EcoBuilder vs Creature Crafter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
EcoBuilder
Build and manage your own virtual ecosystem, learning about ecological principles through realistic simulations. Your gameplay can contribute to real scientific research by helping scientists understand complex environmental systems.
- Build virtual ecosystems
- Realistic ecological simulations
- Learn ecological phenomena
- Contribute to scientific research
- High score tracking
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EcoBuilder is a game where you will build your own ecosystem of plants and animals, modelled using the same simulations that researchers use to study real ecosystems. You will learn about various ecological phenomena along the way, and if you get really good at playing then your high scores will help real researchers to understand ecosystems better! EcoBuilder is being developed by a team at Imperial College.
Creature Crafter
Design unique creatures with extensive customization tools, then bring them to life to explore vibrant online worlds with friends. Collect new parts to enhance abilities, complete quests, battle foes, and engage in minigames or roleplaying.
- Creature building and customization
- Online multiplayer exploration
- Collect and upgrade creature parts
- Quest completion and battles
- Minigames and roleplaying
- Procedural animation for environments
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Create your own creatures to explore online worlds with friends and collect new parts to upgrade your stats and abilities! Complete quests, battle enemies, challenge friends to minigames, or just have fun roleplaying — the possibilities are endless when your imagination is the limit! The core gameplay loop involves constructing creatures to explore hand-crafted worlds and collecting body parts and patterns to further upgrade your creature. You can then use your newly acquired abilities to complete quests to earn cash and re-invest into your creature. If you’re just interested in creating creatures, however, then simply switch over to creative mode and everything will already be unlocked! The creation tool consists of three different modes: ● BUILD: Customize the shape of your creature by manipulating its spine and attaching transformable body parts. Altering your creature then changes its statistics (e.g., weight, speed, health etc.) and attaching certain body parts gives it special abilities (e.g., flying, swimming, biting etc.). ● PAINT: Change the color of your creature’s body and attached body parts, as well as the pattern and texture of your creature’s skin. ● PLAY: When you’re finished designing your creature, you can bring it to life! Traverse lush forests, swim in the ocean or fly high above the clouds — your creature will procedurally animate to adapt to its environment. Please note that this project is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected to EA, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Creature Crafter at 4.8 against EcoBuilder's 4.0. Creature Crafter also leads on ratings volume (11K vs 4) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). EcoBuilder's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Creature Crafter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. EcoBuilder asks for nothing beyond the download.
Creature Crafter holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Creature Crafter has 11K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of EcoBuilder's written reviews are positive against 72% of Creature Crafter's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
EcoBuilder ships an update every 3 weeks, Creature Crafter weekly. The most recent releases landed on June 4, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | EcoBuilder | Creature Crafter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (4 ratings) | 4.8 (11K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 71.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 11K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 68 MB | 492 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Jonathan Zheng | Daniel Lochner |
Customer experience
EcoBuilder
Creature Crafter
Bugs and requests
EcoBuilder
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Creature Crafter
Reported bugs
7 issues- Screen going black and freezing
- Inability to move the camera
- Creatures turning into recent creations when saved
- Difficulty with resizing and positioning body parts
- Issues with the creature workshop and unlocking parts
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- Creatures walking backwards
- Incompatibility with older devices
Requested features
10 requests- Add more body parts, accessories, and customization options
- Implement a map maker for mobile
- Add more maps and environments to explore
- Introduce a cell stage, tribal stage, and civilization stage
- Implement a spawn tool to summon created creatures
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- Add more range attack options like lasers and poison
- Improve animation and smoothness of creature movements
- Implement a chat filter and moderation system
- Add the ability to build structures and nests
- Introduce a leveling system with attributes and skills
In-app purchases
EcoBuilder
No in-app purchases
Creature Crafter
- Pets$2.99
- Premium$5.99
- Supporter$9.99
Questions
Is EcoBuilder free?
Is Creature Crafter free?
Which has better reviews, EcoBuilder or Creature Crafter?
Do EcoBuilder or Creature Crafter have ads?
Which is updated more often, EcoBuilder or Creature Crafter?
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