# Framsticks Artificial Life — Evolution of virtual creatures

> Simulated creature evolution with genetic manipulation and fitness-based development. (iPhone/iPad app by TOYSPRING.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/framsticks-artificial-life/id1187400787 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [TOYSPRING](https://appshunter.io/developer/430948595)
- Category: Education, Games, Puzzle, Simulation
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 7 App Store ratings · 6 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 12.0 · 12 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2023-03-22
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/framsticks-artificial-life/id1187400787/reviews.md

## What is Framsticks Artificial Life?

This app lets you play with simple simulated creatures and their evolution. It features a few genetic representations ("languages"), where each symbol in a genotype defines some characteristic of a creature (a "phenotype"). Each genetic representation has its own methods of mutation (modifying small parts of a genotype) and crossover (exchanging genes of two parents to produce an offspring).

The performance of each creature is evaluated in terms of speed on land, speed in water, and height of its center of mass. These criteria can be set as fitness. Since you have mutation and crossover available to change genotypes randomly, you can run an evolutionary process and see how fitness in the population increases.

You can also guide evolution according to your preferences by making creatures you like reproduce and generate their random variations.

If you understand a genetic language, you can even edit genes manually by deleting and adding genetic symbols, and this way build a creature you want or improve an existing one.

The app features some quests to help you familiarize with genetic languages and the properties of evolution such as convergence, diversity, selection pressure, the influence of mutation rate, or the population size. Advanced users can even try their own formulas for fitness, for example to maximize both height and speed simultaneously, or to add even more criteria.

Some demonstrations are included as well that show the concepts of directed (external fitness) and undirected (internal fitness) evolution, mutation, swarming, and communication.

This app is based on the Framsticks simulator. You can learn more at http://www.framsticks.com/

## Key features

- Simulated creature evolution
- Genetic language manipulation
- Fitness-based development
- Interactive evolutionary quests
- Customizable fitness formulas
- Evolutionary concept demonstrations

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic Tip | $0.99 | one-time |
| Appreciative Tip | $2.99 | one-time |
| Generous Tip | $6.99 | one-time |
| Awesome Tip | $19.99 | one-time |
| Amazing Tip | $54.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (6 of 6)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/framsticks-artificial-life/id1187400787/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Слишком естественно

*2026-08-19*

Игра очень Крутая, и там всё круто, но проблема в том, что она слишком реалистичная и процедурная. Когда я создаю существо и смотрю как этот бедолага пытается повернуться с неудобной позы, но не может, я чувствую себя ужасным человеком. А ещё из-за реалистичности процедурной генерации это существо выглядит живим, я не могу позволить его даже тронуть. 
А ещё при создании с помощью кода существо нельзя сохранить

### 3/5 — Great game

*2026-07-28*

Hard to understand

### 5/5 — Amazing but have some requests (EDIT)THANK YOU.

*2026-01-11*

Edit: I meant to write this a while ago, but I cannot believe u actually added a mutate only brain! You guys are awesome! And you are right that the desktop version does have a lot. I just honestly preened the mobile interface. The mobile version just seems easier to use and I enjoy it more honestly. If it is okay, if I think of any other suggestions I will be sure to mention them 🙂👍. And respectfully, is there a discord or community that is available? I’d love to join one if there is. 

 This game is amazing I absolutely love it! I’ve played this a lot and love this game so much. However, I do have some requests. Could you maybe add more fitness presets? And maybe add a way for more advanced learning? I don’t want all evolution to be such a really simple process, however, I do want the option to be able to make evolution faster/ better. And maybe add more criteria. Just a suggestion of course. Maybe you could add a whole new type of fitness. Like how you have “water” and “land speed”, maybe you could add “intelligence” or “problem solving”, like have it learn tasks. This is all of course suggestions. Also, whenever I make my own creatures and then evolve it, I always lose my shape that I had. And I like how it changes, because, of course, it’s the evolution part, but I may want a preset option to choose to like keep the shape of the creature and just evolve like the movement. Thank you for listening and I hope u all have a great day ❤️

**Developer response:** Thank you 🙏 for your thoughtful remarks and suggestions! We will consider adding "only brain" evolution as a new feature – meaning blocking crossover and disabling body mutations to preserve body shape. Note that you can already achieve this (and much more) by using the desktop app. The mobile app is intended to be a simplified interface for the full-featured simulator.

### 5/5 — Amazing but have some requests

*2025-04-19, version 5.0.6*

This game is amazing I absolutely love it! I’ve played this a lot and love this game so much. However, I do have some requests. Could you maybe add more fitness presets? And maybe add a way for more advanced learning? I don’t want all evolution to be such a really simple process, however, I do want the option to be able to make evolution faster/ better. And maybe add more criteria. Just a suggestion of course. Maybe you could add a whole new type of fitness. Like how you have “water” and “land speed”, maybe you could add “intelligence” or “problem solving”, like have it learn tasks. This is all of course suggestions. Also, whenever I make my own creatures and then evolve it, I always lose my shape that I had. And I like how it changes, because, of course, it’s the evolution part, but I may want a preset option to choose to like keep the shape of the creature and just evolve like the movement. Thank you for listening and I hope u all have a great day ❤️

### 4/5 — Very Cool Concept, But Very Difficult to Play

*2024-09-14*

I came across this game recently while looking for some life simulation games, and I instantly saw the potential in this game. I love games like this that are about evolution, artificial life, and biology. However, I found this game’s mechanics and gameplay very frustrating to use. It may just be a skill issue, but things such as editing genotypes, settings, and just how to generally play the game. The lack of explanations/walkthroughs makes it difficult to understand what each feature does and how exactly to use it. I think if this game was a little fleshed out, adding some explanations for the user, it would be extremely good. I think a game like ‘Evolution: Learning Creatures’ would be a great baseline for this game in effort for it to be used effectively by the user. I’m going to give this game 4 stars because it was genuinely fun messing around with my created creatures in the sandbox, but I also don’t want to kill the rating of this mostly underground game with a 3. In reality, I would really give it closer to a 3.5. I would love to see some future improvements to this game down the line!

**Developer response:** Thank you for your remarks! This is actually more of a simulator than a game, and we agree that it is demanding and complex – especially when approached as a game 🙂

### 4/5 — Great, but buggy

*2024-04-17*

This app is super amazing for what it’s worth and works well when it isn’t crashing, the only thing is that it’s buggy, like really buggy.

**Developer response:** We have discovered a memory leak that may have contributed to the crashes. Please check out the current version!

## Frequently asked questions about Framsticks Artificial Life

### What is Framsticks Artificial Life?

Framsticks Artificial Life is a simulation app where you can play with and evolve virtual creatures. It uses genetic representations and fitness criteria to demonstrate evolutionary processes.

### How does Framsticks Artificial Life teach about evolution?

The app includes quests that explain concepts like convergence, diversity, selection pressure, and mutation rate. You can also experiment with custom fitness formulas to observe different evolutionary outcomes.

### Can I manually edit creature genes in Framsticks Artificial Life?

Yes, if you understand the genetic language, you can manually edit genes by adding or deleting symbols to build or improve creatures.

### What devices support Framsticks Artificial Life?

Framsticks Artificial Life is available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices.

### How often is Framsticks Artificial Life updated?

The app was last updated on June 24, 2025, indicating recent development and support.

### What is the age rating for Framsticks Artificial Life?

Framsticks Artificial Life has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a young audience interested in educational simulations.

### Does Framsticks Artificial Life have ads?

No, Framsticks Artificial Life does not contain advertisements, providing an uninterrupted user experience.

### What are the in-app purchases in Framsticks Artificial Life?

While the app is free to download and play, it offers in-app purchases, though specific details on what these unlock are not provided in the description.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 5.3 — 2025-06-24

Playground improvements:
 - simulate multiple creatures
 - delete and clone individual creatures
 - enable/disable energy consumption (creatures can die when they run out of energy; feed them to keep them alive)
 - enable/disable neural network window

Evolution improvements:
 - option for only-brain mutations (to preserve body design in evolution)
 - separate water level setting for Evolution and Playground

Other improvements:
 - more complete help messages everywhere
 - layout improvements, smaller buttons when run on iPad or MacOS

### 5.2 — 2025-04-24

• Colors of sticks of f9 creatures now correspond to f9 genotype letters, making it easier to associate genes with their body counterparts
• Slightly changed the way center of gravity and ground reaction forces are calculated, in order to make the simulation more consistent. This can influence the performance of your previously saved creatures
• Improved the crossover operator for f9 genotypes
• The app should now run more smoothly and reliably on Macs with Apple Silicon

### 5.0.6 — 2024-05-20

Thank you for telling us that the application is buggy.
Yes, it was a shame, but should be much better now. No more crashing during evolution!

### 5.0.5 — 2024-04-26

• Includes the most recent Framsticks simulator version 5.0rc30, containing improved genetic operators, increasing the chance of evolving more colorful creatures (and many creatures from the legacy framsticks theater shows have been manually colorized)
• Better graphics: more watery-looking water, improved creatures appearance
• Bugs fixed: crash on pasting text from other apps, broken sharing window layout, blank custom fitness function editor, failing to open *.gen files in some circumstances

### 5.0.4 — 2023-09-13

Genetics:
• Genetic operator probabilities for "f1" and "f0" encodings are now optimised to get better results in shorter time
• The exact operation (but not the general idea) of many "f1" modifiers was changed to allow for better coverage of the full parameter range. This can impair some of the previously designed or evolved creatures but should improve your future results
• Improved "f1" mutation operator
• Improved "f4" genetic encoding

Evolution screen:
• There is now a switch to prevent the screen from turning off during the evolution

VR mode:
• Prevent the screen from turning off automatically as long as the phone is in motion (makes a difference when you only use VR as a viewer without any input)
• Brighten the screen when using your phone in VR goggles (normally the light sensor would unnecessarily dim the screen)

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All apps by TOYSPRING: https://appshunter.io/developer/430948595

## Related topics

[artificial life](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/artificial-life) · [framsticks artificial life](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/framsticks-artificial-life) · [virtual mutations](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/virtual-mutations)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*