Progress Update 1/24/2026
Quite a few changes went into the game this week, as can be seen from the substantial list of patch notes. Some of those are still holdovers from the holiday, but the extra good news is that this list is now finished, which means our lead developer can get started on new Multicellular features from next week.
Besides a variety of fixes (particularly to the Multicelllular Stage), a rebalance and expansion to auto-evo was made, the details of which can be found below. This unfortunately slowed the system down, but new optimisations were made to compensate. The currents system also got some refinements, with several patches now being more distinct in current patterns. We also got a new Debug Console that allows us to execute commands that do not already have convenient buttons from inside the game, which will help with development.
Meanwhile, over on the developer forums, there was quite a lot of discussion on Multicellular gameplay design, especially on the topics of cell specialisation and requirements for transitioning from Microbe to Multicellular Stage and from Multicellular to Macroscopic.
Last week we released part one of community member Punctdan's amazing overview of every single Thrive version. Below you can see part 2, showing of versions 6.0 to 1.0. A lot of effort went into this, so please give it a watch:
If you've watched it, we can move on to music: Two tracks were added into the game this week: The macroscopic editor theme Sway (released late last year) and the general Macroscopic theme Low Tide. We also have a fully new theme released this week to be used in the future, the Reefs theme Refract:
If you're interested, see the the full progress list below, and we'll see you again next week, hopefully with progress on new Multicellular features!
Programming
- New Devbuild for our Patreon Supporters:
New build of the day (BOTD) set by hhyyrylainen:
- General balancing and other improvements to auto-evo
- Added 2 new macroscopic music tracks
- Fixed realism bug with ATP transferring between the cells of a colony (and in multicellular)
- Water current strengths have been adjusted per patch to make them stronger at the center of oceans
- Improved auto-evo performance by implementing custom species score key hashes
- Improved auto-evo performance by removing useless data caches and improving cache lookup efficiency
- Fixed initial microbe tolerances not being always calculated correctly when starting directly in the multicellular stage
- Multicellular growth rate is now not limited to the same value as in the microbe stage, instead it is multiple times higher like it was supposed to be set originally
- Prevented root metaball deletion in macroscopic and fixed a debug check error when deleting many other metaballs
- Added a tooltip for the run auto-evo during gameplay option as some people misunderstood what it did
- Added an option to change the GUI scale (mostly meant for reducing the scale)
- Implemented editor cheats for the multicellular editor
- Switched to our SimpleBarrier and re-enabled ThreadLocal data for slight performance optimization
- Fixed the debug console keybinding name being confusing
- Fixed macroscopic editor allowing deleting an in-use cell type
- Added a safety check in eject engulfed object to address a bug report but it is unknown what the effect of this is as the original problem is very rare
- Improved the debug console default size a bit
- The console now has a command to start directly in the multicellular stage
- Fixed a bug in the direct multicellular stage starter causing an error when trying to use it
- Improved the hashing algorithm for shape caching to fix conflicts
- Updated Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.NetAnalyzers from 10.0.101 to 10.0.102
- Improved some code comments and fixed a few problems
- Fixed more null propagation warnings in the code
- Updated translations
- Explanation on the new in-game Debug Console
Graphics
- Nothing substantial.
Gameplay
- General auto-evo improvements and balancing:
- Made distinction between offensive and defensive pili (no more butt-spikes are no longer useful for hunting, they need to be on the front for that.)
- Species now try harder to avoid being hunted, and that is reflected in their population.
- Species dying where you can see them now has less of an effect on their population next generation, to reduce overly frequent extinctions.
- Currents changed to be more different between patches:
- Tidepool - Substantial increase of strength, and very erratic waves that switch a lot. Players get rocked back and forth alot.
- Epipelagic - Current strength is increased and so is chaoticness, but to much less of an extent than tidepools.
- Bathypelagic - Strength sizably increased, with generally stable currents.
- Mesopelagic - Strength very slightly increased, but chaoticness increased dramatically.
- Gameplay design discussions:
- Detailed and elaborate discussion on general Multicellular concepts particularly on size-related costs and what features to implement first.
- Discussing what the requirements should be for entering and exiting the Multicellular Stage.
- Discussion on the cell specialisation concept and how to implement it.
Sound
- Sway was added into the game as theme for the Macroscopic editor.
- An updated version of Low Tide was released, and added into the game as a Macroscopic theme.
- The track Refract was released, intended as a theme for Reefs biomes.
Theory
- Nothing substantial.
Outreach
- Part two of Punctdan's overview of every Thrive version, covering from version 0.6.0 up to 1.0.0. Have you watched it yet?
Other
- Nothing substantial.
