We saw some discussion on the forum about this so wanted to go ahead and send out an Announcement to everyone!
Tyto Ecology Complete and Being Supported
We do consider Tyto Ecology a complete product and are not currently working on any expansions, but we may in the future.
We are currently focusing on supporting Tyto Ecology players and releasing bug fixes and updates as needed.
While we do appreciate that there are a nearly infinite amount of suggestions on how much more in-depth and realistic an ecosystem simulator like ours could become over time, Tyto Ecology has met our goals and initial design plans -- and more -- already.
We'll do a better job of remembering to come check in on the Forums, but since they are less active lately if you need quick support for a problem, please consider heading to our Support Site where you can submit a ticket.
What are we working on now?
As some people noted on the forums, we are working on our new product, Tyto Online, which is a MMORPG focused on middle school science.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/544290/Tyto_Online/
It's not super active on Steam, as we've actually been largely talking with educators who are excited to use it to improve their classroom science experiences. We have Ecology (quests + creating ecosystems as a sandbox) and Heredity (quests + breeding dragon-like creatures as a sandbox) in the game and are working on finishing up all of middle school life science by August for the coming school year.
This is a first step towards our long-term goal of being able to have one game with Tyto Online where students can learn across many subjects for years, in-depth and empowered.
For those who want to dig into what all that means, this is the introduction folder we share with educators that has an introduction deck and some PDFs explaining how the quests and sandboxes match up with science standards: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s2qq48bvsulkbpx/AAAjbAYw-uVKE6LR-EM7g349a?dl=0
Tyto... Evolution?!
As part of Tyto Online, we are building Sandboxes into the game, like having a version of Tyto Ecology exist with the Ecology Module.
The one we've been in pre-production on to start soon is an Evolution Sandbox. We've realized this could make an incredible stand-alone game, perhaps something like... Tyto Evolution?! We'd love to keep putting our fun science games for a wide group and recognize a lot of adults aren't going to want to play Tyto Online, so we're really interested in continuing to release stand-alones as they make sense.
Basic concept: manipulating the environment (plant qualities, temperature, precipitation, earthquakes, etc.) and some aspects of the animals (toss some in a new area) to impact the success of traits that will randomly mutate -- starting with super simple creatures and then can morph into millions of possibilities over time.
Some of the traits include mode of consumption (herbivore, carnivore, etc.), size, exoskeleton vs. vertebrate, limbs (type/number), digits, neck, tail, teeth, color, brood size, camouflage and special features like vomit defenses.
We are also considering doing a Kickstarter to see what the support is like for potentially a lot more in-depth features up front on Tyto Evolution.
Here's a 2-page overview of what we have in mind right now for its design: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1keBkdDc8xdVoNDNXwjHhJ1lAhVv6C9wd5JMbS3Rpm9A/edit?usp=sharing
The game designer who is heading that effort up, Josh, has posted on the forums with some questions he'd love feedback on from the community as he develops out the idea! Please head here if you'd like to participate in that discussion: http://steamcommunity.com/app/453750/discussions/0/1696040635904693316/