Substrate: Emergence
Grow colonies of fluorescent cells that mutate, swarm, and devour each other in a petri dish arena. Propagate a unique biology of your own as you compete against rival labs in a detailed artificial life simulation.
About
Capsule art, logo and background art by Daniel Nartov
No two cells are exactly the same. All mechanics are inspired by real cellular biology, emphasizing emergent complexity. Cells have functional organelles defined by their genes. Genes pass down through generations, accumulating tiny mutations until they evolve into new strains. Resources drive behavior. Interactions create emergent effects you didn't predict. Simple organic systems combine into a living simulation. 
Every mutation is visible. The cells fluoresce with life as they consume resources, replicate, and compete. Each color is a reflection of their genetic code.
Every gene mutates independently, and any cell can mutate to have any number of any gene. The only limit is natural selection. 
Every cell's behavior is driven by a miniature neural network and genetic algorithms. Nothing is scripted.
Catalogue your unique strains and document their lineages. They become more valuable as they dominate the substrate, creating a growing economic engine.
Developer note:
I'm developing this solo with my background in cellular neuroscience and experience as a musician and abstract painter. All game systems, simulation architecture, visual designs, procedural art and audio designs are my own. The soundtrack is made by me with the help of a few of my friends. I write and maintain the codebase alone, using Claude Code and other agentic coding tools as my primary workflow. No art assets were created by generative AI, and nothing in the game is generated by AI at runtime.
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System requirements
Minimum OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: 64-bit quad-core CPU (Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 3 or better) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 12 GPU with compute shader support and 2 GB VRAM (AMD Radeon 780M, Intel Iris Xe, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or better) DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 1 GB available space Additional Notes: The simulation runs on GPU compute shaders. Integrated graphics run at the Low quality preset. Recommended OS: Windows 11 64-bit Processor: 64-bit six-core CPU (Intel Core i5-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or better) Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Dedicated DirectX 12 GPU with 6 GB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or better) DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 2 GB available space Additional Notes: A dedicated GPU allows larger cultures at the High and Ultra quality presets.
Minimum OS: SteamOS 3 / Ubuntu 22.04 64-bit or newer Processor: 64-bit quad-core CPU (Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 3 or better) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Vulkan 1.1 GPU with compute shader support and 2 GB VRAM (Steam Deck, AMD Radeon 780M or better) Storage: 1 GB available space Additional Notes: Vulkan is required. OpenGL cannot load the simulation shaders. Recommended OS: SteamOS 3 / Ubuntu 24.04 64-bit or newer Processor: 64-bit six-core CPU (Intel Core i5-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or better) Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Dedicated Vulkan GPU with 6 GB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or better) Storage: 2 GB available space Additional Notes: Vulkan is required. OpenGL cannot load the simulation shaders.