Thrive

Thrive is a free, open-source game about the evolution of life. From the lowly tidepools of your home planet, you will rise to cosmic dominance. At every step, powerful creation tools and deep simulation mechanics will aid your species’ development. Revolutionary Games Studio is the open-source team of dedicated volunteers aiming to make Thrive a reality.

Thrive is a free open-source game for PC and Linux about evolution, in which the player guides a species from their origin as a microbe to the space age and beyond. Gameplay is split into seven stages – Microbe, Multicellular, Aware, Awakening, Society, Industrial and Space. Through each of these you will guide your creature towards intelligence, sentience and the stars. Our team seeks to accomplish two major goals: create engaging, compelling gameplay that respects our players’ intelligence, and remain as accurate as possible in our depiction of known scientific theory.

The game is still in heavy development, and only the first stage is available to download, although it's not finished. It's possible to join the team sending the application form here.

Gameplay
Thrive's gameplay is divided into 7 stages (plus a sandbox mode) across a species' entire progression from eukaryotic cell to galactic god.

Microbe
The world is three-dimensional, but the camera is locked to a top-down perspective. Your goals are to acquire the nutrients you need to survive, which are processed inside your cell by the compound system, and to compete against the other cells you encounter. You can also take evolution into your own hand at any generational interval through accessing the Microbe Editor. To progress to the next stage, you must assimilate a specific enzyme that allows your cell to bond to others of your species, allowing for the development of multicellular organisms.