An evolution simulation game. Take control of your species in the environment and edit your species as a whole. Compete with other evolving species for resources on an alien planet.
Recent Reviews:
Very Positive (26) - 92% of the 26 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
All Reviews:
Very Positive (1,013) - 92% of the 1,013 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Nov 26, 2021

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Thrive has spent many years in development as a volunteer project. It's been a long journey for us to even reach as far as we have, but we think we now have a solid playable foundation. We are offering Thrive on Steam to reach a wider audience in the hopes that we can finish the game much faster by offering the game on Steam in Early Access.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Roughly 140 months at the current rate of progress. This estimate is based on the progress made in the past year on the first stage of the game. But this is a very uncertain estimate as development speed can vary wildly based on how many involved developers we have and if the upwards trend of development speed of the past years continues or even speeds up further.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“We have a long list of planned features and fixes for the currently implemented stages, as well as grand plans to introduce further stages with smooth transitions between them. These will span from microbial tidepools to space-faring empires, ending with in the Ascension Stage unlocking full sandbox tools to mess with the game world. In the later stages, the game will transition to fully 3D environments, with 3rd person character controls. Beyond that, it will move to a strategic view with 4X features.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Currently we are focusing development on the first stage which is about microbes and microbiology. Only the first stages of the game are currently playable, but even they are missing some features. Starting from the move to macroscopic scale, the rest of the game is only included as tech demo level prototypes to show off our plans for the future stages and how they link together. For the microbial part of the game we have the core gameplay loop - surviving in the environment and editing your species in the editor - up and running with most of the planned features complete. Still there are many upcoming planned improvements to the microbe gameplay and user interfaces before we will switch development focus to the next stage.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The price will be gradually increased as more and more content is added to the game.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We have already released multiple releases of Thrive, and after each we have listened to feedback from the players who played that release on our community forums. This has helped us greatly to find unintuitive parts of the game, a huge number of bugs, and also discover ideas that have affected the direction of future development. We also discuss possible future ideas and possible implementations with the community on our forums and on Discord, often helping us shape our future plans. We plan on continuing these approaches to community involvement.”
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About This Game

In Thrive, you take control of an organism on an alien planet, beginning with the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). Your goal is to survive in the environment, adapt your species by adding mutations, and thrive. Other species will emerge to compete with yours. They will evolve via a population dynamics driven simulation with random mutations - you must improve and spread your species to surpass them. The success of your species depends both on your skill in surviving as an individual cell and the changes you make in the editor.

In the Microbe Stage, you control a single microbe or a colony of microbes bound together. You swim through a watery environment to find the resources your cell needs to stay alive and to reproduce. Once you have reproduced, you enter the editor, where you can review how well your species and others are surviving, move to new biomes, and modify your species. Add new organelles, change your membrane, and change your cell's visuals. Your goal is to become a more complex lifeform by first evolving the nucleus to become a eukaryote, then using binding agents to form cell colonies, the precursor to the first multicellular lifeforms.

Current key features:


  • Control an individual member of your species and survive the environment
  • Predate on other species, use photosynsthesis or scavenge for resources
  • Edit your species to make it more successful
  • Compete with other species emerging on your planet via an evolution simulation
  • Explore different biomes in procedurally generated maps
  • Fight other cells with multiple cellular level weapons
  • Try different gameplay styles by specializing in different energy sources in subsequent playthroughs
  • Learn about biology by using real compounds, organelles or parts inspired by real science
  • Spread your species via the biome map
  • Review and plan future actions by looking at population simulation results and graphs
  • Learn the basics of the game with a light, interactive tutorial
  • Create experimental species in freebuild mode with removed editing limits



The major goals of Thrive are to create engaging, compelling gameplay that respects our players’ intelligence, and remain as accurate as possible in our depiction of known scientific theory without compromising the former. Thrive is an open-source project, and anyone with game development skill is welcome to join our team. The game uses the open-source Godot engine with the C# programming language.

If you don't have game development skills, you are still welcome to join our fan community. We would love to have you along for the long ride!

System Requirements

Windows
SteamOS + Linux
    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-4570 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300U
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530
    • Storage: 5 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: OpenGL 3.0 capable GPU and drivers required
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10
    • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD equivalent
    • Storage: 10 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Vulkan capable GPU and drivers recommended
    Minimum:
    • OS: A distro that is at least as new as AlmaLinux 9
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-4570 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300U
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530
    • Storage: 5 GB available space
    • Sound Card: PulseAudio compatible
    • Additional Notes: OpenGL 3.0 capable GPU and drivers required
    Recommended:
    • OS: Latest Ubuntu LTS or latest Fedora version
    • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD equivalent
    • Storage: 10 GB available space
    • Sound Card: PulseAudio compatible
    • Additional Notes: Vulkan capable GPU and drivers recommended

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