Cell to Singularity - Evolution Never Ends News

Welcome Universe Architects,

We last left off dissecting the remains of massive stars. Their supernova explosions left behind beautiful nebulas. Yet, not all nebulas form this way.

As we venture through interstellar gas and dust, what could Semblance find in such chaos? It’s time to rock the cradle. A new star is born in:




Death leads back to new life. Some nebulas leave remnants of their explosive past lives and form into cradles that become the harbingers to new activity. Zoom in close and marvel at this strange afterlife in the Beyond garden.

• Nurture the beginnings of new life featuring four famed generators — Eagle, Pillars of Creation, Orion and Horsehead.
  
• To date, a total of eight real life nebulas have been brought to life in 3D.
  

The Ancient Maya called the Orion Nebula- the “cosmic fire of creation.” It is the closest stellar nursery close to Earth. Now let's follow Semblance beyond the familiar and uncover where stars are born.

• Learn how stars are formed with eight new enhancement trait cards such as Proplyds, The Spire, Trapezium Cluster and more.
  
• Discover stable stars on a new Astronomy Mission with Protostars.
  

As new stars are born, more constellations and achievements begin to surface. Mark them on your map of the universe and find them all.

• Collect ten new achievements — two for each nebula and one for each constellation.
  
• Two constellations have manifested in the night sky: Serpens and Auriga.
  
• Experience the benefits of the Auriga constellation as it shortens the red dwarf mission duration up to 6 hours.
  

• A tutorial has been added to the Beyond to improve first time user experience.
  
• Revised difficulty of early Beyond ranks.
  
• Changed the color of the confirm button to the original blue.
  
• Want an ads free experience? Introducing a new in-app purchase, available in the Darwinium store for iOS, Android and Steam: Infinity Pass.
  
  • Note: Boosts, Dwarfs and Geodes, costing 2 Darwinium, are free with an active Infinity pass. The pass will run for 30 days after purchase and will not automatically renew. It is available for re-purchase after it expires.
    

With E24, Semblance has concluded her journey with the stars. The life of a star is a continuous cycle of death and rebirth. Isn’t evolution on Earth much the same? Built from the changes of the past, something new arises. As Semblance ventures out for more answers, what lies beyond nebulas? Find out in the next episode of the Beyond.

It’s been almost a year since we started working with Steph, from Pariah Interactive, on the creation of the nebulas. We hope players enjoyed learning about the nebulas as we enjoyed designing them. While this is not the end of the Beyond, we will be saying goodbye to nebulas as we move on with Semblance.



We will also be releasing our next Explore Event soon. Thank you to our beta players for their continued feedback. We enjoyed the discussions and commentaries regarding the content. For those who are interested in other potential event topics, we released a survey on Monday asking for player opinions: link. We encourage our players to fill out the survey, if they have not done so already. We are curious to learn what our players are interested in.

Lastly, as a reminder to players from our last dev diary, we will be sunsetting the Research Race in favor of a new leaderboard system. We have redesigned this system from the ground up and are analyzing the data that has been collected in the backend. We are also closely monitoring the feedback we’ve received from beta. We are happy to report that we have a much more robust system that can identify cheaters and take appropriate action. We believe this new system will be a successful evolution to the Research Race. We will share more in our upcoming livestream in May.

Looking ahead, stay cellular!
The Cells Team

Hi Universe Architects,

Coming hot from the release of our latest dev diary, new Civilization content has been added to the Main Simulation. The three metal ages are coming to an end with the arrival of the final epoch — Iron Age.



As a replacement to bronze, iron became more widespread with the discovery of steel. The Iron Age gave rise to many cultural achievements and political reform, influencing both the West and the East.


Did you know that iron was more accessible to the public than Bronze? It led to the production of weapons that allowed nations to build bigger armies. Other accomplishments to human culture and history were made and declined during the Iron Age. Learn more about these accomplishments by unlocking six new trait nodes such as the library, catapult, Astronomical calendar and more.




The advent of iron paved the way to advancements in weaponry and organized community systems. Experience history with five new animated unlocks in the Civilization garden.

• Catch a glimpse of the Legionnaire on the bridge.
  
• Observe an engineer at work on the Aqueduct.
  
• Join senators in the plaza to discuss governmental matters.
  
• Ignite gunpowder to set off fireworks.
  
• Look around to find more.
  

Relive an important historical moment at the tap of a finger through a new secret achievement in the updated Iron Age garden.




Five new artifacts await in the Augmentation Store. Add a piece of history to your simulation — Parthenon, Great Library of Alexandria, Great Wall of China and Colossus of Rhodes.

• Improvements to text and overflow issues.
  
• Updates to the Stores’ UI.
  

We have updated our game transfer system where save files will auto upload to the cloud the moment the device has internet connection. To ensure all save files are intact, please manually upload your save files to the cloud. Players will also need to opt-in to this autosave feature.







We recently released our dev diary for March- April along with an updated roadmap. If you’ve missed it, find it here. We hope players are excited for the future revamped multiplayer features. History was built from the joint unity of human efforts and multiplayer is a natural progression of evolution in our game. We are building a system where players can both enjoy a solo and collaborative experience. Join our beta + Discord and contribute your feedback to the development process: link

The next Beyond episode is currently undergoing polish and will be ready for release soon. We’ve seen what happens when a massive star explodes, and yet some bring new life. Join Semblance as she journeys into the gas and dust to observe the miracle of life. Beyond E24: Cosmic Cradles will rock the simulation soon.



We’d also like to hear more of our players’ thoughts regarding Explore Events. We released a survey last year to gauge player interest and it’s time to bring it back. Some ideas from the past survey have already been implemented in the game. As we plan out our next roadmap, we’d like to hear from players what our future Explore events would be next. Thank you everyone for your support, watch out for the survey soon.

Stay cellular!
The Cells Team

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.



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.





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.



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: [email protected]



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 empires 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

Hello Universe Architects!

Welcome to the grand opening of our new exhibition. Launching as the second event of the year, learn what inspired humanity through the ages to create art. A first-ever event collaboration between Computer Lunch x Pariah Interactive, Explore: Visual Art — The Power of Images is ready to play in Cell to Singularity.



[h2]Exhibition Spotlight[/h2]
Throughout history, humans were inspired to create art using a variety of mediums and tools influenced by their environment. These practices escalated into the growth of various artistic movements.

• The exhibit presents 12 generators and 52 trait nodes that explore the progression of visual art.
  
• Discover popular art movements as history follows artists’ journey from the Renaissance to the Modern Age.
  
• Tap into the power of inspiration by collecting the new event currency: Creativity.
• Express yourself through the Paint Palette Quantum Charge to gain more Creativity.
  

[h2]The Gallery is Open[/h2]
A special art exhibition designed by Computer Lunch and Pariah Interactive is available to view for the first time in the event garden.

• Adorn the white walls with art from various movements in the new art gallery garden.
  
• Use the event's exclusive camera feature to zoom in and take a closer look at every art piece.
  

[h2]Build your Art Collection[/h2]
Players can kick-start their art collections with three new badges, only available in this exclusive exhibition.

• A Mirror on Reality, Critical Lens and Everyday Artist are prodigious badges to possess.
  

[h3]Additional Features:[/h3]

• View the details of each painting when you click on them in the event garden. We hope you enjoy this special camera feature!
  

To celebrate the event’s grand opening, we will be holding a ‘Let’s Play’ today on Discord from 11am to 12pm EDT in our official Discord server. Click here to join the Cells community as we give out Darwinium cubes in the ‘Let’s Play’ chat. Experience the event launch with Computer Lunch devs as we talk about the makings of this event.

This was our first event collaboration with an external game studio: Pariah Interactive, also located in Brooklyn. Outside of this Explore Event, we have been collaborating with them for a while with the Beyond space expansion. Their artist, Stephanie, has done a stellar job in creating the nebulas in our game, and we’re excited to show more of our combined efforts together.

For those who are part of our beta testing program, players were able to gain a sneak peek on various new content we will be releasing soon. We thank all our beta players for their invaluable feedback. Similar to the Visual Art event, humanity will be moving toward a new age. We gave away some information about it in our February livestream.

Time to smelt the ore— the Iron Age update is next in line for release. We hope you’re looking forward to it as we continue shining and polishing this upcoming update.

But for now, let’s stroll through the art gallery together and discover why the power of art is so profound.

Be creative, and stay cellular!
The Cells Team

Hello Universe Architects,

A few preparations and changes have been made to the simulation.

[h2]An Audio Refresh[/h2]
We’re all familiar with the sound you hear when you purchase a node. It’s been the same sound effect since Cells first launched, so we decided it was time to refresh the simulation a bit. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these new sound effects:

• First-time node and generator purchases.
  
• Generator selects and upgrades.
  
• Earning Logits and unlocking Augmentations.
  
• Completing Explore Events missions.
  
• Other miscellaneous sound effects.
  

[h2]Improvement to the Augmentation Store View [/h2]
For the past couple of months we have been updating the Augmentation Store. For this update we have done another visual update. We have also made it so that when you purchase an artifact in the augmentation store you will get a popup, allowing you to view your purchase in the tree view.



[h2]Additional Adjustments for Event Badges[/h2]
About a month ago we added diminishing returns on badge boosts after gaining 200%. We received some concerns about this change from players and are addressing those with this update. We have adjusted the badge boost diminishing return to be more gradual after the 200% cut-off. Players should see a higher boost for each badge gained as seen below.



[h2]Explore: Visual Art — The Power of Images[/h2]
The new Visual Art Explore Event is almost here! Get ready to unleash your creative side and discover why visual art is so compelling. Mark your calendars for its release on March 25, 2024 at 11AM EDT.



Keep your eyes peeled on our TikTok and YouTube next week for the Explore: Visual Art trailer. We’re excited to share what’s in store for this extra special event.

Until then, stay cellular!
- The Cells Team