· AN EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT ·
Build a cell. Survive the primordial sea.
Evolve, generation after generation.
Rules & balance based on Thrive by Revolutionary Games Studio
How harsh is the ocean? You can pick a different one any time you start a new species.
Primordial Soup is an educational evolution game for the classroom. You control a single cell in the early ocean: collect compounds, keep your energy balance (ATP) in check and gather ammonia and phosphate to divide. Every division lets you rebuild your cell — until your species can take on the whole sea.
The game rules — organelle costs, metabolic processes, membranes and the energy balance — are taken directly from Thrive, the open-source evolution game by Revolutionary Games Studio (GPL‑3.0). This is an independent, simplified 2D adaptation for the browser.
thrivegame.com · github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive
This adaptation may be shared freely under the same terms.
WASD / arrows — swim · E or Enter — divide (when the bar is full) · M — sound · H — help
Swim — WASD or arrow keys (or drag on touch)
Engulf — hold SPACE (or the Engulf button) to swallow a smaller cell
Toxin — press F (or the Toxin button) to release a cytotoxin cloud, if you have a toxin organelle
Divide — E or Enter once the division bar is full
Sound — M · This help — H
Yellow clouds = glucose (fuel) · purple = ammonia and blue = phosphate (to divide) · orange = iron (food for rusticyanin).
If your ATP runs out, your cell takes damage. Big cells can engulf smaller ones — stay away from anything much bigger than you, and from cells with red spikes.
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But one cell is not your whole species. Population: 80