Dr Umgebung's School
of Life

Dr Umgebung's School of Life (2018) is a strategy simulation game. The life it simulates is a sealed terrarium that you must maintain by completing certain tasks. It's an unusual combination of science, gardening and pet simulation that educates as well as entertains.

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Starting with a simple empty sphere you work to create exactly the right conditions to make soil, water and an environment that you can grow plants in. You have controls over the air composition and the temperature, and as you progress a seed bank of plants to use.

Once you have the basics mastered you can start adding animal life to your terrarium. By end of year 3 you should have a self-sustaining ecosystem. Maintaining your sphere with the correct atmosphere that supports life is not easy, and although tasks are straight forward in isolation, balancing the settings to be suitable for all different lifeforms is much harder.

The result is a fascinating educational experience that teaches you about the fragility of an ecosystem while providing a fun strategy game. You can learn about the science behind gardening, weather and climate by experimentation and experience rather than reading it about second-hand.

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Our examiner, Andrea Walney, first checked Dr Umgebung's School of Life (Sokpop) 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 19 months ago.