[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DarwiniaCoverartCrop_2169.png]]''Darwinia'' is an award-winning ActionAdventure / RealTimeStrategy game developed by Creator/IntroversionSoftware. The game centers on a MagicalComputer that runs a simulated world, the titular Darwinia. The inhabitants of the world, called Darwinians, are docile green stick figures that each have their own unique digital soul. This is all part of a research project on artificial intelligence.

When the player connects to the Darwinia server, the world has been hit by an infection of a very nasty computer virus and Dr Sepulveda, the scientist responsible for creating Darwinia, is at his wit's end and starting to seriously consider wiping out the whole project, and two decades of research just to stop the virus. The player showing up gives him hope that his digital world can be saved.

Over the course of the game, the player visits a number of unique locations, with Dr Sepulveda giving pieces of history for Darwinia in most of them. Towards the end of the game, some very nasty forms of the virus are encountered, one of which can actually destroy the souls of Darwinians.

The game was praised for its retro-inspired graphics and unique-but-intuitive control scheme, but sold terribly due to its retro-inspired graphics and unique-but-intuitive control scheme.

Introversion Software has since made a multi-player sequel called ''Multiwinia''. It has also been released on Xbox Live Arcade as ''Darwinia+'', combining the basic game, the rocket level that served as the second game demo (now considered an epilogue), and Multiwinia. In April 2022, Introversion released ''Darwinia 10,000th Anniversary Edition'', a remastering update for PC that improves compatibility on modern systems with support for newer graphics and audio API's, improved UI scaling, support for graphical features such as anti-aliasing and resolution scaling, and more.
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!!This game provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The game is effectively this for Darwinia. The viral outbreak has wreaked havoc on the virtual world, all of the key facilities are completely infested and the Darwinians are close to extinction before you showup.
* AllThereInTheManual: The official website for the game has a collection of [[http://www.introversion.co.uk/darwinia/extras/story.html fictional articles]] "written" by people from Dr. Sepulveda's universe. They explain the {{Backstory}} in greater detail and also explore various ramifications Darwinia could have on society.
* AnthropomorphicTypography: Darwinians in ''Videogame/{{Darwinia}}'' are frequently referred to as "glyphs".
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: You can only control 3 programs (controllable units) at the start of the game, and can upgrade it to a maximum of 5.
* ArtificialStupidity: Programs only attempt to move in straight lines. They will happily run up an unclimbable slope (and stay there forever), or right into a wall of instant death. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that you're supposed to treat your programs like action game protagonists, not like RTS units.
** Darwinians can climb slopes, no matter how steep, but will often get stuck on bodies of water and occasionally get stuck on buildings.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Rockets are somewhere between this and DifficultButAwesome. They explode much faster than grenades and airstrikes, but travel in a straight line, so you either have to be on flat terrain or have the definite high ground. They also start out with absolutely pitiful range, almost exploding right in your face, meaning until you increase the range you have to be extremely careful of where your squad is moving when you're firing it. All in all, it's a very situational weapon (far more than grenades) and you have to be super careful or else you're far more likely to just blow up your own squad than you are to actually hit what you want to hit.
* BadassNormal: The Darwinians themselves, once they get weapons, can hold their ground with quite ease and blow minor viruses out of the system. That is, until the computer starts rolling in [[DemonicSpiders jumping spiders]].
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Infected Darwinians can take over Armor (in battle cannon mode) the player has set up for the regular Darwinians.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Most of The Virus could count as a digital version. Do ''not'' zoom in if you're arachnophobic.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Though the player and Sepulveda are able to fight off the virus and save Darwinia, Sepulveda muses that having to fight and kill their own BrainwashedAndCrazy kin and experience true death for the first time at the hands of the Soul Destroyers has resulted in a loss of innocence for the Darwinians. ''Multiwinia'' takes this even further by revealing that since then, the Darwinians have since divided themselves into tribes and begin fighting each other.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Infected Darwinians.
* BugWar: The plot can basically be seen as this in a computer. Played straight to the point where you can't feel any sympathy for The Virus.
* TheCameo: The nuclear submarines from ''{{VideoGame/DEFCON}}'' appear in ''Multiwinia''.
* CannonFodder: In the Biosphere, you need to use the Darwinians to punch through the enemy waves of infected Darwinians.
* CopyProtection: Referenced as an in-work example, with the cracker intro having credit claimed by DMA Crew, along with the fancy Amiga-style background. As such the player won't have to worry about said protection the developers put in.
* CrapsackWorld: In ''Multiwinia'' especially. Four tribes of mutated Darwinians are in a constant state of war. No side really knows why the fight even started. Meteor showers and nuclear strikes are commonly used, [[FromBadtoWorse to the point where]] "WMD" refers to something other than nukes. To top it all off, DeathIsCheap and souls come back all the time to just keep fighting, unless of course the dark forests get to them, in which case they haunt the ruins of battlefields for all of eternity.
* DeathIsCheap: Because Darwinians get reincarnated soon after death.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Programs can simply be rerun for free, and getting back to where you were before is usually just an inconvenience, since any building you've reprogrammed can be used as a starting point. Dead Darwinians can be reconstituted at an incubator as long as the souls can be collected in time.
* TheDreaded: The Soul Destroyers are this to the Darwinians, being the only thing in Darwinia that can...well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin destroy souls]], breaking the cycle of reincarnation and either rendering its victims DeaderThanDead or subjecting them to a FateWorseThanDeath depending on how you interpret Sepulveda's words.
* DueToTheDead: If you see a bunch of Darwinians get killed, chances are pretty good that you'll see a bunch of kites launched as the souls drift upwards off the playing field.
* DugTooDeep: Not quite mining, but TheVirus came to Darwinia when the Darwinians rigged a trunk port to access Dr. Sepulveda's computer in an attempt to communicate with him. Among the files they downloaded were some of his research data...and some infected spam mail.
* EnemySummoner: Spiders jumping and laying eggs.
** Flower-like egg cannons called Triffids can fire long distances, and they can miss your attention because they don't have the same color or pixelation effect as the other viruses.
* FanSequel: You're encouraged to make your own once you finish the game, and some fans have made some pretty big ones.
* TheFundamentalist: One of the [[http://www.introversion.co.uk/darwinia/extras/story/daily_jesus.html fictional articles]] on the game's official website is "written" by "Jeremiah Rove", addressed to his congregation. In his passionate rant, he declares Dr. Sepulveda to be a blasphemer since he created "life" from nothing (and without a married white woman), something he believes only God can do. In retaliation, he proposes that his congregation should use AngryMob tactics against Dr. Sepulveda and his work.
* GameplayAutomation: Engineers will automatically perform any task they can do nearby. Manual goto orders issued by players are priority, followed by reprogramming control towers and gathering research, then soul collecting. If the Engineer is idle while holding souls (either at its limit or all the rest have floated away), it'll automatically go to the nearest captured incubator to deposit them for regeneration (whether it's the incubator you want Darwinians coming out of or not), then return to its original location to possibly gather more souls.
* GeoEffects: Forces move slower when climbing hills, faster when going down them, shorter throws when throwing up slope, and longer throws when going downslope. Thanks, physics!
* GiantMook: Soul Destroyers look like massive centipedes, but don't break apart like centipedes do when attacked, are able to fly, and destroy Darwinians ''and'' [[DeaderThanDead their souls.]]
* AGodIAmNot: Dr Sepulveda regrets the accident where his face showed up in the sky of Darwinia. Because of this they worship him as their God. Which they are actually quite right in that he did create them and their entire world.
* TheGoomba: Virii, which are present in large numbers.
* [[HumanResources Darwinian Resources]]: The Virus is using the souls of the Darwinians to upgrade itself. FridgeHorror for Uplink as [[spoiler: it's heavily implied to be the Revelation Virus and that the upgrades for it in Uplink come from their souls.]]
* InstantWinCondition: As long as you complete the objectives, regions can remain as infected as you want.
* ItRunsOnNonsensoleum: The justification for the retraux visuals is that the Darwinian world is the result of a bunch of old, notably crappy computers running in tandem as a parallel processor. Sepulveda didn't anticipate the Darwinians that eventually showed up, and was instead doing research on creating a new type of video game.
* KilledOffForReal: The fate of any Darwinian killed by the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Soul Destroyers]].
* LateToThePunchline: One of the intros in the game features a parody of an intro to a cracked Amiga game. It looked so genuine that Valve thought it was real. As a result, the game's Platform/{{Steam}} release got delayed an hour until Introversion said they put that there deliberately.
* LivingProgram: The Darwinians and viruses definitely fit the mold. The semi-autonomous squaddies and engineers might be considered an edge case.
* MinimalistCast: Not counting the nameless Darwinians and The Virus, Dr. Sepulveda is the only named character in the game.
* MiracleGroMonster: Viruses can "evolve" into more complex forms if left alone for too long. In addition, some viruses can consume souls and lay eggs, which spawn more viruses.
* MookMaker: Eggs are laid by Spiders and Spore Generators. Triffids are more dangerous, because they launch larger eggs from a distance if it detects any enemy.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Soul Destroyers.
* OneWordTitle: Also ThePlace because Darwinia is where the game takes place.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: Digital souls. The manual explains what a digital soul is, though the game itself says little. Suffice to say, they're as important to a Darwinian as our souls are to us.
** Digital souls are basically Darwinian AI, encoded as a form of computerised DNA. The glowing, physical object is just the way the game represents that chunk of code. It mentions how the most successful souls reincarnate pretty much as-is while the less successful start fresh as a template based on the most successful, leading to a continued evolution of the Darwinian race. One level has you recapturing this template, the Pattern Buffer, from the virus.
** Also, one type of virus can destroy the Darwinians' souls, leaving behind ghosts in the world.
* PaperPeople: Darwinians.
* PhysicalGod: In an odd way Dr Sepulveda is this to the Darwinians. He did create them and he does have a physical body. However he doesn't have any Godly powers outside of the program.
* {{Pixellation}}: A non-censorship example. 3D programs and enemies have pixellation filter to either make it look more retro, or to indicate damage.
** It could have been also done to show that the programs and enemies are foreign to the Darwinians' world, as it and the Darwinians themselves are rendered without pixelization.
* PointyHairedBoss: Have a Darwinian repeatedly bonking its head against a body of water or the side of a building or something? Promote it to an Officer. [[DeadlyEuphemism Then terminate the program]]. [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Then collect the soul with an Engineer]] [[{{Reincarnation}} and hope they're not quite so stupid in the next life]].
* RandomizedTitleScreen: There are multiple opening sequences, playing a different one each time the game is loaded. These include things like a faux-Platform/ZXSpectrum LoadingScreen and one that passes the game off as a cracked Platform/{{Amiga}} game.
* {{Retraux}}: Its presentation.
* {{Sequel}}: to ''VideoGame/{{Uplink}}''. Various news stories in the first game hint towards the plot of the second, and you're implied to be a hacker, much like the ones featured in ''VideoGame/{{Uplink}}'', at the beginning of ''Darwinia''.
** [[spoiler: Also it serves as a Prequel as well. The Virus that infects Darwinia? Heavily implied to be the Revelation virus from ''Uplink''. So the Virus was upgraded using [[HumanResources Darwinians' souls.]] ]]
* ShoutOut: Damn near everything in the game is a shout out to something or other; ''VideoGame/CannonFodder'', ''Franchise/{{Tron}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Centipede}}'', ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' and the Platform/ZXSpectrum to name but a few. Hell, Dr Sepulveda even looks like Clive Sinclair.
* SomeDexterityRequired: Earlier versions of the game had a complex gesture system which was replaced with a simpler menu by default.
* ThankTheMaker: The Darwinians consider Dr Sepulveda to be a {{God}}. They've even made statues of him after he accidentally sent his webcam video data to the Darwinia sky rendering system.
* TheLifestream: The Soul Repository, which also acts as the world's power source (it provides solar energy).
* TheVirus: Darwinia, being a computer, has been infected by a particularly nasty one, which is responsible for all the enemies you face.
** Futurwinians from ''Multiwinia'', too. Opening a box will occasionally call in a FlyingSaucer (theorized by fans to be an ''VideoGame/{{Uplink}}'' hacker's connection) that will abduct any Darwinians nearby and convert them into a new, silver-colored faction on the game board. These Futuwinians are created with the Mind Control Ray Mk. 2, which converts their opponents into new Futurwinians...who thanks to the mechanics of the game, also possess Mind Control Ray Mk. 2. [[DemonicSpiders Not fun]]. Curiously, the ''actual'' remnants of the Virus, while annoying if you trigger it, are just a little more powerful than beginning players.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Darwinians act very eerily human-like. They explore when they're bored, they jump in the air when they're excited, they run away and scream when they're scared, and they even have funerals (specifically, if they see a soul ascending because you didn't collect it, they'll release a kite to guard it on its way to heaven, as Dr. Sepulveda explains). It's ''really'' hard not to become attached to them.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: On the other hand, you can send them marching into a large cluster of TheVirus, your squads can throw grenades at them, you can promote every single one into an Officer and then execute them, or you could [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking make them walk a]] ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking really]]'' [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking long way to get to their destination]].
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Notably (for an RTS) averted. Digital souls act as a kind of resource, but they're only useful for creating more Darwinians. Beyond that, the only real resource is program space.
* ZergRush: Possible, once the Darwinians have weapons and your officers have the 'follow me' order. Get enough together and you can overwhelm most enemies through sheer weight of numbers.
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