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Observe when stars grow old in... Beyond Episode 19: Sunset Years

Greetings from Interstellar Space, Universe Architects!

We are back with another installment of the Beyond. In Episode 18, Semblance learned about the lives of stars from their birth to the prime of their lives. But now she is curious about how they will age and what they might become.



[h2]…And from dust they return[/h2]

Observe aging stars in Episode 19: Sunset Years as players watch their elegant development into the final stages. Some stars go out with a bang while others linger on longer as the universe grows older. And some leave stardust, preparing the birth of new stars and planets.



[h2]Charting Stellar Evolution[/h2]

We continue to follow the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram in charting the course of these stars’ lives. In E18, we learned that stars are categorized based on their mass and emission spectrum, which corresponds with their age and temperature. As stars grow older, their density is affected by the type of nuclear fuel they burn from Hydrogen to Helium and finally to Iron. Depending on their fuel, some have enough heat, pressure, and energy to grow bigger into a Supergiant. Eventually all dying stars will burn out and explode, thus creating the perfect breeding ground for future stars. The new “Advanced Stars” in the Stellar Nursery shows these stars’ transitions into their late lives.

Attribution: R.N. Bailey, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

[h2]Going Further Out into the Milky Way[/h2]

There are four new star generators to discover— Polaris, Rigel, Arcturus and Van Maanen’s Star. These ‘superstar’ stellar neighbors are in the late stages of their lives and have been added in the 3D garden. These stars vary differently in size as they reach their conclusion in their own special ways. Fun fact: Rigel is the largest part of a four star system and may have once been a Blue Supergiant before evolving into a Red Supergiant and back to Blue again.



[h2]Additional Content[/h2]

  • Collect nine new "Series II" traits cards to continue the story of our new superstellar generators.
  • With the inclusion of Rigel, one new constellation— Orion— will be making its debut in the night sky of the Beyond.
  • In addition, eight new achievements will be available for players to collect.




[h2]The Beyond Episode 19: Sunset Years is available to all players on Steam today and will be available on iOS and Android on 08/31/2023. [/h2]

Episode 19 is a continuation of Episode 18 and will mark the conclusion of the ‘Lives of Stars’ arc. As a reminder, players need to complete Episode 18 in order to play Episode 19.

We hope you continue to enjoy following Semblance's journey through the stars. Observing the end will help prepare Semblance for what’s to come… With the simulation of the star systems completed, her next course might delve into stranger territory. Where will she be headed next?

[h2]Late Game Metabit Production: Thousand Times Faster[/h2]

Thank you for your patience as we continue to balance Metabit Production. We are aware that late game Metabit production feels slow. And so with the 5th iteration, we have made improvements to the Mined Metabit Earned Curve to increase Metabit production!

Old Mined Metabit Earned Curve:
Bonus = (50000 / Math.Pow(1 + 5.5 * Math.Exp(-0.07 * Math.Log(("Research Level" ))) , (1 / v)));

NEW Mined Metabit Earned Curve:
Bonus = Math.Pow( "Research Level" , (1d / 3d))/3 - 0.3d;


This new powerful curve will allow endgame players to make more progress on their Metabit production after earning around one million Metabits. This is effective immediately after updating to this latest version. This change comes in preparation as more content is being added in the future. We are very excited for what is to come and we hope you are too!



Coming soon, we will be releasing our new limited-time event— Explore: A Journey of Serenity, where we delve into the history, technology and culture of tea. We are still in the process of fine tuning it, and we appreciate our beta players’ continued feedback.

Thank you once again for your support as we strive to bring you more content to enjoy.

Stay cellular!
– The Cells Team

Patch 19.33: Big Changes to Civ, Leaderboard & Tuning

Hello Universe Architects!

Beyond Episode 19 is coming soon! While the Beyond preps for launch, we have a set of changes and bug fixes in this latest update. You may have already caught a sneak peek if you've been following our dev diary.

[h2]Dawn of Civilization[/h2]

The Civilization garden has gone through a major overhaul as the Dawn of Civilization is upon us. This is the first stage as we set up a series of upcoming updates to celebrate the first six Ages of Civilization. The garden is bare but the first six generators are still available to unlock and have been updated! For those that have already unlocked the generators, they are still available in your garden. More will come as we delve deeper into the history of each era in the coming weeks.



[h2]RP Leaderboard[/h2]
  • Goodbye, high scores! The leaderboard is now a global, tiered system based on personal progress, achievements and badges collected.
  • How is all of this calculated? Your progress is tracked in Research Points (RP), which is the new overall XP. More details are provided in the dev diary.
  • Climb up the progress ladder to earn new titles. Each title has a max of ten levels per tier!

Keep in mind, all leaderboard content, RP calculations, and tuning are still under development as we continue to iterate on production tuning. Title art and names will also be subject to change in future updates. We need more live production data to keep polishing the leaderboard. We appreciate your feedback throughout this process.




[h2]4th Tuning with Metabit Production[/h2]

In this round, we're back to focusing on Metabit production. We wanted the Mesozoic Valley, Beyond and the Explore badges to contribute to Metabit production. With these re-tuning changes, Metabit production should more fairly reflect your progress across all in-game content.
  • We’ve added 9 new Metabit upgrades— 3 each for Mesozoic Valley, Beyond, and Explore Badges. These will boost the Metabit production for the Main Simulation.
  • Each upgrade is available after unlocking its respective content for the first time, and the next upgrade will be available after unlocking the former.
  • New highlighted views are included to view their effects from the total production view in the Reality Engine. Please see the dev diary for more details.
  • The Metabit cost has also been lowered and increased production boost for Ape and Mammal research nodes.




In addition, the following features are new in this version:
  • In the Beyond, Trait Cards now appear in tabs and with better sorting to be more accessible
  • Constellations in the Beyond got some polish
  • Fixed: locked generators could be focused in the Garden
  • Fixed: translations for some strings were missing or wrong for some languages in Beyond Episode 18
  • Fixed: mouse scroll wheel moves very slowly on some menus

Version 19.33 will be available to all players in Steam today and mobile on 08/21/23. Join us on Twitch on Friday 08/18, 1pm EDT where we showcase more of the updated Civ Garden and answer questions about the leaderboard and tuning updates. We hope everyone is excited with these new updates! We look forward to your reactions.

– The Cells Team

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


    No upgrade:

    0.01 per rank



    Level 1:

    0.10 per rank



    Level 2:

    1.00 per rank



    Level 3:

    10.00 per rank

  • 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 Friday 08/18, 1-2pm EDT 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

Join us at PlayNYC!



The Cells team will be at #PlayNYC from August 5th-6th!


We’ll be…
💁 Showcasing our progress on the updated Civilization Garden.
🗺️ Demoing a new Explore Event.

Get your tickets for PlayNYC today at link

Try never before seen content. If you’re near NYC, we hope to see you there!


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[h2]We are featured in the Steam showcase: link[/h2]
From August 4-8, Cell to Singularity has been highlighted as a featured game on Steam for PlayNYC.



[h2]Learn more about PlayNYC here: [/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Go Beyond the Beyond! Episode 18: Lives of Stars

Greetings, Universe Architects!

Welcome to the second season of the Beyond. Join Semblance as her quest for deeper knowledge goes to galactic heights, starting with the launch of Episode 18: Lives of Stars.

The Beyond began as Cell To Singularity's original space expansion, released in 2021. Based on NASA-supported data, players could learn more about our favorite planets, moons and comets of the Milky Way. Ever since the Beyond ended at Rank 17 with Alpha Centauri, NASA has made incredible new discoveries. Now, a year and a half later— Season 2 will take you on an epic voyage to our neighboring stars outside Alpha Centauri.



Stars are born from dust…


In Episode 18: Lives Of Stars, players will follow the lives of young stars from the moment they're born to the prime of their lives. We want to explore the vast spectrum of colors, shines, sizes and temperatures that different stars can hold.

H-R Diagram


We always strive to make our tree as scientific and accurate as possible. In order to achieve this, we studied the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and designed Episode 18’s new tree to chart the life cycle of a star. You'll notice that cooler and dimmer stars displayed on the right are red, while the white and blue stars to the left are bigger and brighter. The stars are categorized based on their mass and emission spectrum, which corresponds with their age and temperature.



Chart the Main Sequence Stars
  • Discover three new star generators— Tau Ceti, Barnard's Star and Sirius!
  • Embark on Tau Ceti's new Astronomy Mission, Exoplanets.
  • Observe the exoplanets orbit around Tau Ceti in the expanded 3D garden.
  • Follow each star’s unique animation sequence and stylized particle systems using custom shaders we’ve developed.
  • If you look closely, the solar flares in Barnard’s star are far more pronounced than the Sun.
  • Fun fact: To bring each star to life, we drew a lot of inspiration from NASA observation models to emulate the clouds and stellar eruptions.


Unlock New Interstellar Traits


Introducing new Advanced Stars in the Galactic Nursery! They're the Advanced version of the Young Stars from the original Beyond expansion (but way cooler). Each Advanced Star is the upgraded form of the Younger Stars. We recommend stocking up on White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars to get the new ‘Series II’ trait cards that will upgrade your powerful new generators.



Additional Features


We’re also going beyond the Zodiac, as we introduce 2 new constellations— Ursa Major and Eridanus. There will be future constellations to view in the night sky as we progress episodically into the Beyond. In addition to these constellations, there are 8 new achievements for players to earn.



More Episodes to Come Every Two Months


This is not the end— space is vast and ripe for more discovery! Starting with Season 2, we will be releasing more Beyond episodes every two months. Semblance is not sure where we are going next, but she is eager to chart unknown territory. Patience, Semblance.

Please note: players need to have completed Beyond Episode 17 in order to play Episode 18. We guarantee that you’ll enjoy the latest content, it’s worth getting caught up.

[h2]The Beyond Episode 18: Lives of Stars is available to all players in Steam today and will be available to iOS and Android on 07/17/2023.[/h2]

We want to thank every single Universe Architect for your contribution. It is because of you Semblance can continue her journey into the Beyond. Your input, beta testing, and patience is the fuel that allows this spaceship to go into hyperspace.

Thank you for a successful launch of the Beyond Episode 18: Lives of Stars.

Be safe in space, stay cellular!
– The Cells Team