📓-dev-diary

[pseudo lichen]

Extinction Exploration Preview - August Live Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPI2yFNSmjc&list=PLg0MZLsflKAiqQ6fPRE_jMA84kVfMVy1G&index=1

[pseudo lichen]

Twitch Stream for December , get ready for the Pollinator event.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1680756493

[heady raptor]

We've just posted a new TikTok video featuring our lead game designer responding to the most asked questions from our incredible player community. 🎥💬

🎉 Check it out right now: https://www.tiktok.com/@celltosingularity/video/7225727851197173034

Make sure you're following our official TikTok account @celltosingularity for more updates and exclusive content. And as always, keep sharing your thoughts and suggestions in the server. We're listening! 📣

[tardy thicket]

Hi Universe Architects!

We’ve been quiet for a while, but we have some good news to share with all of our players!

A big thank you to the Explore team who launched Explore: Deep Sea "Lurking in the Dark” earlier this year. Since we are a small team, we can only focus on one thing at a time, so now we will pivot back to another highly anticipated feature: The Beyond. We heard all of your feedback and we are happy to share that we will be expanding the Beyond in episodes, one rank at a time. We will be looking across the Milky Way, exploring nebulas, and journeying deep into the universe.

After exploring the depths of space, it will be time for the dawn… of Civilization! We will expand the civilization tree and overhaul the 3D garden. We gave a sneak peak of its development during the ‘Lurking in the Dark’ event launch AMA, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

We had a number of issues with Metabits production after the implementation of the giant squid. When we added the giant squid, the new progression curve conflicted with the existing tuning in the game. This caused Metabit production to accelerate infinitely, and many players hit the max cap. We had to re-tune the mined Metabits bonus to get it under control; this also reduced the Metabit production rate and the Metabits inventory of affected players. This led to some confusion and feedback regarding ‘missing’ Metabits.

The screenshot below shows the mined Metabit bonus curve per rank. Note the old curve (blue) starts to run off the chart while the new curve (red) gets a capped amount of 50,000% boost. This led to more underlying issues that have negatively impacted the game economy and retention. We are currently working hard to fix this problem and will continue to make adjustments on the tuning. We appreciate your support as we make these changes to ensure that the game remains fun.

Thank you again for continuing to enjoy the game! We plan to update you regularly with more dev diary posts.

As always, stay cellular!
– The Cells team

[heady raptor]

\🚀\🌌 Hello, Universe Architects! \🌌\🚀

We’ve been busy at work these past few weeks. 2 weeks ago, we gave a sneak peek of the Beyond Episode 18 and an in-depth look at the Metabit tuning in our team livestream. In case you missed it, you can check out the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_52cwT_C5E

As a followup from the stream, we want to highlight the importance of the Metabit tuning 🔧 and its future impact on the game. We agree that in its current form it is painfully slow, but it is also temporary. Only 2 iterations have passed and the 3rd iteration is still in the works. As more iterations are released, the Metabit tuning will progressively improve to properly reflect both seasoned and new players' progressions. We want to ensure that there is always something to accomplish with current and future content. This is the foundation that needs to be built before Civilization 🏛️ and eventually Astronomy updates ☄️ can be released. These are some of the changes that have been made in the 2nd tuning iteration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ntumFbhpy4j6gtybpnKGSBgtLirBmeHAQUsqVSNj8PM/ 📝

With the Beyond, we will be releasing content one episode/rank at a time starting with Episode 18. We will traverse the stars and learn more of our galactic neighbors outside of Alpha Centauri. We wanted to expand the 3D garden to be as accurate as possible in terms of scale and position based on realistic known models. We were able to solve a technical problem in order to zoom out even further in the 3D garden, but it took 8 months of development to resolve ⏳.

Episode 18’s tree was designed based on the Hertzsprung diagram, where we changed the order at which the stars get unlocked. In the diagram below, cooler and dimmer stars displayed on the right are red, while bigger and brighter stars to the left are whiter and blue. These stars are categorized based on their mass and the amount of energy they emit. Our new trait cards follow the progression of a star from the moment they are born to the moment when they no longer have the energy to burn. There will also be two new constellations coming out. Can you guess which ones? Hint: you can find out in the livestream, along with a new Darwinium code. It's time to get SIRIUS! \🌌\💫

As Beyond Episode 18 nears completion, we have made a number of changes to the game in anticipation for its release. In the next production build, players will notice that there is a new location for the Beyond in the Main Simulation. The Beyond will be accessible after unlocking the Moon 🌕 in the beginning of the game. The special tapping animation that plays while unlocking the Beyond has also been updated. We hope you check it out 👀!

We have also been exploring our branding for marketing. We've been experimenting with a more sci-fi look as we move away from our known solar system 🚀. At first, we wanted to title our episodes with X such as Beyond X18 but we found that it might be too confusing to read. Now we're taking the 'E' from episode and turning it into Beyond E18. Nothing has been finalized yet as we are still exploring our options but let us know what you think. Should we have gone with X instead of E, or is E the clear winner?

We are aware of the production version overwriting the save files of the beta version in Google Play, and we are working on a solution 💼. In the meantime, we highly recommend beta testers to uncheck the auto update option for Cell to Singularity to prevent the production build from overwriting their beta save files.

We also want to take this time to stress how vital our beta testers' contributions are for improving the game. We really appreciate all participation in the beta as we work towards making the game as enjoyable as possible together. The primary goal for the beta is to identify bugs and feedback before the game gets released to the public. However, we do want to remind our players who participate in our betas that these builds are not bug free as they are meant for testing. As a result, we have multiple warnings upon agreeing to be part of the beta that your save file and progression will be affected. As we are testing the next Beyond episodes, there will be times where we will reset everyone’s progress to the end of the last rank to test the next episode’s content. We appreciate and thank all of our players who choose to participate in our betas! We are always looking for more people to join, so for those who are interested please apply below: 👇

HOW TO JOIN BETA 💼

Android: fill out this form: https://forms.gle/dK5qCcmHaJguNGNm9, and wait until you get an email with the next steps (might take a week)

iOS: follow this link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/RD9jGH9S

Steam: On the Steam C2S main page go to Properties -> Betas -> Enter beta access code cellsalphatest.

As always, we truly appreciate and thank you all for your feedback. We may be slow, but we do listen. Very soon, we will announce the launch date for the release of the Beyond Episode 18. Keep an eye out for it 👀!

In the meantime, stay cellular!
– The Cells team

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for August

Hi Universe Architects!

We're back from PlayNYC and ready to share what we’ve been working on. Here’s a sneak peak of what will be coming out in the next production build.

The Dawn of Civilization is upon us— starting with a base update to the Civilization Garden. For this release, we've set the stage for the first six Ages of Civilization. The garden may feel empty initially, but this is just the first phase of many to come! In an upcoming series of updates, expect to unfold new scenes that delve deeper into the history of each era— starting with the Stone Age!

The leaderboard has also gone through a complete overhaul. Say goodbye to high scores, and say hello to the new tiered leaderboard system. In this new iteration, your total progress in the game will be tracked using Research Points (RP). You will only see other players that share your current tier, with tiers being based on player progression. We wanted to make leaderboards fair where players are ranked globally based on overall personal progress, achievements and badges accumulated.
Keep in mind, all leaderboard content and tuning are still under development as we continue to iterate on Metabit production. On the bright side, players who cheat will no longer be placed at the top of your leaderboard.

RP is the new overall XP and there will be new titles given per rank. Each title will have a max of ten levels per tier and must be achieved before the next title upgrade. Title art and names will be subject to change in future updates. We hope you're looking forward to progressing through the entire game with this updated system! It was designed with your feedback in mind.

It’s been some time since our last tuning update, and we are happy to share the 4th Tuning iteration, soon to be available in-game. In this round, we’ve been focused back on Metabit production. We wanted the Mesozoic Valley and the Beyond to also contribute to Metabit production since players spend a lot of time there prestiging and ranking up. With these re-tuning changes, Metabit production should be reflected more fairly across all in-game content.

• We’re adding 9 new Metabit upgrades— 3 each for Mesozoic Valley, Beyond, and Explore Badges that will affect the Metabit production for the main simulation. They all give a 10X increase to the base power of 0.01

| Upgrade Level | Boost per Level |
|---------------|-----------------|
| No upgrade    | 0.01            |
| Level 1       | 0.10            |
| Level 2       | 1.00            |
| Level 3       | 10.00           |

• These new upgrades will boost Metabit production for each extinction for Mesozoic Valley, each episode of the Beyond, and each Explore badge earned.
• This is reflected in the new highlighted views from the total production view in the Reality Engine.
• The first Metabit upgrade will be available after unlocking its respective content for the first time, and the next upgrade will be available after unlocking the former.
• The Metabit cost has been lowered for Ape and Mammal research nodes while also increasing production boost.

After a break from events, a new limited-time Explore Event will debut soon! We have been exploring ways to reduce production time so that we can bring more to you at a faster cadence. The new Explore Event will be focused on the history, technology and culture of tea. It will include a new tree with achievements, music and after reading your feedback, we are re-introducing the garden but in a far more simplified form. Look forward to **Explore: A Journey of **Serenity in the coming weeks!

Beyond Episode 19 is almost here! There are four new star generators to look forward to as we continue our exploration of The Lives of Stars. In addition, we'll be adding nine new trait cards and one constellation. For those who are part of the beta, please continue to give us feedback as we finalize tuning.

We will also have a livestream on <t:1692378000:f> to show you more of the updated Civ Garden and to answer your questions about the leaderboard and tuning updates. Thank you for your patience and support. We hope to see you in our upcoming livestream!

Stay cellular!
– The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

🎥 We just uploaded a August live stream on YouTube! Dive in to see the major changes to the Civ garden, all-new leaderboard and free Darwinium

https://youtu.be/6i6XExdbAPY

[pseudo lichen]

If you missed the Beyond episode 19 AMA you can listen to it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDm9otolHwk

[heady raptor]

Explore tea's history with the Cells team in this exclusive Let's Play: https://youtu.be/b0WxdtFoVwY

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for Oct— Spill the tea, what’s happening?

Read the latest updates from the Cells team!

Hi Universe Architects!

It’s been some time since we last made a dev diary. It’s the busiest we’ve been for a while, and we hope everyone is enjoying all of the updates we’ve been working hard on. Thank you for your continued feedback for these updates, especially to our beta community for replaying our test builds multiple times. We would not be able to do this without everyone’s enthusiasm and support.

Get your tea ready and let’s take the time to recap all the content that’s been out before we take a look into what’s coming up next. Warning: It’s a bit of a long read.

Take a sip as we take a step back

We released our second limited time event of the year Explore: Tea — A Journey of Serenity.
We are still figuring out our process for bringing more events to you at an increased cadence while also gauging topics that would resonate with our players. Although we aspire to incorporate a 3D garden for each Explore Event, the reality is that even a simplified version demands too much time for production. We currently face a dilemma between accommodating player demand and managing our internal team's bandwidth. We aim to deliver enjoyable experiences for our players, but when stacked up against potential delays, we'll need to review the necessity of Explore Event 3D gardens once more moving forward.

We’ve also received a lot of questions on why we chose tea as a topic. It is very different from what we’ve done in the past, and it was mainly an internal decision based on the team’s love for tea. In January, we created a poll asking our players what topics they would like us to pursue for future events. Out of the many topics that were suggested, tea was the only topic that seemed to gain widespread interest within the team. And so, what was once a conversation starter became a project that led to the creation of a new limited time event! It was led by a two person team with different members floating in as needed during its development. We even surprised players at PlayNYC (learn more: link) as Tea made its debut to the public as a beta feature.

If players are still curious about the process and want to learn more, our Discord ‘Let’s Play’ event during Tea’s launch can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/b0WxdtFoVwY

We hope players enjoyed Explore: Tea — A Journey of Serenity, and we will be using your feedback to help us improve future events.

Civilization wasn’t built in a day

The Dawn of Civilization is in full swing! With the release of the Stone Age Civilization update, we introduced seven new research nodes and four unique trophy nodes to the Main Simulation tree. Göbekli Tepe, Dog Domestication and Lascaux are three new prizes that appear in the Civilization Garden once unlocked from the Logit Store. Players will need to save up Logits and Darwinium in order to acquire these exclusive new items. We also added a new hidden achievement. Many players should have already found it. If not, it is tied to a special interaction with a certain canine companion.

You may notice that the Stone Age Garden is bursting with life! We’ve added animated characters and other decor to make the garden feel more complete. It doesn’t come without restrictions, though. With each new 3D model we add to the garden, it increases the size of the game app while also reducing the ability for older phones to enjoy the new content. As a result, the characters and environment went through multiple iterations to reduce its poly count so that the game can continue to grow. We are constantly optimizing our assets to ensure that our game requires less space and can be played on older phones.

As we go further into the Beyond

Discover strange and bizarre exoplanets as the simulation takes an alien twist with Beyond Episode 20: Strange Worlds taking the stage very soon. Follow Semblance as she explores strange solar systems to find an exoplanet that could support terrestrial life. Will she be successful? There will be five new exciting exoplanet generators based on recent NASA research to explore, with twelve Series II trait cards to boost the Beyond simulation.

At a technical level, every new episode of the Beyond requires us to rank up our 3D visualizations, and Episode 20 is no exception. In Episode 19, we added exoplanets, which required us to make planets independent of the generator that they were unlocked with. For Episode 20, we needed to flip that - make planets orbiting a star where the **planet **is the generator. A lot of surprising technical changes came out of that one small change. When you click on a star to focus on it, the camera needs to know to zoom in on the planet, not the star. The name that appears in the garden should also be the name of the star system (“Wasp 12”) rather than the name of the planet (“Wasp 12 b”). When you tap the “-” button to unfocus the generator, it needs to focus on the star in the system it is in. As we add fascinating new generators to the Beyond, Semblance isn’t the only one leveling up her simulation.

With the story of the Lives of Stars concluded, we’ve been exploring our branding to give the next episode a unique look and feel while still connecting it to the overall Beyond expansion. There were a lot of design favorites but ultimately we picked a direction that reflects the story’s progression. Do you have a favorite?

It’s the race towards discovery

We’ve made a lot of changes and progress towards the revamped leaderboard system. Some of it is very confusing and has broken along the way. We’re really grateful for our players' feedback as we polish this system. It’s unfortunate that some unexpected bugs popped up with each fix, many of which are tied to the complexities of developing a multiplayer system that affects the relationship of data between our server and the game.

Whenever we do beta tests for the leaderboard race, we are essentially testing whether the data feedback call between the server and the game is working as intended. Playtimes need to be accurately recorded to show the correct time passed to complete the race and earn rewards. Each tier is divided into a group of at most 15 players (after the most recent update). Players are grouped according to their tier rank as well as their place in the race.

For example, if you are a player who started the race on Day 2 of the event then you will be placed with other players who are also starting the race on Day 2. All of you are in the same tier rank too. Similarly, players who cheat will be grouped in the same tier with other cheaters. They will not be seen with non-cheaters. However, if a player follows someone who is a cheater, they will also appear in your list even if you are in a tier with non-cheaters.

We also test some of the profile and icon customizations we’ve added to ensure that they are working properly. We hope that this information gives a better understanding to our players on how the leaderboard race works. We admit that it is not perfect and we are iterating it constantly based on player feedback. We are getting there, and we appreciate your continued support.

We’ve been having a lot of discussions on how we can make the new leaderboard system integrated in other simulations with more improvements over time. We are even in talks about removing cheaters from the leaderboard race to prevent them from participating in the future. For now, we will continue reviewing player feedback and gauging excitement over this existing feature.

Dodos are back to haunt your simulation

Halloween is around the corner, and something supernatural has invaded the simulation once again. The dodos are back to haunt the simulation! Semblance needs help to capture these ghostly nuisances.

Since we’ve debuted the Dodo Ghost Hunt in 2022, we’ve received a lot of requests to bring back this fun and popular event, particularly for those who have missed its secret achievement. This year, with the revamp of the Civilization Garden, the Dodos have migrated to new locations and it will be up to the players to find their new hiding spots.

The Dodo Ghost Hunt will run from October 18 to November 8, 2023. Can you find all 66 dodos? 🦤

Fun fact— the Dodos have periodically escaped their graves and have run amuck during development over the past year. We’ve had to stamp them out a number of times and have wondered if they’ve become a bug or a feature. Ourgameishaunted

Metabit tuning continues to be a challenge

It’s been an eventful year so far. We've released more content than we’ve done in past years, but it’s also come with its difficulties. It should come as no surprise that balancing for Metabit production has been challenging.

We wanted to re-balance Metabit production since we planned to add more nodes and Logit prizes with the launch of the revamped Civilization update and more. But the main reason this became a bigger focus was due to the introduction of the Giant Squid Logit prize. An error in its curve exploded the game economy and caused players to finish the game faster. As a result, the game’s retention began to drop and we’ve been working hard to fix that. Unfortunately, we were not successful and our retention began to drop even more as the game became harder to play with the slow Metabit production. With the 5th Metabit tuning iteration we are able to see a small recovery in our retention, but only time can tell before we can determine if there was any meaningful impact.

Balancing of Metabit production is going to go through multiple iterations over time as we add more content. We'll be going beyond eight iterations from what we have initially stated in order to ensure that the game's economy is balanced. We are thankful for all the feedback we’ve received from our players as it helps us pivot in the right direction. It’s been a rough ride, and we thank you for your patience and continued support.

What’s coming up next?

Roadmap!

Phew, that was a lot to review! If you've made it this far, thanks for reading along. As the year is coming to an end, we want to share an updated roadmap of everything we’ve accomplished. We are proud to say that we’ve fulfilled our aspirations and goals for the year and are excited for more to come. Coupled with a monthly dev diary, our future goal is to release two roadmap updates a year.

We are currently ahead of schedule as we have three Beyond ranks in development. There are also three updates planned to expand Civilization and its garden. We’ve just released the Explore: Tea — A Journey of Serenity limited time event, and we have another one currently in the works. It will be a great melody in our symphony of events. We also have other topics lined up and want to thank our players for always sending us suggestions.

That is all, everyone! Thank you again to all of our players, especially the beta community. We hope the sentiment is shared when we say that we listen to your feedback. Our game continues to improve and grow due to our players’ time and support for us. Keep an eye out as we announce the launch for Beyond Episode 20: Strange Worlds in the near future.

On <t:1697821200:F>, we will be live on Twitch for another livestream. Join us as we talk more about the Civilization update, Beyond Episode 20, and plans for tuning the leaderboard system. A new Darwinium code will also be waiting for you to redeem.

Stay Cellular!
- The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

🎥 We just uploaded our October live stream on YouTube! Dive in to see the major changes to the Research Race, a brand new roadmap and sneak peeks of future updates .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MkRb5LDFE

[tardy thicket]

The Cells team is looking ahead! 🗺️ ✨

We're excited to share our newest roadmap for future updates. 2023 has been a jam-packed year, and we're looking forward to the next several months of development.

Still not enough Cells? Keep an eye out for our monthly dev diaries! The next entry will be available to read later this month.

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for Nov – Fixing bugs and Looking ahead

Read the latest updates from the Cells team!

Welcome back, Universe Architects!

Thanksgiving has passed with a lot of updates and excitement. We released the latest installment of the Civilization: Neolithic Age update and our third limited-time event of the year, Explore: Music – Good Vibrations. We hope everyone has been enjoying the new content.

A big thank you to our beta and Steam players for keeping a watchful eye out for some bugs last month. Thanks to their vigilance, we were able to apply hotfixes early. For context, in September, we saw an uptick in crashes. To resolve those issues, we updated our Unity from version 2020.3.33f1 to version 2022.3.10f1. And it worked – the game’s crash rate on Android went down from 3-4% to less than 1%.

Along with the Unity upgrade, we also updated our APIs and Ads SDKs. Unfortunately, this resulted in the Cell to Singularity banner blocking the exit button for some players, meaning they were unable to exit ads. We also saw some reports of players losing their Darwinium inventory. Thankfully, we were able to resolve both issues quickly, and we strongly advise all our players to update to the latest versions to address most issues they might encounter. The Marketing/ Community team has also been reaching out to players from our various socials to provide help where needed. A thank you again to the community for supporting each other.

Quick tip: Another solution to restore any lost inventory is to use the backup save option. The game autosaves progress in different intervals in the background. Players should take advantage of this feature as their first line of defense in protecting their save files.

If you have already updated to the latest version and still encounter problems, please do the following:

• Email [e-mail] with your platform/device and the latest build version number.
• If multiple devices are used, mention the build version numbers installed.
• Give a detailed summary of the issue.

More quality of life improvements are in the works for next year. The goal is to avoid disruptions while continuing to add lots of new content to the game:

• We are working on an anti-cheat system for Research Race events. The challenge has been for the system to recognize and separate out players who do not use legitimate methods to finish the race.
• We are also testing several new performance optimizations. This should help the game to run smoothly, even on older phones.
• An in-game news feature system is also planned, to share the latest news and updates in the game. This feature is especially important for instances where players are required to update their game versions in order to enjoy the latest content.

We are excited to hear players’ feedback for the Explore: Music – Good Vibrations garden. We are currently experimenting with various formats and approaches to in-game events, and are curious about what players like, so make sure to share your thoughts with us.

Stay tuned for December as we mark the last livestream of 2023 to celebrate all the content released over the year. (The November livestream was skipped because of Thanksgiving). This November, we are grateful for you, our players. Cells has grown bigger and better thanks to your continued support. The year hasn’t ended yet and we have a jam packed schedule of content ready for you to enjoy over the coming holidays. Can you guess what’s next?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iahgUvDN5jQ

Beyond Episode 21 is coming soon! Semblance’s journey continues as her projections have yielded inconclusive results. Her quest for another rare, earth-like planet that could sustain life continues. After re-calculating her trajectory, it looks like she might have found something, an echo of something similar. Keep an eye out for Beyond Episode 21: Echoes of Earth to find out more.

Always thankful, stay cellular!
- The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for Jan — Body language and the dawn of history

Happy New Year, Universe Architects!

After an end-of-year break, the Cells team is back at work. Let's recap on what's been released since our last update, and take a peek at what we've been working on now. As always, we rely on your feedback, particularly the feedback of our players who test all the new features of the game before public release. Our beta players play test never before seen content and provide feedback on their experience. As a result, many of the features added in the game are requests from our testers.

The Leg Bone Connected to the Knee Bone…

We released the first recurring event of the New Year, Explore: Human Body — Anatomy of Life. Based on a topic long requested by players, the event was the first to feature a content warning due to sensitive medical material and trypophobia. While the event was well received overall, we wanted to give players the opportunity to skip the event if they did not feel comfortable. The Human Body event is also the first to strategically feature two interdependent currencies: Deoxygenated and Oxygenated blood, which work in tandem to unlock nodes and generators. Generators purchased with one type of currency can produce the other type, which gave rise to new strategies in this event.

In order to ensure scientific accuracy, we consulted a medical doctor for this event. They made certain that the smallest details were correct from the particulars of the hypodermis to the complex functioning of the lobes in the brain. The pineal gland maintains your circadian rhythm - your sleep cycle - by responding to cues from the presence and absence of blue light in the day and night. Did you know that the blue-ish, green, purple vein popping out of your hand carries deoxygenated blood? For many, this was new information to learn from this event.

The launch of Explore: Human Body — Anatomy of Life was accompanied by a Discord 'Let's Play' event. A big thank you to everyone who showed. Attendees played along with the team and received Darwinium in the chat. If you enjoyed this event, we always welcome feedback to help us improve in the future.

Nebulae in 3D

With Beyond E22: When Stars Die, the simulation sailed into strange new waters. Modeling massive nebulae in 3D at 360 degrees was a large and complex undertaking. Stephanie Davila, a consultant who worked on this project, is a talented artist from Pariah Interactive game studio - our neighbors in Brooklyn. Using references from deep space images and drawing on simulations designed by astronomers, she created these amazing nebula models. Combined with advanced real-time mathematical data, the result is a feat no game has accurately depicted: distant nebulae in all their three-dimensional glory.

We chose a sampling of the most interesting, diverse nebulae for this episode. The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula sometimes referred to as the "Eye of God". The Cat's Eye Nebula was investigated by William Huggins, who demonstrated that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature. Episode 22 has other exciting new content which includes some very interesting stars…

When Bronze Changed History

The Civilization team began work on the Bronze Age by collecting powerful images of artifacts that survived from that time period.. The statues of rulers, gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Akkad and the Sea Peoples of Phoenicia are a wonder. The architecture of the Bronze Age was monumental: the Ziggurats of Ur, the palaces of Nineveh, and the Lion's Gate of Mycenae in Greece were overwhelming compared to what came before. In addition, new technological achievements inspired us to create immersive scenes in the garden, such as writing and paper, sailing ships, and the potter's wheel.

There is much to discover in the Bronze Age. A new addition to the Augmentation Store is the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is said by an ancient writer that the trees and flowers of this monumental edifice were watered by the Euphrates river by means of an Archimedes screw. Some scholars believe the structure was built not in Babylon, but in Nineveh, as a palace for the Assyrian king Sennacherib. The truth may lie beneath the waters of the Euphrates. We will never know for sure as the Hanging Gardens did not survive antiquity.

Another addition to the Augmentation Store is the Trojan Horse. While it never existed in real life, the Trojan Horse made its own historical mark in Homer’s influential myth, The Odyssey. Also accompanying this age, new achievements are waiting to be discovered. Will you find it?
What’s more, coming soon to the Augmentation Store is a technology that can change the way the Civilization Garden can be viewed: Map Mode. With this tool, players can get a birds eye view of the terrain and more easily visualize the sweep of human history.

We released more content in 2023 than we have in previous years. Our team has grown to support the game as a live operations service. 2024 is jam packed with exciting new content in store. New Beyond episodes are currently in development, as well as future Explore Events. Keep a look out for the Bronze Age, coming out very soon.

At the end of 2023, Cell to Singularity celebrated its fifth birthday. We couldn't have made it this far without the greatest community of players we could imagine. Our game will continue to grow and improve with your continued interest and support.

Stay cellular!
- The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

Cell To Singularity Review By WhatsAGeek team

"From both a casual player’s and a science enthusiast’s point of view, “recreating” that sense of discovery about how life on Earth evolved out of a steady chain of process after process is rewarding."

Thank you to the @whatsageek team for featuring Cell To Singularity! We greatly appreciate your full review of the game, and our team is glad to make the universe just one click away for many.

Link to the review: https://whatsageek.com/video-games/cell-to-singularity-review-one-click-away-from-simulating-the-universe

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for Mar-Apr: Future of Multiplayer

Hi Universe Architects,

In March, the Cells team spent a week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. There was a lot of prep work involved as we wrapped up our schedules to prepare and showcase our game with other fellow game developers. Things were quiet in the forefront, but we’ve been busy in the backend working on some new upcoming content and features, including Beyond episodes. We hope players enjoyed our April Fool’s post. Big changes to the game are also on the way.

For this dev diary, we wanted to talk about the future of multiplayer. In our last livestream and in past patch notes, we’ve alluded to the challenges of developing multiplayer features. It was our first time as a development team to tackle multiplayer and we’ve learned a lot along the way. To recap, we developed a new competitive leaderboard system for the Explore Events called the Research Race. This feature grouped players based on their progress and time started in the Explore Events up to a total of fifteen players per group. Each group would compete for first, second and third place and win prizes respectively. While the Research Race provided a fun and new way to play our events, it did leave casual players, who were less interested in the competitive aspect, little chance to win prizes. We also had cheaters who would consistently win the top prizes each round which created an unfair advantage. We did a number of changes over time from fixing technical issues to making the gameplay more fair, such as:

• Adjusting the badge boost bonus to a gradual uplift after gaining 200%.
• Players who were known to be cheating were shadow banned from the leaderboard (however, they will appear on the leaderboard if players have marked them as friends in the game).
• Time flux purchases were capped in Explore Events.

In the end, we feel that the Research Race was not the right fit for our game or the right environment we want to create. And so, multiplayer is evolving.

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

We will be phasing out the Research Race. We are currently developing a new segmented leaderboard where 1000 players will be playing in a group together. Players will be sorted in segmented groups based on the time they start and their relative progress in achieving objectives. There will be different tiers of achievements that will allow more players to win prizes. For example: Of a 1000 players in a segment, players would compete and could be placed in the top ten percent, top five, top one, etc. The higher the tier, the bigger the prize. The goal for this change is to be able to reward players who do not have as much time or who do not enjoy the competitive aspect in the game. Below is an example of a prototype. It is still a work in progress, the rewards and tiers are not a reflection of the final iteration.

Part of this new segmented leaderboard is in the game. We are collecting data in the background to make sure it works well with our Explore Events. Our beta players have already seen a sneak peek of this feature with a very conspicuous UI button appearing on the right side of their screen. We want to shape this system to be an enjoyable successor to the Research Race.

It Takes Two to Tango

We also want to expand the multiplayer experience in Cell to Singularity. Another feature we are planning to develop is one where players can collaborate together as a team. It is still early in the planning process, but we are excited to share some of our thoughts with players. This feature will introduce a new branch in Explore Events where players would group up to unlock and purchase new nodes that would enhance the Explore Event's tree. This could range from making the event go faster, gaining more currency, or even earning better prizes.

Teamwork is an inherent part of human evolution, so why not make it a part of Cells? We hope to offer players a new experience outside of competition based on the feedback we’ve received.

Do It Again

Another direction we're considering is shortening the length of Explore Events. We’ve received feedback that Explore Events are difficult to complete within forty hours. If events could be completed faster, a prestige mechanic, similar to the Mesozoic Valley, could be introduced that would allow players to earn more rewards before the end of the event. The extra currency generated from the Explore Events could also be converted into other game currencies. For example: Converting tea leaves from the Tea event into metabits, entropy or even ideas. Shorter events would also benefit casual players by giving them improved chances of completion.

The sky's the limit. We welcome any other ideas and opinions our players may have. Is there a preference over competition or collaboration? Would players enjoy the Explore events with a prestige mechanic? Or something else entirely? Share your thoughts with us in the comments, Discord or email: [e-mail]

I Know It When I See It

Our latest exciting new event: Explore: Visual Art — The Power of Images concluded its first run on Monday. It was a labor of love and our first event collaboration with Pariah Interactive— a game studio located close by in Brooklyn. We spent time curating art from across human history which culminated into the grand opening of our 3D garden art gallery. To promote the event, we held a Visual Art Contest where art was submitted in three different styles: Dadaism, Cubism and Pop Art. The creativity and variety of the submissions were breathtaking, from human-made art to AI generated work. We announced the winners and honorable mentions in a short chill stream, viewable on YouTube and Reddit. Check it out!

As Stone leads to Bronze, Bronze gives way to Iron. The Iron Age will be making its appearance to the Civilization Garden soon. Marked as the end of the three metal epochs, the Iron age was known as the “classical” period which introduced many cultural achievements and political reform. Watch the rise and fall of great civilizations with our latest trailer.

The Beyond is still underway as our beta players caught a glimpse of its development last week. We welcome feedback as we continue to polish the next episode. Last but not least, by popular request, we have an updated roadmap for our curious players. Take a look at what’s in store. The future of multiplayer is in the forefront of our minds as we continue to create more content. We’ve also been adjusting the tuning of the main simulation to accommodate new content from the latest Civilization updates.

We want to provide more contests and other fun engaging events to our community. In order to accommodate, moving forward, we will be releasing our dev diary once every three months (once every quarter). Roadmaps will continue to be released two times a year— one at the beginning and another at the end of the year. Livestreams will continue to be bi-monthly, with the next one towards the beginning of May. We will also be multi-streaming on Twitch and YouTube.

Thank you to all our players who continue to support us. We couldn't have made all this without the greatest game community we could imagine.

Always thankful, stay cellular!
- The Cells Team

[coarse tulip]

How Cats Broke The Game

Watch TierZoo's newest YouTube video, featuring our collaboration with the Cats Event: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1yefu
A big thank you to TierZoo for the partnership opportunity, but most of all, thank you to our amazing players for continuing to support us. Enjoy the video and the Cats event.

Stay Cellular!

[heady raptor]

Dev Diary for Sep: The Evolution of Explore Events

Greetings Universe Architects,

In the last days of summer, we shared our game at AnimeNYC. There, players got to play an early version of Explore: Rocks — Set in Stone, that we released last week.

We’ve been on a roll with Explore Events. We went from having a new one every six months to five this year (with more to come). We are really proud of this accomplishment, and we see it as a testament to the team's enthusiasm and hard work.

We also completed our first ever Explore Event partnerships. For the first one, we teamed up with Brooklyn based Pariah Studios to create Explore: Visual Art — The Power of Images. Later that summer we did a brand partnership with YouTube influencer TierZoo for Explore: Cats — A Feline Journey. It was exciting to collaborate with these creatives and develop something cooler than each of us could have made on our own.

Last week we released yet another new event, Explore: Rocks — Set in Stone. It was inspired by an April Fool’s joke we made in 2021. After seeing the joke, a surprisingly large number of fans tirelessly advocated for a Geology event, and three years later we were able to make their dream a reality (as well as share this topic with new players).

Get spooky! In honor of our favorite chilly season, we are working on a different type of Explore Event. We’ve never done this type of content before and we are curious to hear what fans think of it. We'll be talking more about it in our upcoming October livestream, so stay tuned.

Outside of Explore Events, the Beyond is still in the works. We will soon be releasing Episode 26, with Episode 27 slated to release before the end of this year. Beyond Phase II is coming to a close with its current stage of development. Our amazing beta players have already seen a sneak peak of some of the content coming up. It will take time before all that content will be available to all players, but not to worry— it is not the end. As we take a pause with the Beyond, we will be reevaluating in what shape or form more space content will be developed. Space is still #relevant.

Another piece of content that will go on pause is Civilization in the Primary Tree Simulation. As players remember, we started renovating the Ancient Civilization garden in October of 2023. Following the renovation, we also added new content to the Primary Simulation tree with new Augmentations to purchase. The release of the Age of Exploration closes out the Ancient Civilization track with Scientific revolution moving into the Modern Civilization track. We will use the time to focus on features and bugs that players have been requesting for a while. For example, quality of life improvements, first-time player experience, Main Simulation tree tuning, old prevalent bugs and much more. We're excited to be working with our beta testers on these important updates. For those interested, follow the instructions on our official subreddit.

Lastly, to reflect the amount of work we’ve accomplished over the past months, here is an updated roadmap along with features we are currently working on. Our last roadmap was in April. We're happy to say that we've hit our goal in running more contests, and we hope everyone who's participated in them so far has been having fun. We want to give our players the opportunity to showcase their talents in different areas. We also accept feedback and requests regarding future contest ideas. As a reminder, roadmaps are scheduled to go out two times a year. Dev diaries are scheduled once every quarter, a total of four per year. The next one will be in December.

We’re grateful to each of our players for your continued support of our game, especially to our beta players who test rough versions of features we are working on. Cells is going through a time of change with exciting new updates on the horizon. We look forward to sharing this journey with our greatest community ever and we always look forward to your feedback.

Stay cellular and cozy!
- The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

Happy Halloween from the Cells team! 👻 🎃 🍬

[heady raptor]

Reality Reboot is Coming Dev Diary for Mar 2025

Greetings Universe Architects @everyone,

2024 has flown by. We skipped December’s dev diary and closed out the year with the release of Beyond E27: Galactic Battle and Explore: Math – Beautiful Complexity. Starting off in 2025, we released our first Explore Event of the year with Explore: Artificial Intelligence – Mind Machines and announced the newly released Beyond E28: Clusterstruck. Outside of content, we’ve also made some quality of life improvements and introduced the ability for players to receive push notifications on Android and iOS.

For this dev diary, we’ll be focusing on a project we previously teased during our January 2025 chillstream. There’s been a lot of discussion around the screenshot we shared (we loved reading everyone’s thoughts on what it might be), and we’re excited to reveal the work we’ve been doing behind the scenes. Below is an updated screenshot from what we shared in the stream. A lot of information is being revealed, so take a close look as we move through the dev diary and break down some of the key elements.

Big Changes to the Reality Engine

Following the Ancient Civilization update in August last year, the team embarked on a new ambitious adventure to overhaul the Primary Simulation and the Reality Engine in the upcoming Reality Reboot expansion. Unlike previous Metabit tuning updates, we are now rebuilding the game functionally from the ground up. The team is doing some major refactoring, and we are holding spirited discussions and tests to ensure the updates will be as fun as possible.

A New Player has Entered

To create the most satisfying experience possible for our players we enlisted an exciting new collaborator for the project: Chrysto, founder of Octocube Games and renowned creator of CIFI and ISEPS. He is a big fan of idle games and loves diving into the math behind upgrade systems.

In December of last year, Chrysto met with us at our Brooklyn, New York office. We discussed in great detail the goals we wanted to achieve in rebalancing the Primary Simulation and crafting an exciting progression path through the prestige system. We are thrilled to collaborate with Chrysto to deliver new features and experiences for our players.

Reality Reboot will introduce additional upgrades, improve tuning, and streamline progression. While the core game design will not change, we want to build a longer narrative arc. With the current pace of the game, new players can reach Singularity within two weeks and many seasoned players can finish new content within a few days of release. We also want to make the late game exciting and for each update to feel like a new chapter.

To achieve this, significant updates will be introduced to the Metabit economy and the Prestige system. The early part of the Primary Simulation will remain roughly the same, but the first Prestige will no longer occur at Singularity. Instead, it will unlock once the player reaches Ideas (the brain). With the Prestige system now available earlier, players will have access to new upgrades, content, currencies, and eventually future in-game lore. Players will also be given the choice to unlock and upgrade their Reality Engine to enhance their simulation. Different players will have their own preferences: some want to reset frequently, while others prefer to do so rarely. We want to accommodate both playstyles (and everything in between).

Spoilers Ahead.

The original setup of Ideas and Entropy influencing Metabit production caused balancing issues. To address this, we’re splitting Metabits into two new currencies: Entrobits and Ideabits.

Having two prestige currencies will open up more strategic gameplay and make progress feel rewarding on both tracks. Existing Metabits will be converted to Entrobits, which can be used to purchase existing upgrades. Ideabits will be introduced when players reach the Singularity and can be used to purchase new upgrades in the Reality Engine. We’re also launching the Compiler System, which simplifies and better communicates the process for generating prestige currencies.

We’re consolidating duplicate nodes into single, stackable upgrades while introducing new, unique upgrades that will expand the Reality Engine. Players will have a variety of upgrades to choose from, where their choices in the Reality Engine will have a unique impact on their simulation. Expect even more upgrades throughout 2025.

What will happen to my current progress?

Your current progress will be carried over with a few changes. In addition to converting Metabits to Entrobits, existing Reality Engine upgrades will be carried over and unlocked with new upgrades. Some upgrades will become stackable, allowing them to level up. The Global Leaderboard will also reflect the changes in the new system, which will update your score accordingly. Our system will be designed to align each player’s progression to where they should be.

There will be an extended beta period for players to test and provide feedback as we gradually roll out to the public. Feedback will also continue to be received after the official release. Help us reboot the Primary Simulation to be bigger and better than ever.

Roadmap

Speaking of the future, our latest roadmap highlights most of the content and features we are working on for the first half of the year. Starting with Reality Reboot, the main focus will be the Primary Simulation and Reality Engine overhaul before we move into the next phase. Civilization will make its roaring return later this year as humanity enters the Modern Ages, covering all eras from the Scientific to Atomic Ages. More Explore Events will continue to be in development with a new one currently in beta testing. The Beyond is also approaching its conclusion, as Episode 30 will be the final chapter. For fellow space lovers, don’t be too disappointed; space content will continue in a different form.

We've received a lot of love with the quality of life releases and we will continue to implement those throughout the year. The Google sign-in backup save is currently in the works, and the UI will be overhauled with the upcoming Reality Reboot rollout. Many more game improvements and features will also be released in tandem. We will be showcasing Reality Reboot at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts from May 8-11. Join us and meet the team behind Cell to Singularity, ask questions, provide feedback directly and play through exclusive new content. Stay tuned for more details about our exhibition booth at a later date. See you there!

We hope our players enjoy our long dev diaries. While there’s a lot to read, it's because we couldn't wait to share all the things we've been working on. Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to our community to test Reality Reboot before it goes out to the public. We’ll share more details on how to join alpha testing in the coming weeks.

As always we thank you, our amazing players, for your continued support. We are excited to see the game grow as we add more content and improvements.

Stay Cellular, Architects!
- The Cells Team

[heady raptor]

Reality Reboot Summer Update: Dev Diary for Aug 2025

Hello Universe Architects @everyone,

It’s been some time since our last update. As a refresher, we shared a dev diary in March that Cell to Singularity would be going through a major overhaul with our latest expansion, Reality Reboot. Since then, we’ve been heads-down in development. With this as our primary focus, the entire team has temporarily paused work on other projects, including the Beyond and Explore Events. We plan to pick them back up after Reality Reboot’s release.

As mentioned in our previous dev diary, we separated the Reality Reboot expansion from the main game and Beta due to the significant rework involved. Behind the scenes, we’ve been releasing weekly updates to the Cells Alpha version while overhauling the Primary Simulation and Reality Engine. Alpha access has been available to those who signed up through the form in the Open Call. If you still want to participate in the Alpha, sign up and look out for more information about Worldwide Alpha at a later date.

For Reality Reboot, we’ve introduced new content to the Primary Simulation Tree and changed the tuning progression to keep the expansion fun and engaging. Players will have new ways to play strategically, adding more depth and complexity. Casual players can still enjoy the game at their own pace, with improved tutorials that explain new features and mechanics. Please note that many of the updates discussed here are still undergoing development, and specific details may be revised before the final release. Let’s dive into what we’ve been working on. Spoilers Ahead

Level Up Your Simulation

Players will now have a global Research Level as they progress through the Primary Simulation. This will replace the global leaderboard score shown in player profiles. Earning Entropy and Idea* generates Research XP, which increases the player’s Research Level. Each new level requires more Research XP than the last. Old and new content in the Primary Simulation Tree is now gated behind glitch nodes, which unlock based on the player’s Research Level. For players with existing progress, any content you’ve already unlocked will remain unchanged.

*Fun Fact: Did you know that the Idea currency in the game is not meant to be plural? Idea is always singular even when you have a lot of it (This fact blew some of our team members’ minds too).

The Reality Engine's updated Simulation Panel is now a hub for checking accumulated Research XP as well as the estimated time to reach the next Research Level. The panel also displays overall simulation progress, stats, and other key features.

Additionally, players will also get one Research Chip each time they gain a Research Level. Research Chips can be spent in the Simulation Panel to boost a player’s Metabits (formerly Entrobits) and Knowledge (formerly Ideabits) generation. For every ten Research Chips spent, players are granted an additional bonus that doubles the overall production boost. Please note that the current values in the image below are under review and subject to change.

Reality Engine Upgrades

The Reality Engine is getting a full makeover in both form and function, featuring new visuals and node upgrades. When players choose to upgrade their Simulation, they will gain the Metabits and Knowledge they have accumulated from their last playthrough, which can then be spent to upgrade their Reality Engine.

We’ve also made a change where players can now upgrade the Reality Engine while actively progressing through the Primary Simulation, so long as they have Metabits and Knowledge to spend. The number of Reality Engine node upgrades has more than doubled, so players can discover new pathways to customize their game experience. For any long-time players who wish to reset their Reality Engine, a reset option is available in the Simulation Panel, allowing for greater experimentation and strategy.

Any player who has reached Research Level 50 can now unlock a new feature: Legacy Protocol. Activating the Legacy Protocol will completely reset a player’s Primary Simulation and Reality Engine progress. This feature can only be activated once and is designed for those who want a fresh start following the Reality Reboot release. In return, players will receive a permanent 2x Simulation Speed boost and unlock the Legacy Crystal cosmetic in their Primary Simulation Tree. The Legacy Protocol does not affect Logit and Darwinium purchases, or progress in the Beyond, Mesozoic Valley, or Explore Events.

For any current players who wish to take advantage of this feature when Reality Reboot releases, they must have all of the Martian City nodes in the Primary Simulation unlocked.

Explore Amphibians & Scientific Revolution

New late-game content is coming to the Primary Simulation. Get ready to discover a new branch of life in the form of Amphibians, as well as new Scientific Revolution Nodes in the Technology Tree.

Players will be able to access this content after reaching a specific Research Level, which is still being finalized. Amphibians will have all-new unlockable Trait Nodes and a bumpy-skinned generator. The Scientific Revolution will have new Technology Nodes in addition to the current ones. Both will also feature exclusive Trophy Nodes that can be unlocked with Logits or Darwinium, complete with unique 3D models and animations.

Amphibians and Scientific Revolution are planned to be a part of the initial Reality Reboot launch. New in-game content will not end there, though. More critters and technological advancements will be released in chapters in the months to follow. We hope players are excited!

New achievements will also be added to reflect the game’s growing complexity and will require strategy to earn. Existing achievements will remain unchanged.

Timeline to Release

Reality Reboot is officially scheduled for release in Fall 2025. Similar to previous major updates, we will implement a phased rollout to ensure the game is stable before it is available to everyone. We will provide more details about Worldwide Alpha and Beta soon.

We cannot thank you all enough for your continued support and patience during the development of Reality Reboot. After its official release, we will resume our regular content updates and development cadence. While it is on the quiet side right now, our team is working hard to deliver an amazing experience for everyone. We’re focused on making sure Reality Reboot launches in the best possible state. Stay tuned as the release date gets closer.

Stay Cellular, Architects!

- The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Hello, Universe Architects. We’ve been working on lots of new content for the upcoming Aquatic Mammals patch and Beyond: Phase I expansion!

The tundra is getting a few new faces! Not only are we adding a whale that will swim in and out of this arctic stream, penguins are also getting a texture makeover and a blubbery friend is making itself at home.

Before we add new game content to the tree, our researcher lays it all out in a detailed spreadsheet. Here you can see the beginnings of The Beyond: Phase I, featuring early concept ideas for potential upgrades

While working with our 3D artist, mockups are an efficient way to communicate edits. We’ll also be adding a secret achievement related to this Darwin bust. Good luck finding it later!

Ever wonder how the tree appears before we piece everything together? It looks a little something like this. It may seem sparse, but there’s a lot of code packed into each node.

We hope you enjoyed another round of our behind the scenes footage! Work on the Aquatic Mammals patch is continuing into polish, as The Beyond: Phase I undergoes further development.

Please feel free to ask questions and offer comments!

We’re excited to show you what we have next week. Stay cellular!

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects,

Beta testing for Aquatic Mammals was released last week, and we have a few exciting features to share with you in addition to it!

WOAH! Did you see that?! When you'll unlock the Whale and Dolphin nodes for the first time, they'll appear in the Ocean Garden. They'll also find a place to swim freely in the Land Garden, so get ready to do some whale watching!

We've also added a hidden Galapagos Island somewhere in the Land Garden! We wanted it to feel diverse and full of life, so our technical artist put a lot of finesse and hard work into the final product. Be sure to take plenty of photos when you find it!

Some secret achievements are being added to the patch, too! One of them involves a river dolphin, which we retextured to better match its real-life counterpart.

When we make pricing modifications, every little change is recorded in our internal pricing sheet. From there our developers are able to keep track of new prices to program for all of our main generators. Here's a look at where it all happens!

The official release of Aquatic Mammals is underway! As we start to wrap up collecting beta feedback and polishing the upcoming content, we hope you're enjoying these sneak peeks!

Stay cellular!

~The Cells Team

[fluid idol]

Hello Everyone! This is Genaro, the QA lead of Cell to Singularity team. When we are testing upcoming content for the game, we need to go to specific parts of the game, and sometimes it's fun to test the limits of game simulation speed. This is a quick speed run I made to reach the singularity as soon as possible thanks to my nanobots. Do you think you can beat my record of 1:13?

-G.

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects,

Great news! Aquatic Mammals has been released on Steam today and will be available on Android and IOS in the coming weeks! As we get ready to share this big content patch with all of our players, we want to show you some cool features we've been working on.

To celebrate Aquatic Mammals, we're sharing a special highlight about the Ocean Garden. While it's graphics have been beautifully updated, whales and dolphins will also appear there as soon as they're unlocked on the main tree!

As we continue fleshing out The Beyond: Phase I, we've been selecting the music that best resembles enigmatic space exploration. When we find the right tracks, we edit and splice them in Audacity in order to fit them within the game!

With Aquatic Mammals nearing completion, we've started shifting gears to get ready for the Primates patch. Our researcher has already laid out some important nodes and has been meticulously updating the potential layout changes of the main tree.

In the final steps of releasing new content, we have to make sure that the game plays smoothly across all available devices. Check out our QA Lead's setup as he tests new builds on multiple devices at the same time!

As always, our team continues to strive towards producing as much quality content as possible. We hope you've enjoyed this week's dev segment, and we can't wait to share more with you on our livestream this Friday!

Stay cellular!

~The Cells Team

---

[pseudo lichen]

March Livestream - Aquatic Mammal Release, Beyond Phase I update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyzEOlsbrTE&t=2550s

[pliant lily]

Ever wonder how pricing changes affect Cell to Singularity? Grab a pen and some graph paper, because we're letting you in on the financial fun!

It's time for the first feature of... Big Data Report!

Thanks to the pricing expertise of Rex Ludorum, we were able to uncover some interesting data behind production increases for our 3D generators.

A lot of eye-catching details came to light with this graph...

This chart shows the average boost you’ll get from a single upgrade, per generator!

Most generators fall between the **75%-200% **production increase range. Some of the later generators bump this up to a 300%-600% increase — pulling their weight for much longer.

But, wait--!

What's up with the Fish? Why do they have a **1,000% **average increase? That seems too high!

We have the bonuses from hidden shark nodes to thank for that!

When you unlock a shark in your Daily Rewards, they branch off of the Fish generator and further increase it. These finned friends, along with the normal Fish upgrades, boost Fish to a whopping 17,175%!

That's pretty cool! Production boosts can really increase the power of any generator...
Hold on--!

It looks like Cyborgs aren't getting much love in the production boost department. Why is that?

While the Fish have been lucky enough to get multiple new upgrades later in the game, the Cyborg still only has four.

This generator does contribute a lot at a glance, but it's only boosted for a 100% increase. Divided out by its four upgrades, that’s only 25% per upgrade. That's not as much in comparison to the Fish, but that doesn't mean the Cyborg will stay that way forever!

We hope you enjoyed this first segment of Big Data Report! We can't wait to share more charts, graphs, and interesting stats with you next time!

Keep up the mental math, and stay cellular!

~The Cells Team & Rex Ludorum

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects,

It's been a while! Since the recent release of Aquatic Mammals, our whole team has banded together to focus on The Beyond: Phase I. Curious about what we have in store? There's a new mechanic we're playing around with...

Unlocking planets! As a way of leveling up your outer space simulation, you'll be able to unlock stronger and stronger celestial bodies. Eventually, with enough research costs, you'll be able to unlock all major bodies within our solar system.

Don't have enough research to unlock the next planet? You'll always be able to see what you're missing whenever you select the 'Unlock' option. If you want to know more about this mechanic, join us for our livestream this Friday!

Curious how Cells looks in super beta mode? We have time trackers to detect when a node or generator becomes purchasable! This helps us manage our time and resources while testing new patches of the game.

Don't worry- we haven't forgotten about Primates! Our 3D artist is already ahead of the curve. There's no monkeying around with this animation!

We hope you enjoyed getting another sneak peek of what we've been working on. Friendly reminder that most of the content we show in this phase is subject to change. Afterall, evolution never ends.

See you next week, and stay cellular!

~The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Hello, Universe Architects! Our team is still going strong with plenty of scientific ventures. To kick things off, we're excited to share a soon-to-be fuzzy addition to the tree!

Remember our Caniforms vs. Feliforms Meme Contest? Cat lovers reigned supreme, and their prize is a new boost trait on the Feliform branch. We hope you look forward to it in an upcoming patch!

As we continue development for The Beyond: Phase I, we figure out what sticks and what needs changing along the way. We've further refined the requirement system that tracks necessary materials to unlock new celestial bodies.

Want to know what that mysterious planet is?** Research Cost progress bars **are here to help!

We're seeing stars- literally! While our Constellation system is still in its early stages, we're starting to think about its endgame. When you collect all of the stars in a single zodiac constellation, you'll unlock its symbol and the stars that comprise it!

Can't get enough Darwin? Neither can we! Our 3D artist has been working on a full-body model of the father of evolution, and our team is loving how it's turning out.

Darwin overlords? Bring it on.

And now you're all caught up! Can't wait to see more info about what we've got going on? Check back here next Monday for more updates!

Stay cellular!
~The Cells Team

[pseudo lichen]

April Livestream - Beyond Footage, Natural Selection Island Free Darwinium!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDFAwXQ60zo&t=618s

[pliant lily]

**Greetings, Universe Architects! **We’re coming at you with another Dev Diary update.

Ever since Natural Selection Island has ended,** we’ve been going batty!** We’re getting ready to represent flying mammals on the Main Tree. First things first, we need to lay everything out…

Cell To Singularity is now on ArtStation! Check us out at https://www.artstation.com/celltosingularity for interactive videos of our 3D models (more coming soon)!

Tooltips are filling out nicely in The Beyond: Phase I! Our writer has carefully researched and skillfully written multiple excerpts for our favorite local planets. Now that they’re being put into the game, it can’t help but make our team smile while we playtest.

We are also aware of specific bugs occurring with Android and Mac users. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we are currently working towards fixing them.

As we continue developing for upcoming expansions and fixing bugs, we want to thank you all for your continued support!

Look forward to a mathematical Big Data Report next week. Stay cellular!

~The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Ever wonder which generator in Cell To Singularity will give you the best bang for your buck? Wonder no more!

It's time to dive deep into... Big Data Report!

How do you determine what's "the best" generator? There are many factors to consider!

Obviously it should be based on base production!

Makes sense! If we look at it that way, then** Feliform** is — by a long shot — the best generator!

Yes, the other generators' bars do exist- they're just that small in comparison to Feliform! So that means Feliforms are the best: problem solved.

*Hold up, wait- *it's not quite that simple!

Feliform is difficult to reach in the Main Simulation because it's also the most expensive generator. That's not very cost effective for the player. So, what's the best generator in terms of cost vs. benefit?

Let's take a look...

Woah, that’s a completely different view! Based on the chart above, **Aminoacid **and Prokaryotic Cell are tied for the best generator!

But, this doesn't even put upgrades into account! Out of curiosity, how would it look if we compared generators based on their upgrade capability...?

**That changes everything! **This time Cyborg (our neglected friend from the last Big Data report!) is clearly the winner, with the highest Max Efficiency!

Why does it have such a high efficiency? Cyborg has relatively few upgrades compared to everyone else (only 4 with a 25% boost for each one), but those upgrades are all priced on the cheaper side. A maxed-out Cyborg can be yours for the low, low price of 83 quadrillion!

Does that really make it the best, though? That's up to you! Everyone has their own Cells methods, and you might prefer a generator that hasn't even been mentioned.

Which generator do YOU think is the best?

---

That wraps up our second installment of Big Data Report! Let us know how you're liking the series so we can continue sharing our financial discoveries with you.

Keep up the mental math, and stay cellular!

~The Cells Team & Rex Ludorum

[pliant lily]

Hello everybody! It’s been some time since our last state-of-the-game address, and we wanted to give you all an update on our development progress. As many of you who tune into our monthly Twitch livestreams already know, our team has been hard at work on our upcoming space expansion since the beginning of this year.

We can now officially announce that “The Beyond Phase I: Solar System” will be released in SUMMER 2021!

We’ve updated our roadmap to feature this new release date, as well as to reveal more of our current and future content plans.

Phase I of The Beyond will explore our solar system, and will be the first of multiple phases of space and futurism related content (There won’t be any aliens in this phase, but we’re not ruling them out for later).

After the recent addition of aquatic mammals to our Animal Kingdom expansion, our team is now 100% focused on The Beyond. Between now and the expansion’s official launch, we will not be releasing any additional content, and all updates will be bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and similar small changes. We are dedicating all of our time, energy, and resources to bringing you The Beyond on schedule and in its best possible form.

Months of research have been distilled into our new tree. It will chart our solar system, and guide you through an exploration of the planets and more. Learning about the formation of the solar system has helped our team figure out the best ways to arrange and balance this exciting new branch of evolution.

We’ve also been hard at work on our new space garden. We’re using data from NASA and other astronomical organizations to accurately plot planetary placement and orbital paths, and to figure out details like rotation and revolution speed! Subtle changes in lighting, particle effects, and more help to make sure that the visuals for this new part of the game are accurate as well as attractive.

In addition, though The Beyond is based on the initial framework of the Mesozoic Valley, we’re hard at work on brand-new gameplay elements to set this expansion apart from any other part of the game.

We are planning to enter private beta testing soon, with the expansion to a public beta coming some time after that. As always, thank you for your patience, and for all of the great feedback and ideas that you’ve taken the time to share with us. We’re looking forward to sharing this first part of The Beyond with you!

[pliant lily]

Hello, Universe Architects!

We're coming at you with another team update! Development for The Beyond: Phase I is continuing smoothly, and we're excited to show you what we've been up to.

For our first highlight, we're feeling starstruck! One of our developers is focused on fine-tuning our constellation system, which now includes information about the individual stars!

This feature is still in the works and open to changes, so let us know how you feel about this celestial guide.

It's time for some rewrites! Specific story popups were in need of grammatical updates on the Civilization Tree. Be sure to check your story journal for some fresh text!

Our Space Garden is out of this world! We're implementing particle systems and preparing 3D models for unique asteroids, meteors, and more. Check out that tail on Halley's Comet!

As we continue focusing on The Beyond: Phase I, we always look forward to your Cells feedback! We also can't wait to share more planetary updates with you during next week's livestream.

Stay cellular!
~The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects,

We hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday! Due to our team’s focus on The Beyond: Phase I, this week’s Dev Diary entry is going to be on the short side.

We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to on this otherworldly expansion. In fact, we are SO excited that we're going to** play a part of The Beyond: Phase I live!**

So whether you’re just curious or anxiously waiting, we invite everyone to check out some special sneak peeks of The Beyond: Phase I at our monthly livestream** THIS** Friday at 1:00 PM EST!

As always, we’ll be streaming it on our Twitch channel. Haven’t checked it out yet? Here’s the link to all the action: https://www.twitch.tv/celltosingularity

Can’t wait to see you there. Stay cellular, everyone!

~The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects,

Thank you to everyone who tuned into our livestream last Friday! As always, it was great to see you there. We hope you enjoyed our demo of the first few minutes of The Beyond: Phase I.

If you missed the stream, you can watch it on our YouTube or Twitch pages.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1cLyihi3k

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1022426218

While the Beyond: Phase I is built on the bones of the Mesozoic Valley, it will feel and play quite differently. We’re making plenty of pacing and progression changes, as well as introducing new gameplay features.

One of the new mechanics that will make the Beyond unique are the Astronomy Missions. Send out these expeditions to get extra Stardust points and boost celestial body production. Discover more about the universe by getting out there and exploring it!

Upgrade your generators in new and exciting ways! Level up the planets themselves, instead of collecting multiple amounts of a single generator. Experience this mind-bending sequence as each planet evolves into a celestial powerhouse.

Coming back to Earth for a moment, feast your eyes on this new model of our boy Charles Darwin. Lovingly sculpted by our 3D artist Jenna, this fully-rigged fella will be appearing in a special location in the game in the near future.

With our team out of the virtual office from May 24th to June 1st, we’ll be taking a short break from Dev Diaries. After this brief (but much-needed) vacation, our team will come back with all rockets firing, ready to launch back into the Beyond!

Thank you for catching up with us, and stay cellular!

~The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

**Greetings, everyone! **Last week the team returned from a much-needed break, and we jumped right back into working on the Beyond: Phase I.

We’ve been experimenting to find the best way to present the information in the Beyond: Phase I. This was what led us to switch from a vertical to a horizontal layout for the Beyond’s tree menu! This new design was inspired by the Reality Engine, and should make the tree easier to read and understand. What do you think - do you like the new format?

We’ve also made some changes to our Constellation Map! Our technical artist, Olga, has spent the last week making this new section even more beautiful. We’ll be continuing to tweak the visuals of the Beyond: Phase I up until release, to make sure everything in the solar system looks its best!

Back in the Main Simulation, we’re putting the finishing touches on the latest addition to the Mammal Kingdom! As the winner of our Natural Selection Island contest, bats are the newest creature to join the land garden. With a brand-new 3D model, these flying foxes are sure to stun all spectators.

Last but certainly not least, our friends at Rex Ludorum have been helping us to improve the pacing of the game with new prices. They’ve overhauled entropy generators and upgrades to maximize the fun in the early stages of the game. These changes will be appearing in a small upcoming patch.

As you can see, the Beyond: Phase I is reaching a stage of development where we’re getting that much closer to release every day. We want to give a big thank you to all of our private beta testers who have been helping us with the Beyond so far, and thank you to all of our players for your continued support!

Stay cellular,

The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Greetings and salutations, cellular comrades!
This week marks the start of our wider private beta testing program for the **Beyond: Phase I! **You can now apply to become one of our all-star testers and help us to improve this new part of the game.

To join us, check out the instructions provided in the link below. That special link will outline how to become a beta tester on Android, iOS, and Steam. It should explain how to apply for the program, how to download the beta version of the game once you’re accepted, and how to send us your thoughts and feedback on the current version of the Beyond: Phase I.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYL8hdfKrDg92p2M-LRBlIBB0PMuuNALTvabQAlYz6g/edit?ts=60d22707

Any major questions regarding this round of beta testing should be sent to Cells Support emailed to [e-mail].

Within the Beyond: Phase I itself, we’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on recreating an accurate version of our solar system! Our team has taken great care to plot out and reproduce the orbits of each planet, dwarf planet, comet, and meteor -- but all the tweaks we made recently may have had the unforeseen consequence of making the Sun look teeny-tiny!

Whoops. Development is a learning experience, and there’s always a new challenge popping up to surprise us. By the time we’re done, we hope to have our version of the solar system looking as true-to-life as its real-world counterpart.

We’re excited to meet the brave astronauts who will apply for testing the Beyond: Phase I expansion! We’re so excited to bring this beta test to a wider audience, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the expansion so far.

**Thank you again, and as always, stay cellular! **

--The Cells Team

[pliant lily]

Hello Universe Architects! We want to send a big thank you to everyone who’s signed up to join our beta testing for the Beyond. It’s been an awesome response from you all!

We’ve already started getting some amazing feedback from the beta testers, and we’re working on making some changes and updates to the beta based on your suggestions. One of these was the idea to add new trait cards! The Beyond now has its own Rare and Epic cards to help upgrade your universe. With full tooltip text and icons, these are ready to be collected throughout the new levels.

Based on some more feedback from the testers, we’ve increased the rate at which Constellation Pieces drop. By ranking up planets and exploring the Galactic Nursery for unlockable stars, you’ll be charting your own star map in no time.

We’re also changed the animation when you add a new star to a Constellation - the camera no longer zooms in, speeding up the process!

Last but not least, some players have been reporting a bug in the latest build where the Dark Matter points weren’t functioning correctly. We’ve been working on fixing this to improve production and give you a better quality of progression, doubling the amount that you can earn!

We continued to receive bug reports on this fix, so please let us know how dark matter is affecting your gameplay.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing what we’ve been working on so far this week! As a reminder to all, you can apply to become a beta tester at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYL8hdfKrDg92p2M-LRBlIBB0PMuuNALTvabQAlYz6g/edit?ts=60d22707

We’re still accepting applications, though due to high volume there may be a slight waiting period before you’re approved and able to play. We hope that you’ll join us!

Thank you again, and as always, stay cellular!

- The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

How’s it going, Universe Architects? We hope you’ve all had a great start to the month of July.

Here at Cells, we’ve been hard at work on the latest patch for the Beyond. The feedback that we’ve been getting from our volunteers has been great, and we’re implementing changes based on all your questions, comments, and suggestions!

The biggest change has been adding NEW ranks after Rank 8! We hope they’ll provide a fun challenge for testers who may be moving through the Beyond quickly.

Our technical artist Olga has redesigned the icon for the new Dark Matter currency. After lots of experimenting with colors, shapes, and concepts, this new look is inspired by fractals and snowflakes!

Back by popular demand, the Quantum Charge boost has been reworked for the Beyond! But there are no pterodactyls in space, so instead of looking for flapping golden wings, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for the famous Juno probe.

If you see this gold-plated spacecraft sent by NASA to study Jupiter, be sure to click on it for a great reward.

On a more bittersweet note, this week we say goodbye to Hype, who’s been our head moderator and Discord manager for nearly two years. He helped us coordinate Mesozoic Mania, facilitated our exclusive interviews with Archie the Archosaur and the Rock, joined us at PAX East, and was a friendly face on our livestreams.

Thank you for being a member of Team Cells, Hype!

As always, stay cellular!

- The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

Hi there Universe Architects! A big thank you to everyone who joined us on our Twitch livestream last week - we had a great turnout, and we’re glad we got to share a behind-the-scenes look at everything we’ve been up to lately!

In case you missed the stream, you can watch it here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkfkzM10y7k).

As a reminder, all of our monthly livestreams are recorded and can be viewed later on Youtube or on our Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/celltosingularity).

Another thank you to all of our beta testers! We showed off a lot of new elements of the Beyond in the stream this week, and we really appreciate all of the hard work that you’ve been doing to help us get this part of the game just right.

As always, stay cellular!

- The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

**Hello Universe Architects! **

We just released a new update to the Beyond beta yesterday - thank you all for your patience. We’re aware of the “Rank Up” bug in the Mesozoic Valley and we’re working on fixing it now; it should be resolved quickly.

As we’ve been developing the Beyond based on some of the framework of the Mesozoic Valley, it’s also given us the opportunity to apply some of the new lessons that we’re learning to improve this slightly older part of the game.

For example, we’ve decided to add text descriptions to the Trait Cards to match the Beyond! This makes it easier to find and read the trait descriptions while you’re upgrading with mutagen, opening geodes, or just scrolling through the menu.

Behind the scenes, there’s a lot that goes on in Unity, the game engine that we use to build Cells. Our technical artist Olga has customized the tree editor with a grid function, making creating and altering the tree layout a snap!

This will help to make sure that there’s no visual overlap on the tree, making everything neat and tidy. And with new backgrounds to help the tree better represent the boundaries of our solar system, you can tell at a glance how far away you are from the Sun in your epic journey into the unknown.

Last but not least, this Friday Team Cells is going to be doing a Discord AMA! Tune in to the AMA channel from 2-3 PM EST to hear us discuss the Beyond. Featuring Andrew, Genaro, and more of our developers, this Q&A Clubhouse session will be audio only but open to all who want to listen in and ask questions!

Thank you, and as always, stay cellular!

- The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

Greetings Universe Architects! It’s time for another…

BIG DATA REPORT

With all this Beyond news lately, we thought we’d give you a behind-the-scenes look at how we set the “speeds” of generators in the new expansion!

Generators in the Beyond work more like those in the Mesozoic Valley than in the main game. You tap the generator, wait for the bar to fill up, and then collect a nice stardust payout! What might surprise you is that these values — speed (the time it takes the bar to fill) and payout — are not set arbitrarily, nor are they the result of a flat formula.

Economy balancing in games like Cell to Singularity is as much an art as a science. There’s no “right” answer to how long the Sun should take to produce stardust, or even how much stardust the Sun should produce at all.

So how do you figure out what those numbers should be?

The farther you get from the Sun, the more powerful a generator should be — but if they increased at a static rate, it wouldn’t be very interesting to play. To avoid this, we adjust two “levers” to control their production: stardust produced and speed. Because the production for each generator is bespoke, it gives us a lot of flexibility to make them feel different from each other.

A quick example:

Sun A produces 20 stardust every 10 seconds. Sun B produces 4 stardust every 2 seconds, and Sun C produces 120 stardust every 60 seconds.

Functionally, these generators produce 2 stardust every second. In the long run, Sun A, Sun B, and Sun C will all produce exactly 120 stardust over a minute.

Practically, though, these generators feel very different from each other. Sun B produces stardust at a rapid pace, paying out quick bursts of 4 stardust fast enough that it creates a constant stream. On the other hand, Sun C requires a long wait, before getting a huge lump sum of stardust all at once. Sun B is somewhere in the middle, at a comfortable average.

Though it might seem like Sun B is the most balanced choice, it’s important to remember that “average” doesn’t always mean better. Variety is essential to making sure no one gets bored! We wanted every celestial body to feel unique, but also similar to other members of its group (ie. terrestrial planets, moons, comets, etc).

Our first thought was to make the speed of every celestial body represent a real-world quality of the generator. In the Mesozoic Valley, where the generators were different varieties of dinosaurs, speeds were scaled to dinosaur size. For the Beyond, we thought that using orbital periods would be a natural method of scaling. Moons would have shorter orbits, further away planets would have longer ones, and it seemed like a good idea.

The Earth orbits around the Sun every 365 days, so, while translating that to seconds seemed like a good idea, we noticed something was off pretty quickly. Earth took six minutes to produce stardust — was way too long to wait — and the difference in scale as we got further out into the galaxy was huge! Neptune takes 165 years to orbit the Sun (60,225 days). Using our 1 day: 1 second ratio, that's a cool 16.72 hours, which would be sure to annoy players.

Our next thought was to use the perihelion (the point in a planet’s orbit where it is closest to the Sun). Taken in AU (Astronomical Units) that meant that the closest was Mercury at about 0.31 AU, with Neptune only being 30 AU away from the Sun at its perihelion.

The problem? Going further out into the solar system meant we encountered objects like the Oort Cloud, whose closest distance to the Sun is 2,000 AU and furthest distance is 100,000 AU. 30 seconds seemed too quick for Neptune, one of the further planets out in the galaxy, and most moons completed in under a second. The values themselves were just too big and had too much variation.

The conclusion we came to was that the solar system is ultimately too big to utilize any real-world values as the in-game speeds. Instead, we ended up on a system that achieves the "feel" we wanted by using those values as bases. We do this by scaling the real-world orbital distances to values more conducive to gameplay. So even though the actual orbital figures aren't being used, things still get slower and more powerful as you get farther and farther from the Sun and moons still go faster than the planets around them.

It’s not 100% scientifically accurate, but we managed to translate real data into gameplay that captures the feel of the orbital patterns in a tangible, tactile way. We think that’s pretty neat! If you were building a simulation of our solar system, what would you have based the speeds of celestial bodies on? Let us know — we’d love to hear your thoughts on this new system.

As always, stay cellular!

• Team Cells

[stoic tiger]

Greetings Universe Architects!

This last week, we’ve been working hard on a playable demo of the Beyond for an upcoming event! We’ll be showing off the latest expansion of Cell to Singularity this weekend, August 7 - 9, at PLAY NYC - a showcase for game studios in New York City.

Join us at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City from 10 AM to 6 PM. This expo features playable new games from both large and small developers. Visitors to the Computer Lunch booth can receive a special code for free Darwinium. If you’re in the area, come by, say hello, and check out the latest build of the Beyond!

Tickets for Play NYC can be purchased at their website (https://www.play-nyc.com/tickets). Strict health and hygiene precautions will be taken.

You can find us at table 9, as part of the Gumbo Games Collective booth.

We hope to see you there!

As always, stay cellular!

-- The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

Howdy, Universe Architects!

It’s been a while since we’ve written in our Dev Diary, and we wanted to update you all on what’s been going on behind-the-scenes at Cells. The team has been hard at work on the Beyond, and also making some improvements to the main game - including the long-awaited addition of bats to the mammal tree!

The winner of our Natural Selection Island contest, where one lucky animal was chosen by the players to be added to the game, the bat comes along with a whole extra branch of the mammal tree and three exciting new traits. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming our flying, fruit-eating, fabulous friend!

In our latest update to the beta, we’re trying to give our testers a better idea of how the expansion will actually be unlocked in-game. Was anyone else intrigued by the mysterious ‘ghost galaxy’ that appeared on the tree? Let us know what you thought of this new feature!

We’ve also finalized nearly 700 brand new lines of text for the Beyond! Our programmers slave over a hot keyboard hooking each line of dialogue to its place in the solar system. Meanwhile, our localization coordinator is getting individual spreadsheets ready to be sent out to our translators all over the world.

From UI elements to offline income, our team is going over the Beyond with a fine-tooth comb to make sure we get all the details just right. This includes custom illustrations: each of these unique drawings represents a constellation! Here’s Aquarius (drawn by our technical artist, Olga), Libra (drawn by our assistant producer & social media manager, Emily), and Taurus (drawn by our writer and researcher, Nyssa)!

Our monthly livestream is coming up this Friday, September 10th on Twitch, so make sure not to miss it! We’ll be showing more of the Beyond and talking about our progress with the beta. We’re really excited to show you how everything is turning out so far!

As always, stay cellular!

The Cells Team

[stoic tiger]

Hello, Universe Architects!

As you all know by now, we’ve been hard at work on our upcoming outer space expansion, the Beyond. Since beta testing opened to the public in June, over 4,000 players have joined the beta team on Android alone! We’re so grateful to all of you for your feedback, suggestions, and support.

We first announced the Beyond all the way back in 2019. Our small team has built this new part of Cells from the ground up: from research and level design, to art and programming, to project management and social media. We’re so appreciative of how supportive you’ve been during this process.

Initially, it looked like we were going to be able to get the Beyond out for wide release by this summer, but it’s taken us longer than we anticipated. It’s important to us that we don’t release the Beyond before it’s ready, but we’re getting really close, and we hope that you’ll be able to wait a little bit longer for a better game.

Using this extended period of beta testing, we’re working to incorporate all your feedback as best we can. We’ve recently brought on a game economy designer to help us make sure that the pacing and balancing is just right and we’re adding new narrative elements to the game. We’ve been tweaking visuals, improving our translations, and doing a whole bunch of other things to polish the expansion as much as possible.

Thank you for your patience through this period of beta testing, and be sure to tune into our next livestream on October 15th, where we’ll be talking more about putting the finishing touches on the Beyond!