Sagan 4

Collaboration
Name:	Sagan 4
Members:	100+ (open for anyone to join by application)
Date(s):	September 2, 2006-present
Focus:
Fandoms:	Spore, Speculative Evolution
External Links:	Forum, Wiki, Discord server
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Sagan 4 is a forum game, more specifically an evolution game based on Spore, originally created by Hydromancerx and currently GMed by Mnidjm. It is notable for being the longest-running evolution game, as well as one of if not the largest speculative evolution projects ever created.

Notability

Longevity

Many evolution games exist, most of them short-lived; only a small handful last more than a month, and even fewer manage a year or two, at which point they are usually stuck on life support. But Sagan 4 is not just an exception, but THE exception--the game has been ongoing for nearly two decades, and has never even had a reboot. This makes it, by a significant margin, the longest running-evolution game of all time.

The exact reasoning for Sagan 4's longevity is not known for certain, but its FAQ says this on the matter:

Q: How has Sagan 4 lasted so long when most other evolution games don't?

A. It's difficult to say for certain without many examples of successful, long-running evolution games to compare it to, but we're pretty sure these were major contributing factors:

• Sagan 4 moves to the next time step based on how many species are made, which has two main effects:

• The passage of time in-universe automatically scales to the project's activity; by design, time only passes when the game is being played
• The limited size of each time step means you can miss your chance to evolve a species before it goes extinct, creating enough urgency to sustain a low amount of activity even during "dead" periods

• Sagan 4 has well-organized ecosystem pages that make it easier for newcomers to quickly find exactly what they need to know to make their own species, even when there are thousands of entries to sift through
• Sagan 4 was created in the hype of Spore as the first evolution game on what was at the time one of the biggest Spore forums; it was in the right place at the right time, helping it to develop a robust starting player base

Sagan 4 FAQ 

Notable Members

It would be impractical to list every single Sagan 4 team member, so this section just covers a few major names in the community.

Founders and Staff

• Hydromancerx, Sagan 4's founder
• Huggkruka, Oviraptor, Yokto, and Krakow Sam, Sagan 4's other founding members
• LadyM, who ran Sagan 4's website from 2007-2017
• Mnidjm, Sagan 4's current game master and head forum/website administrator
• TheBigDeepCheatsy, one of the longest-active contributors and current GM assistant
• Disgustedorite, current GM assistant and forum/website administrator

Internally Notable

These are people who are notable within Sagan 4, but are not staff.

• Somarinoa, creator of Sagan 4's first sapient species
• Nergali, creator of Sagan 4's third sapient species

Externally Notable

These are people who are not particularly notable within Sagan 4, but are well known somewhere else.

• Bonosaber, a prominent Spore roleplayer
• Terracara, founder of the Speculative Evolution Forum

Spinoffs

Sagan 4 has had 2 official spinoffs--that is, secondary projects that are also hosted on Sagan 4's official website.

The Mason Project

Mason is the name of Sagan 4's moon. In 2009, a side project oriented around it began, but soon fell apart, most likely due to it coinciding with a mass extinction event in the main project--thus, everyone's attention was turned towards refilling the more familiar main planet. An attempt to revive it has been ongoing since 2020.

Sagan 4 Beta

During "The Limbo", Sagan 4 Beta was conceptualized as a "reboot" so that the Sagan 4 team could keep playing when they believed Sagan 4 was lost media. Though it started as a fan project, it gained official recognition within a few weeks of starting and later moved to the main Sagan 4 website.