EvoSquare: The Evolutionary Laboratory

Options Menu
Character
Food
Environment
Home Screen
Unity
Map
Empty Graph

Inspiration

In school, we were learning about Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium and how it describes entire populations through generations. We wanted to create software where people could test out this Darwinian evolution in an engaging, immersive, and friendly way.

What it does

Our project provides users with a clean way to see how changing population characteristics can have generational impacts on the population. Users can manipulate the amount of creatures in the ecosystem, amount of food per generation, speed of the creatures, the vision of the creatures, and the size of the creatures. Then, they can watch the population evolve over 10 generations. Furthermore, the user can watch a 3D graph, displaying the various characteristics of the entire population, evolve over the generations. The interactive and user-friendly UI is perfect for students and teachers who want to learn and teach about natural selection and Darwinian evolution.

How we built it

Blender Unity Github

Challenges we ran into

Creating the random walking algorithm was a significant challenge. Randomness is simple to create with built in random functions but making the movements look organic and natural was a challenge. The final algorithm calculated a point that was accessible by a straight line and took a curved approach to get there. The algorithm also inverted the x and y velocities of an object appropriately to prevent the characters from leaving the boundary region.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Personally we are proud of the assets we created for this project. Utilizing blender, a 3D modeling software, we were able to create adorable characters and an elegant scene. No asset from this project was taken from outside sources.

What we learned

Through this project we gained more confidence working with unity and Git. Because all of us were working virtually we had to figure out a way to collaborate with each other in unity. Utilizing git we were able to create to seamlessly work together.

What's next for EvoSquare: The Evolutionary Laboratory

We want to expand on this project by adding more complexity in the environment. For example, adding carnivorous populations and graphing the oscillations between the predator and prey populations would be interesting. Furthermore, we want to increase the game-like feel by not capping the generations at 10. We could extend the simulation by recording how many generations a certain starting population exists for.

Built With

Submitted to

HackJPS 2023
- Winner Best Lab Simulation

Created by

I worked on the movement algorithm for the organisms and developed the idea and execution for the project.

Ishaan Sinha
SBHS '24
I designed and integrated the UI, including the Main Menu and the Simulation Customization Screen. In addition, I developed the mutation and reproduction algorithm, allowing our project to accurately simulate evolution.

Tejas Raghuram
I worked on the 3D graph rendered by game object, the logic behind the evolution and the attributes as well as the random spawning of the Cubes and Food.

Vignesh Saravanakumar
I modeled and textured the game assets which were used in the game through blender. I also worked on the presentation.

Aryan Kashyap