metabolic efficiency

Special Abilities

  • Prey Detection: Find prey based on stealth
  • Hunting Boost: Increased speed when pursuing prey
  • Capture Chance: Based on strength vs prey's stealth
  • Specialized Hunting: Bonuses for extreme traits
⚖️

Energy & Balance

Energy Cycle

Resources → Prey → Predators → (Death) → Resources

🟢 Resources

  • Regenerate slowly over time
  • Create richer clusters during blooms
  • Decay if not consumed
  • Bloom events create migration patterns

🔵 Prey

  • Need 80% energy to reproduce
  • Higher movement cost for strong prey
  • Energy cost for escaping predators
  • Metabolic efficiency improves with longevity

🔴 Predators

  • Need 70% energy to reproduce
  • Gain 85% of prey's energy when hunting
  • Lose 60% energy during reproduction
  • Higher hunting costs for strong predators
🔄

Interactions

Prey & Resources

  • Prey consume resources for energy
  • Resources regenerate over time
  • Seasonal blooms create abundance

Predator & Prey

  • Predators hunt prey for energy
  • Prey develop evasion strategies
  • Both species learn from peers

Population Balance

  • Natural cycles emerge
  • Species adapt to pressures
  • Ecosystem self-regulates

Survival Strategies

Prey Strategies
  • Speed Demons: Outrun & gather
  • Ghost Prey: Detect & evade
  • Adaptive Prey: Quick learning
Predator Strategies
  • Brute Hunters: Direct pursuit
  • Stealth Hunters: Surprise attacks
  • Pack Hunters: Social learning
🧬

Evolution & Strategies

Specialization Types

Specialists

  • Excel in one trait
  • Energy efficient
  • Environment sensitive

Generalists

  • Balanced traits
  • More adaptable
  • Less efficient

Species Conversion

In rare circumstances, creatures can evolve into a different species through extraordinary evolutionary leaps.

Prey → Predator

  • Strength/stealth > 0.6
  • Isolated from predators
  • Extended prey contact
  • Bonus for traits > 0.9

Predator → Prey

  • Strength/stealth < 0.5
  • Isolated from prey
  • Extended predator contact
  • Bonus for traits < 0.1
💡 This mechanism serves as a natural recovery system, allowing the ecosystem to self-regulate without artificial respawning.

Extinction Events

Population crashes can lead to extinction events, triggered by various factors:

Resource Collapse

  • Overgrazing by prey population
  • Resource decay in prey-scarce areas
  • Emergency regeneration triggers

Population Crashes

  • Predator overhunting
  • Starvation cascades
  • Trait disadvantages
💡 The ecosystem can recover through species conversion and emergency resource regeneration.