The Game Census
Substrate: Emergence cover art

Substrate: Emergence

Petri Dish Games LLC · 2026-09-24

Steam

IndieSimulationStrategyEarly Access

Modes: Single player

Releases: 2026 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Grow colonies of fluorescent cells that mutate, swarm, and devour each other in a petri dish arena. Propagate a unique biology of your own as you compete against rival labs in a detailed artificial life simulation.

92%
positive of 39 reviews
Positive
steam's rating (official)
Unsupported
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
−40% · $7.79
was $12.99
steam price (US) · on sale

Health check

Insufficient data
  • · Not enough review history collected yet to judge health.
  • · Top 56% of 52,522 Indie games in the census by review count.

12-month high $7.79 · on sale 0 of 1 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
222220262026Week of 2026-09-24: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-09-24: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-10-08: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-10-08: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-10-15: 2 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Details

WindowsLinuxSingle-playerAdjustable Text SizeCamera ComfortColor Alternatives#category_contrast_controlsCustom Volume ControlsPlayable without Timed InputSave AnytimeStereo SoundFamily Sharing1 DLC

29 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian…

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2026-06-06 (Steam store data)

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

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Similarity via IGDB.