In 2008, Swarm Interactive released the original game. Swarm had been commissioned to create an educational interactive about evolution. The idea was simple: explain the basics of natural selection, then challenge readers to keep a species alive through a changing—and sometimes cruel—environment.
Who Wants to Live a Million Years? was created by Swarm staffers R. Scott Horner and Daniel Niblock. Dan led the art and writing, while Scott programmed the simulation in Flash.
The game found an enthusiastic audience, including teachers who brought it into their classrooms. Success!
An environmental challenge of its own
Then it faced the disappearance of Flash. Apple’s decision to keep Flash off iPhones and iPads helped accelerate the move toward newer web technologies. Adobe ended support for Flash Player in 2020 and blocked playback in January 2021.
But our beasties weren’t extinct yet. Teachers and educational websites kept the game alive through Flash emulators. Nearly twenty years after its creation, people were still playing and learning from it.
Time for the evolution game to evolve
We began with a Restored edition that rebuilt the Flash functionality for modern browsers, keeping the original artwork, sounds and familiar presentation. The Remastered edition builds on that foundation with new artwork, a redesigned interface and clearer feedback about what happens to your species.
The 2026 remaster was led by Don Wittekind, with review, editing and input from original creators Scott and Dan. Rebuilt for modern browsers, it features new artwork and animation while retaining much of the original writing, along with its sounds, humor and core simulation.
We also added a running log explaining what happened to each generation of beasties, followed by a recap of the species’ journey. These additions help students connect changing conditions, inherited traits and their own decisions with what happened to their population.
Teachers are still helping the game evolve. Their feedback inspired Hardcore Mode, where students choose a starting population and then watch natural selection unfold without life preservers. Guided Evolution keeps the life preservers, letting students introduce new variants as the environment changes.
No Flash. No emulator. Still a challenging place to be a beastie.
Original educational source: Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy, Robert M. Hazen & James Trefil.
Swarm’s code is licensed under Apache License 2.0; its creative content is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Separate third-party terms apply. Read the permissions and credits.
© 2026 Swarm Interactive, Inc.
