- v0.4.6: Watching over the BIONET - 20 September 2026
Hey everyone! Early Access starts this Thursday, September 24th! I am excited and incredibly nervous. I have a bunch of cool stuff planned for Early Access; content updates will start right away and I'll have the development roadmap updated by Wednesday night. I know I said v0.4.5 would be the last demo version, but here we are with v0.4.6 of the demo! I decided not to have a specific cut-off date for the demo and instead it'll keep getting updates just at a slower and more limited pace than the full version. Due to a hiccup with Steam, v0.4.6 has to be on a separate Demo branch temporarily. Right-click in your library > properties > Versions & Betas > Select v0.4.6. This update is deserving of a major version bump because I've replaced the unfortunate tutorial with a story-driven mode instead. Writing these levels takes quite a bit more time so I am only including the first two in the…
- v0.4.5a-7 - 18 September 2026
v0.4.5a-7:* Gene fragments and antibodies now carry a specific gene rather than abstract genetic signature* Extract gene fragments gives extracted genes that can be used in the splicer* Locked starter strains now show what unlocks them on the tooltip* Globulin pushes cells more towards antibody production with ER genes* Flagellate contract made available at the start of a new lab
- v0.4.5a-6 - 17 September 2026
At the request of OMEGAcrab992 in Discord I've reenabled contaminants as an optional setting in the lab bench and creative lab, and some bionet nodes will have no rival lab AI and just contaminant cells. There are also some other bug fixes: v0.4.5a-6:* Re-enabled contaminants. Available as optional new culture settings from the lab bench/creative lab* Lab bench no longer shows bionet cultures in the CULTURE list* Lab bench cultures exit to the lab bench* Placing cells via seed is refused when the placement area isn't suitable* Newly placed cells have a 0.25s survival grace period* Splice correctly spends specimens from the cryobank* Preview cells that die on spawn are respawned automatically * UI fixes
- v0.4.5a-2 - 14 September 2026
v0.4.5a-2:* Fixed delivery contracts never completing. Contracts now say the specimens come from the Cryobank.* Renaming a strain should now show the new name everywhere.* Fixed a spliced specimen being lost if you pressed RESUME soon after splicing.* Fixed enzyme shots hitting the cell that fired them.* A large cell with an Explosive enzyme no longer sets off its own shot.* Improved memory use during long runs.
- v0.4.5a-1 - 12 September 2026
v0.4.5a:* Fixed various tutorial hard locks. - Some locking bugs may still occur. When encountering a game locking bug during the tutorial, you may skip it. - The tutorial is being worked on and will be replaced. Added a notice in-game.* Fixed cells stalling before division and daughters shrinking each generation. Daughters now regrow to full size; the parent pays for the division.* Fixed deaths reporting the wrong cause or no cause at all.* Fixed cells taking acid damage in neutral dishes, and adaptation firing on tiny temperature changes.* Lysocysts should no longer conflict with digestive enzymes. Enzyme firing is now driven by the cell's ATTACK behaviour.* Crystal consistency improvements* Rival labs retrained: all four play differently and deploy their full tray. Fixed contested dishes that never resolved or auto-won.* Fixed Bionet board panning, doubled card hexagons, missing port…
- v0.4.5 - 9 September 2026
Hey everyone! I uploaded v0.4.5 and it has some major improvements, especially around the game flow and UI consistency. I took a risk and removed zones as the main game mode, replacing it with biomass-based scoring. I'm still working out the kinks but I think this will end up feeling better and more natural; however, I will wait for feedback to make a final decision. This will be the last major Demo version, although I will continue to patch it and make tweaks where necessary. I will continue addressing any feedback in sub-version patches as always. I expect to have a patch ready in the next few days that will improve the rival AI further, that will be in v0.4.5a. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with the demo yet but I plan to leave it up so its available permanently, and I won't leave anything broken. Thank you so much to everyone who has played the demo so far and left feedb…
- v0.4.4a/b/c - 2 September 2026
v0.4.4a:* Added skip button to tutorial section* Fixed various tutorial hard-lock bugs* UI layout bug fixes* UI navigation improvementsv0.4.4b:* Improvements to the first Bionet map: - Improved balance (the rival side had a major advantage) - Fixed bug where victory condition would be met without ever encountering the rival germinal zone* Cryobank behavior fixes. Strains are now deducted from the Cryobank immediately when deployed in a culture* Improved plasmodia branch behavior and greatly reduced crawl speed (should be nearly stationary)* Fixed various tutorial hard locks* Fixed various cryobank hard and soft locks* UI fixes and consistency improvements* Other various bug fixesNOTE: The current rival AIs are dumb prototypes. More advanced opponents will be trained. v0.4.4c:* Added maps: METAMORPH-I and METAMORPH-II (Note: while I am updating the bionet, they won't be easy to find; one…
- v0.4.4: Divide & Conquer pt. 2! - 29 August 2026
Hey everyone! I am here once again to share a new update for the demo. I have been focusing a lot on improving the onboarding and accessibility of the game and in that spirit I have fleshed out the tutorial much more with dedicated tutorial levels for each mechanic. I am still adding levels, but the core lessons should be enough to teach the foundations of the game. I think it will be a massive improvement over the last version. I also have been finding areas where the mechanics have gotten a little bit bloated and confusing. I decided to cut nutrient completely because they added complexity without much benefit. I also clarified the core game loop in career mode to be an arena-style RTS where you capture your opponent's germinal zone to win. A player must hold a germinal zone or will be eliminated after 30 seconds. The compound system is still being built but it's already functional as…
- v0.4.3a - 11 August 2026
* Mutations reworks: - Background mutation rate is lowered - Increased magnitude and prominence of rare, large single gene mutation "divergence events" - Divergence events are named* Cryobank strain cap can be increased via biomark unlocks, converted to list instead of honeycomb display* Cells with no mitochondria now produce much more heat from metabolism* Plasmodia growth buffed so they no longer stall after just a few division* Added more spawn guards to protect against specimens being dropped
- v0.4.3: Divide and Conquer! - 9 August 2026
Hey everyone! I am very excited to share another Alpha build, this time built around territorial domination! A lot has changed, and some things will be a bit rough while I patch the holes.The biggest challenge that I have been facing is that the game is confusing. Previously, I thought this was just an issue with the tutorial and onboarding, but over time I have realized that the tutorial is confusing because the game is pretty disjointed right now. I have been trying out lots of different ideas, and that means that there hasn't been a single coherent direction. I am changing that now. I have pushed back the Early Access release date to September 17th since I want to take my time getting these changes right.The Substrate is rich in precious trophin. Cells spread zone to zone to extract it. Feed your cells trophin and they will rapidly mutate.Territorial domination helps focus the game a…
- v0.4.2a: UI refinements, tutorial pacing, nerfed contaminants and more - 17 July 2026
v0.4.2a:* Gameplay & Balance: - Creative mode only: Place cells on demand in cultures. Ctrl + space opens the cell placer - Tool consistency changes: particle density is now consistent across all tool radii and is set by intensity - Improved effectiveness of antibiotics and viruses at high bacteria counts - Reduced amount of dense substrate left behind by dead cells - Motile cells have longer life spans - Gentler contaminant events* Legibility: - Changed economy tickers to show strains rather than genes - F1 now toggles all HUD panels off without hiding the HUD fully. ctrl + F1 hides the HUD completely (for screenshots/cinematics)* Other: - Improved optimization for the strain registry - Added WASD/arrow key panning to lineage tree views - F1 now toggles all HUD panels off without hiding the HUD fully. ctrl + F1 hides the HUD completely (for screenshots/cinematics) - Re-drew HUD icons f…
- v0.4.2: Major tutorial, UI and Gameplay Updates! - 13 July 2026
Hey everyone! I've just updated the demo and main app to v0.4.2. This will be one of the last major demo updates before Early Access starts. This is a big update.Tutorial overhaulI've attempted another rework of the tutorial, with improved pacing and details. I hope that it helps clarify the game for anyone who found the learning curve too steep to get started. Gameplay changesOne of the biggest gameplay changes is the new compound system. In career mode, you no longer have an endless paintbrush/particle/crystal tool. Instead, you have to harvest compounds from the cells that you can then use to modify the environment. In creative mode you can fully customize the compounds, so it is basically the same tool as before except with a wider range of options for the paintbrush, particles and crystals.In addition to this, I have reworked the economy a bit so you should notice more consistency…
- v0.4.1: New tools and controls! - 25 June 2026
v0.4.1:* Improved controls (need testing): - Selections can now be filtered via the inspector - Right-click sets a waypoint for your selected cells to follow, up to 128 cells per order - Waypoint orders persist when selection changes - Apoptose order moved to Delete (rebindable) - Shift + select adds to selection, ctrl + select removes (works with box select) - alt + left-click dettaches plasmodia from their network, reattaches them to a nearby network, or makes them grow a new network depending on the context - double-click now works on plasmodia too, forcing them to spend energy to grow faster* Added automatic strain naming: - Tag distinct genes. Defaults to one gene, but more can be added. Preferences should persist - Customize shorthand for genes in the glossary - M and E now confirm, so double tap either to quickly register/preserve cells from new strains* Improved lineage trees an…
- v0.4.0b - 19 June 2026
v0.4.0b:* pH tolerance and temperature tolerance gene mutations changed from multiplicative to additive to try to improve the bias of cultures towards acidification* Replication cost now scales with population density so overcrowding should be less of an issue* Added the ability to remove crystals. Right-click while holding the crystal tool deletes any crystals near the cursor. NOTE: The dense substrate and remaining environmental effects persist. It is just the emitter that gets removed* Fixed contracts that require culturing cells in specific environment presets* Fixed sugar specialists never appearing* Increased visibility of diet specialization* The Objectives HUD now favors showing completed objectives that are ready to be claimed Something that you may notice if you play a lot is that cultures almost always acidify. The intended design is that there is a dynamic mixture of pH that…
- v0.4.0a - 17 June 2026
v0.4.0a:* Improved HUD behavior for different aspect ratios* Cursor tooltip hides on drag (F2 to show/hide)* Added attribute examples to "show me" guides* Blocked killing cells during tutorial to prevent accidentally breaking it* Compacted nucleus inspector display* Fixed plasmodia particle production stopping prematurely* Fixed plasmodia immortality bug* Minor description tweaks* Substrate visual adjustments - neutral substrate is a soft violet, pH coloring takes priority, and nutrients now just add a subtle tint As always, if the new version causes any issues, you can switch over to the previous branch for the previous build.
- v0.4.0 - 15 June 2026
v0.4.0:* Tutorial overhauled to be goals-first* Contracts reworked with new objective types* Widened cell temperature tolerance bands* Added strain valuation breakdown on strain tree with per-gene value* Added proper DPI resolution scaling to all UI elements* P to pause now works while tools are active* Seeding from the Cryobank now correctly exits menus to the dish and arms placement. Escape to cancel* Various bug fixes and visual tweaks
- Substrate: Emergence Demo - v0.4.0 "Synthesis" - 15 June 2026
Hello everyone! I have just updated the demo and base app to v0.4.0. I will be closing the playtest now that Next Fest is starting, but don't worry! The demo is the same build and I will still be updating it as usual. This just gives it a permanent home on the store page. If you haven't wishlisted Substrate yet, now's the moment, it really helps the game get seen during the fest. And if you can hop in during the first day or two, that early activity is what pushes it in front of new players. Thanks again to everyone who has been participating in the playtest, I really can't say enough how grateful I am to see anyone engaged with something I made the way that this community has been engaged.
- v0.3.5 - 14 June 2026
v0.3.5:* Bacteria rebalanced to reduce the amount of active attention they require. Bacterial blooms are more rare* Reduced maintenance cost burden so labs can comfortably afford significantly higher cell counts* Biomarket, contracts, Cryobank, and glossary panels all merged into one "Manage" screen with tabs* Scaled down culture sizes significantly for improved population dynamics* Improved plasmodia lifecycle to be more dynamic* Adjusted mutation rates for improved variety* Tuned strain classifier to hopefully improve strain coherence. Watching results* Added substrate brush. Allows for direct modification of the environment* Substrate nutrient composition is no longer static* Various Amoeba fixes aimed at making them viable. Previously, Amoeba almost never would appear and wouldn't survive due to various issues* Increased bacteria base size for visibility* Increased digestive enzyme…
- v0.3.4a - Hotfixes - 9 June 2026
v0.3.4a:* Fixed sterilization not blocking bacteria spawning* Rebalanced contamination rates to be less demanding* Fixed bug where abandoning contracts could result in net positive Biomarks* Mutagen now unlocks upon tutorial completion* Fixed bug where specimens wouldnt be added to Cryobank from Biomarket orders* Updated contracts to reflect recent changes
- v0.3.4: More gameplay changes! - 8 June 2026
Hello! For this update I was mainly focused on fixing and refining the central gameplay loops and removing some frustrating aspects. In my opinion it is a noticeable improvement over the last build, especially now that insta-death is no longer really a thing for labs.Culture maintenance felt too punishing so I've flipped it, and now there is a reward for keeping your populations low. You are meant to be able to afford high population maintenance for a time, but I want the focus to be on playing with the sandbox tools to keep populations low while driving interesting evolutionary outcomes. The Colony count in the HUD is sort of like a golf score, its how far below the "par" population count you are.I also removed a lot of the unnecessary (and annoying) Biomark costs. Biomarks are basically just your score, so I've tried to simplify it a lot. Costs purely come from the upkeep cost of your…
