Project: C.E.L.L.

Hi everyone!Another week, another increasingly real Project: C.E.L.L. demo.This week has been heavily focused on balancing, playtesting and polishing the experience. We’ve reworked a large part of the economy, reorganized the skill tree, improved several mechanics and effects, added new music and spent a frankly unreasonable amount of time fixing all the little things players immediately notice when you put the game in front of them.Here’s what we’ve been working on.Demo Balancing & PlaytestingWe’ve completed a major rebalance of the demo’s economy and skill costs.Our current target is a full demo run of roughly 20–25 minutes, with progression that stays satisfying without either dragging or exploding completely out of control.We’ve also started putting the demo in front of friends and family and watching them play.This has been extremely useful and occasionally painful.There is nothing quite like watching someone completely ignore the thing you thought was impossible to miss.We’ve been using their feedback to adjust progression, tutorials, readability and general game feel before the demo reaches a much larger audience.Skill TreeThe skill tree has been reorganized from its previous four-spoke layout into a clearer branching structure.Progression now spreads outward more naturally, with different upgrade paths forming a larger canopy rather than feeling like four isolated lanes.Visible DNA connections now clearly communicate which upgrades are prerequisites for others.Alongside the layout changes, skill costs have been heavily rebalanced as part of the demo economy pass.We’ve rebuilt this tree enough times that it may technically qualify as forestry at this point.Music & SoundOur musician finished two new tracks this week.We’ve also created new sound effects for lasers and lipids.Several attacks now have much more impact and are easier to distinguish from each other during heavier sections of gameplay.The Perimeter Laser no longer depends on the soundtrack timing to...

Hi everyone! First of all, sorry this devlog is late. We know. We have once again discovered that “we’ll post it tomorrow” is a very dangerous sentence in game development. The good news is that we’ve been busy for a reason, here’s what we’ve been working on. Demo PreparationWe’ve officially started preparing the Project: C.E.L.L. demo.Most of our focus right now is on polishing the build, fixing bugs and making sure everything feels ready before we throw it at the internet.The demo release date will be announced soon.Letting actual players touch the game is getting very real now, which is exciting and slightly terrifying.SoundtrackThe Project: C.E.L.L. soundtrack is now 19 songs long.Nineteen.We’re extremely happy with how much personality the soundtrack has added to the game.Proteins & LipidsThe sound design for proteins and lipids is now finished.Their VFX are also done.The lasers, explosions, impacts and all the other questionable things happening inside this poor cell now finally sound and look the way we wanted them to.Turns out nuclear bombs feel much better when they actually sound like nuclear bombs. Shocking discovery.New ConceptsWe’ve also started working on some new concepts on the side.Project: C.E.L.L. is still our main focus, especially with the demo coming up, but apparently our brains refuse to stop coming up with new game ideas.Most of them are still very early and slightly stupid, which is usually a good sign for us.We’ll share more when one of them survives long enough to become something real. Right now, the biggest goal is simple: get the demo ready and get it into your hands.We’re getting very close, and we’ll have more to share about the release date soon. If you haven’t already, please add Project: C.E.L.L. to your Steam Wishlist. It helps the project grow, and yes, we still check that number more often than we probably should. Thank you for following the project, and again, sorry for being late. See you in the next devlog!— Under Stair Game...

Hi everyone!Another productive week for Project: C.E.L.L. We’ve added new music, introduced a bunch of new protein and lipid types, overhauled the skill tree, optimized the game.Here’s what we’ve been working on.MusicOur musician finished four new tracks this week.The soundtrack is continuing to grow alongside the rest of the game.Proteins & LasersWe’ve added three new protein types.All three are built around different laser-based mechanics.Proteins are meant to be more active than glucose, so these new variants push that part of the game further.They also gave us an excuse to put more lasers on screen, which was obviously very important.Lipids & ExplosionsWe’ve added seven new lipid types.Lipids are essentially our explosive nutrient category, with each type creating a different kind of area effect or chain reaction.The new variants range from relatively normal explosives all the way up to napalm and nuclear bombs.Somewhere during development, “is this too much?” stopped being a useful question.Skill Tree OverhaulWe have given the skill tree another major overhaul.The layout is cleaner and the different progression paths are much easier to follow.We’ve improved how upgrades connect to each other and how clearly each branch communicates its purpose.We’re continuing to focus on giving players actual build choices instead of forcing everyone through the same linear upgrade path.OptimizationWe’ve completed another large optimization pass across the game.This has become increasingly important as we add more nutrients, projectiles, lasers, explosions and effects happening simultaneously.We’ve reduced the cost of several systems and improved performance during heavier sections of gameplay.Optimization is unfortunately one of those things that can take lots of time and produce the least exciting screenshot imaginable.We’re continuing to polish everything and bring the different parts of Project: C.E.L.L. closer together.There’s still plenty left to do, but every week the g...