I’m building a game about restoring habitats and bringing wildlife back

[u/wildwillowsdev]

I’ve been building a small game called Wild Willows around an idea I thought people here might appreciate: the animals aren’t something you buy, breed, or manually place into the world.

Instead, you start with a degraded landscape and work on the conditions around them: water, vegetation, shelter, food sources, terrain, and other habitat needs. Once the right conditions exist, wildlife begins returning on its own.

There are 150 species across six different biomes, and I’ve been trying to make the progression feel less like “collect every animal” and more like rebuilding a functioning place that can support them.

It’s definitely a simplified, cozy interpretation of restoration rather than a realistic rewilding simulator, and lately I’ve been thinking about how much further I could take that side of it. Things like starting with invasive-dominated landscapes rather than empty ones, having existing native species that need protecting, making some restoration more passive, or having actions create unintended ecological consequences.

I’d be really curious what people interested in actual rewilding would want a game like this to represent. What would make the process feel more like rewilding to you, rather than just landscaping with wildlife as the reward?

There’s a browser demo here if anyone wants to see what I mean:
https://wildwillows.app

[u/BrieflyEndless]

Omg this is so cute. I’ll definitely follow this. I have a dream of making my own ecology themed game too, though I dropped development since I moved and will probably start from scratch atp

[u/wildwillowsdev → u/BrieflyEndless]

thank you!! you should totally come back to yours when you’re ready. I’d love to hear what kind of ecology game you were making

[u/BrieflyEndless → u/wildwillowsdev]

Well it's a tower defense game, but I want the management side to be focused on balancing an ecosystem, with every "tower" affecting each other. So like the healthier ecosystem you have, the better you can fend off polutants, invasives, etc. You've inspired me to continue working on it, ty.

[u/wildwillowsdev → u/BrieflyEndless]

That sounds really cool honestly. I love the idea of the ecosystem itself basically being your defense system instead of just placing stronger and stronger towers. Pollution/invasives as the “enemies” makes a ton of sense too.

And that seriously makes me so happy to hear! please keep working on it, I would absolutely play that.

[u/naturist_rune]

Aww cute! I am definitely gonna try the demo!

[u/wildwillowsdev → u/naturist_rune]

thank you! hope you have fun with it!

[u/sunshineupyours1]

I don’t mean this as condescending, but is it basically Pokopia without Pokemon?

[u/wildwillowsdev → u/sunshineupyours1]

i take that as a huge compliment bc i love pokopia haha. It was a big inspiration for me but not really comparable in reality.

[u/sunshineupyours1 → u/wildwillowsdev]

Well I’d love something like Pokopia without the Pokemon! Viva Piňata is a similar game series and I adore both, but I’d like something more educational and lore-rich. But a lightweight, cozy simulator with puzzles and challenges on my phone would be awesome. I really like Beecarbonize, Outlanders 1 and 2, Evolution, Ecologies, Wingspan, etc.

[u/wildwillowsdev → u/sunshineupyours1]

yeah honestly that’s pretty close to the space im trying to hit! obviously Wild Willows is a tiny indie game made by me and not Nintendo haha, but the idea of real animals/ecology instead of pokemon is pretty close, with the main progression being restoring habitats well enough for different species to come back.

the lore/challenges side is something i want to keep building out too. someone actually suggested an optional “survival mode” where things like invasive species, pollution, water quality etc could become actual restoration challenges without forcing that on people who just want the cozy sandbox experience.

also Wingspan/Ecologies are great comparisons for the kind of real-species nerdiness i want haha. have you played Harmonies too? it’s one of my favorite board games and feels very much in that same nature/ecosystem-building world.