Thrive is a free, open-source game currently being developed by an online volunteer team called Revolutionary Games. Drawing inspiration from numerous simulation and strategy games (in particular the original concept behind the PC game Spore), Thrive is a game about a species’ evolution from unicellular organisms to galaxy-wide space travel.

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 without compromising the former. The eventual game will contain powerful creation tools, allowing players to realistically craft organisms, technology, cultures, and even entire planets.

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Write Your Own Saga of Life

Thrive’s goal is to encapsulate the player in the wonders of the universe, and to allow them to manipulate the virtual world around them in any way they please by using editors to modify technology, culture, organisms, and entire solar systems. Seven stages are planned – Microbe, Multicellular, Aware, Awakening, Society, Industrial and Space – though for the moment we’re only focusing on the first of these, as the whole project is a massive undertaking.

Simulate, Create

Explore the possibilities of simulation within a game context, competing against the game environment as you wield the forces of evolution. Create and edit an organism on its journey from insignificance to the stars, using all the creation tools at your disposal to rise above your adversaries, themselves products of evolution by natural selection as the game simulates its own ecosystem. Hunt or cooperate with a procedurally generated assortment of organisms as they collect and process resources in multiple biomes.

Difficulty levels can be set by modifying the rate of simulation in the world around you. Quicker evolution rates will pose a challenge as organisms can react to changes in less time, while slower rates won’t put you under as much pressure, so your imagination can run wild as you edit your own species’ anatomy. Choose your own way of playing.

Evolution is gradual, with minor changes made each generation for both you and other species. By collecting substances from the environment and processing them in a simulated metabolism, you can increase your species’ fitness rating, building resistance against extinction. Less successful evolutionary paths will die out, and only one may progress through the crucial transformative steps towards cell cohesion, terrestrial conquest, sentience, settlements and space travel. Will you thrive?

Rise to Galactic Dominance

From the lowly tidepools of your home planet, you will rise to cosmic prominence. Along the way, use behaviour, nation and technology editors, plus many more, to create a culture of your own. Design a roster of units and buildings using Function Parts to conquer the planet.

Defeat the armies of clashing nations within your own species, then travel off-world to do battle with the galaxy’s best adapted organisms. Control a fleet of starships of your own design, defending your own system and colonizing others. Build massive orbital structures, including the Ascension Gate. With it you can rise to a new plane of existence, even bending planets to your will. From your new perspective as the survivor of all life’s trials, watch over your domain, or go back and start all over again.

Join the Community

Along the way, trade save files and creations with friends, challenging them to survive better than you did in the same circumstances. Create brilliant technologies, or simply touch up an organism that could be a little more beautiful.

The game is completely free and open-source, so anyone can join our team provided they have the necessary skills. Visit our Get Involved page to see how you could help. Maybe you’re a talented artist or musician, a programmer, or even an expert in one of the various scientific fields we aim to simulate. We’re always on the lookout for potential new contributors.


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If you were to graph Thrive’s progress since its inception, you’d probably have a slow but steady background rate of development with occasional spikes in activity. This is quite similar to the evolutionary concept called punctuated equilibrium, where species remain static for millions of years then change dramatically over short time periods in response to rapid ecosystem change.

Nowhere is this demonstrated better than the last few months of the project. As I write (hello, this is Oliveriver by the way, which will become important later) we’re about to break this website’s record for number of visits in one day after several months of comparative nothingness. Why? What’s happened? What do we do next? Read on to find out…

Read the full article here.

Mini Update #3: Underwater Sensation Pt. 2

Mini Update #3: Underwater Sensation Pt. 2

News 2 comments

Hey guys, Nick here, and back with the next Mini Update. Last time we talked about some of the methods we are planning to use to create a greater sense...

Mini Update #2: Underwater Sensation Pt. 1

Mini Update #2: Underwater Sensation Pt. 1

News 1 comment

Hey guys, Nick here, and welcome to today’s Mini Update. This time we’re going to be talking about blur, and more specifically how making what you’re...

Mini Update #1: Engine Switch and Compound Balancing

Mini Update #1: Engine Switch and Compound Balancing

News 1 comment

Hey guys, Nick here, and welcome to the first in our new series of mini updates!

Thrive 0.3.4 and Launcher Released

Thrive 0.3.4 and Launcher Released

News 1 comment

Good news: Thrive now has its own dedicated launcher. Even better news: there’s a whole new release available as a demonstration of its abilities. This...

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Thrive v0.3.0

Thrive v0.3.0

Demo 1 comment

The latest version of Thrive, including procedural membranes, organelle models and much more, is now available on ModDB. The last download here was posted...

Cell Editor Prototype

Cell Editor Prototype

Demo 46 comments

This is the earliest version of our cell editor. Enjoy and comment!

AI Editor Prototype

AI Editor Prototype

Demo 13 comments

Say hello to our first Prototpye! Many more to come!

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 393)
Legionary_119
Legionary_119 - - 208 comments

The spore we hoped of getting but never did because of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I don't expect total creative freedom in the creature phase (Realistic evolution and all) but I'm going to try to make myself a Rathalos

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Kevin2724
Kevin2724 - - 4 comments

I have been following this project for years now, probably since 2013 and you guys are doing a wonderfull job. It gets better and better every year (slowly but steadily;D). And I can see my own personal developement in this project as well. I have learned a lot more about biology in these past four years and I'm almost done with school, after which I will move on to university. It's great to see some of that knowledge in your game (mitosis etc.) and to see how my knowledge has grown. Well, ofcourse I have known most of what's in your game for quite some time now, but it is still very interesting to see all of that in a game that tries to give a realistic view of evolution and I LOVE it. Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to see how this project will develop in the future!

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RevolutionaryGames Creator
RevolutionaryGames - - 127 comments

Thank you, we really appreciate the support!

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Lord_Baal
Lord_Baal - - 462 comments

So... this is death? Or is evolving?

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Guest
Guest - - 693,915 comments

They released a update a month or two ago on their website. So don't worry, it lives.

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Guest
Guest - - 693,915 comments

This game looks like it'll be amazing! I was just wondering, when it is released, will it also work on macs?

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mathinator
mathinator - - 302 comments

the day of the release of the new update i thought abut this game and wondered how far it had gotten since last time I checked (about 1 year ago) coincidence? or destiny?

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ChizuNordenstam
ChizuNordenstam - - 4 comments

Science.

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Seki-kun
Seki-kun - - 1 comments

May i ask what engine/platform the game uses/will use?

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theepicvoid111
theepicvoid111 - - 3 comments

I am not a dev but I believe the engine is Ogre.

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