Progress Update 04/26/2025
This week we have a public test build of 0.8.2 as the release is fast approaching. If you want to just jump into it you can find info about it on our forums and also that's the place to provide feedback on the build. If you have a little bit of patience, here's a quick summary of what's going to be in the 0.8.2 release which is coming next week.
The most major features are the water currents system, new patch events, and more polished environmental tolerances. There's also a bra…
Read More →Progress Update 04/19/2025
This week was focused on fixes and small improvements rather than big new features. We resolved an issue with the save name text box not showing the correct indicator color and fixed the movement mode selection videos, which had mysteriously stopped playing.
Behind the scenes, we updated our format check script to better handle builder filesystem deduplication and bumped Harmony from version 2.3.5 to 2.3.6. Translations also got an update to keep everything up to date across differe…
Read More →Progress Update 04/12/2025
Bioluminescence visuals were finally implemented this week! After the organelle had been in the organelle list waiting to be implemented for many, many years we are happy to announce that soon everyone can place that organelle that has been tempting them for a long time. This implementation only adds the visuals and pretty lights, but the gameplay impact is minimal as designing scientifically realistic gameplay effects (other than oxygen resistance) has been difficult.
Another r…
Read More →Progress Update 04/05/2025
This week we focused more on fixing what we have already rather than going full speed ahead on new features. We added a new stage loading screen which should help with graphics loading related stutters during gameplay. Now the game will take an extra second to load all needed graphics and shaders before going to the microbe stage. Besides that, most changes this week were further small improvements to the tutorials or fixing small GUI size problems or typos.
In other, Thrive-related…
Read More →Progress Update 3/29/2025
Another week, another exciting update! The tutorial system has been completely reworked, with 7 new tutorials added to cover more aspects of the microbe editor and microbe stage. This should make it much easier for new players to learn the game and experiment with different strategies!
We've also introduced a global glaciation event, which reduces light in all surface patches and adds more ice chunks. This change brings a new layer of environmental challenge, making adaptation even …
Read More →Progress Update 3/22/2025
This week was dedicated to creating a simpler and more intuitive experience for both old and new players with new pop up windows showing more information, tutorial that is only getting better and some balancing.
We've also started work on our new, even better web site and more visual aspects of the game.
- New DevBuild for our patrons:
Tutorials now have a new mode where only tutorials that haven't been seen before are shown. And the old option of completely…
Progress Update 3/15/2025
Another week with incredible progress! Water currents are now in the game, affecting how microbes move and how particles flow. This makes the environment feel more alive and adds new challenges. We've also made some balancing to the game, making chloroplasts a more appealing upgrade from thylakoids for photosynthesis and much more!
We've also improved visuals, with better icons, models, and tweaks to things like ice and sulfur chunks. Stay tuned for more updates!
- New DevBu…
Progress Update 03/08/2025
The rush of activity that always accompanies new Thrive releases is subsiding this week as we get back to the more usual pace. The last release caused a flurry of small issues and game tweak suggestions to pop up. All of those are not done yet but we'll be working on them at a more reasonable pace going forward.
Along with the fixes, tweaks, and other smaller improvements the work on the tolerances system has continued this week bringing it closer to completion. With the latest chan…
Read More →Progress Update 03/01/2025
Last week we released 0.8.1 and as is usual the week after a release has been very busy with activity. Both in terms of how much the community has played Thrive and provided feedback as well as how many Thrive developers have activated to all at once work on new changes. Sadly we found out that 0.8.1 had a critical bug where multicellular was not really playable (the second grown cell in a colony would always immediately start dying), so we had to quickly put together a patch release, 0…
Read More →Devblog #46: (Environmental) Tolerances Update
Environmental interactions get a lot more varied in this new latest version of Thrive. The first major change is that there are now environmental tolerances to consider. This means that your species needs to be adapted to the conditions of the environment you want to live in: temperature, pressure, UV, and even the presence of oxygen. Also added are new environmental chunks like the radioactive chunk shown in the first image. It will cause damage to microbes that cannot resist radiation…
Read More →
