"You are given this God-like power," Wright told AFP in a recent interview in California. "You can create ecosystems, biospheres ... We try to make it real science."

Players start as microscopic life forms competing for survival in primordial ooze and work their way onto land, where they evolve into creatures that build civilisations and rocket into space.

"It is still probably the most interesting question for scientists and five-year-olds: What is life?" Wright said

"We are hoping to build a community as big as that of the Sims," Wright said during a Paris stopover this week ahead of the launch of the game by Electronic Arts

- SMH