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Thrive is a free, open-source game about the evolution of life.
(www.revolutionarygamesstudio.com)
It's also on Steam (Early Access) with Very Positive rating (92 %).
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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*for $4.99
Developers need to eat and pay rent.
The game is free from the devs themselves
It makes me happy whenever I see Thrive anywhere because it really deserves more attention.
Would be good to see it Thrive
We even got Spore 2 before GTA 6.
Still early in development, only the single- and multi-cell stages are implemented.
80%+ C# though.
Welp
I can't help
C# is super easy though. If you've done C++ it's about 100x easier than C++ game programming, or really any traditional game programming.
Unity3D is even more complicated than Godot from an engine standpoint using C#.
But Godot is truly open source, and I understand why they used it.
edit: to correct Gadot to Godot
Do you mean "godot" instead of "gadot" or is gadot a C# library?
I did, sorry, Godot is what I mean. I've been watching too much Wonder Woman it seems...
C# is mainly windows though, even though .NET core is not OSS.
And what if they require the whole .NET framework. That makes it a Proton only game. No Linux builds.
Makes the OSS kinda useless to me, unless I want to rewrite it
- C# runs cross platform. Unity3D with C# runs cross platform and Gadot as cross platform.
- .NET 6+ (and 8.X is current) is fully compatible with Linux.
- Nobody's depending on .NET framework <4.X anymore. Nobody. That's the version of .NET you're thinking of that's locked into windows. Anything built with .NET Core, or .NET 6 or higher is fully cross platform.
10 years ago you'd have been correct, but a lot changes in a decade, and a lot of your understanding is currently no longer accurate.
Additional reading for the roadmap from the Gadot team.
They're using Mono with a plan to move to .NET 5 (the merger version between .NET Core and .NET Framework) and then on to .NET 6+.
In the meantime, Mono is fully cross platform and has no dependencies on windows components. The Mono team became the .NET Core team at Microsoft.
ooo
outdated indeed
Guess I should learn some C#
It's a ton of fun. 🙂 I mean that. It makes programming fun vs C++. I think you'll really enjoy it is that's where you're coming from.
It's also, stylistically, much cleaner and slicker than Java
IDK man, I do C++ nowadays and sometimes I miss C.
Hah, I understand. I miss the simplicity of C often.
But give C# a try, I was pleasantly surprised.
Yikes
So - Spore?
From their FAQ:
Wait, isn’t that just Spore?
While Thrive was originally widely inspired by Spore’s intended concept, we aim to portray a creature’s evolution in a fun and interesting way while remaining scientifically accurate. Evolution will play out on not just your own creature, but those around you, each competing to survive within the simulated environment.
Evolution will play out on not just your own creature, but those around you, each competing to survive within the simulated environment.
This line makes me wary of WB
Whats WB?
Warner Bros have a gameplay mechanic patent which has pretty vague wordings.
And although this game doesn't seem like it'd turn out similar to any of the games they made under that patent, I would expect them to try harassment.
Warner Bros? Whining Bimbo? No idea...
Yes
Just tried it - seems a lot more involved than Spore. Very cool!
Is it actually about evolution, or another Intelligent Design simulator?
I guess both? You do hand-of-god design your own life form iteratively over generations, but other microorganisms evolve randomly and branch and die off all over the place (and your own species will branch off into other ones that randomly evolve too - you might be making a meal out of your cousins in a couple generations).