oddsprigFREE EARLY BUILD · v0.017

Windows · v0.017 · free

Scorpion Study Lab

A living terrarium you watch rather than control. 150 scorpions with their own genes and temperaments claim stones, threaten and fight rivals, hunt live grubs, court, brood, molt and die, and every generation inherits from the last.

Download free Windows 10/11 64-bit · Free
v0.017 · 76 MB ZIP
Scorpion Study Lab: the Watch life camera follows a scorpion named Argos hunting another scorpion beside her stone, with field notes and a specimen record on screen
Watch life follows a huntv0.017 on Windows

v0.017 · EARLY BUILD

About the game

  • Territory. Each habitat has 15 stones around a water hole. Scorpions hold a stone that fits their body, raise their claws at intruders, fight for ownership, and trade up as they grow.
  • Temperament. No two founders are alike. Bold animals take the good stones; shy ones become wanderers.
  • Living prey. Grubs crawl, pause, bolt from footsteps and burrow away if they aren't caught.
  • Life history. Courtship, broods that stay by their mother, molting, growth, aging, cannibalism and death, with a lineage you can trace.
  • Watch life. An automatic camera finds the most dramatic scene. Field notes tell the colony's story as it happens.

Windows desktop. It's an evolving simulation, not a finished game.

Two scorpions locked claw to claw in a fight over a stone
Two rivals fight over a stone.
A segmented feeder grub crawling across the sand while a scorpion approaches
A live grub, and the scorpion that found it.
Overhead view of a habitat: stones spread around a central water hole
Stones spread around the water hole.

Tell us what to improve

This is an early build, and the next versions are shaped by what players notice. What was fun to watch? What felt dull? What broke? Suggestions for new behaviors, creatures or tools are welcome.

Suggest an improvement ↗

How to play

Extract the whole ZIP, then run ScorpionStudyLab.exe. Keep the .exe, the .pck file and the data_ScorpionStudyLab_windows_x86_64 folder together. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info → Run anyway; the game is new and not yet code-signed.

Camera: WASD or arrows to move, right-drag to orbit, left-drag to pan, wheel to zoom. F follows the selected scorpion, Space pauses, Escape opens the study controls. Saves are kept in %APPDATA%\ScorpionStudyLab-v0.017.