Deus Ex writer announces Cell: emergence

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 August, 2011

PC and XBLIG based on voxels.

Sheldon Pacotti, the video game developer who wrote the first two Deus Ex games, has revealed his indie game, Cell: emergence.

Cell: emergence, due out before the end of September on PC and the Xbox Live Indie Games platform, is based on voxels. You pilot a nanobot through the body of a sick little girl, melting infections with self-replicating colloids, building shields and pathways with buckyfibers, and shredding germs with monofilament daisycutter depth-charges. Or something.

"The visual style looks low-fi and even retro, but that is because the bulk of the processing is dedicated to a deep simulation that extends down to every voxel in the world," he told Eurogamer.

The game's mechanics are based on "dynamic voxels" - voxels which contain not just visual data but also game-state.

Arcade action is layered on top of a "cellular automata" simulation of the human body.

Pacotti's studio, New Life Interactive, has released a video that shows off the simulation. It's below.

"We assert that such 'massively reactive' mechanics could add life to the next generation of video games," he said.

"Massively reactive describes game mechanics that leverage massive processing power for game interactions, rather than just visuals," Pacotti continued.

Sheldon Pacotti is best known for co-writing the first two Deus Ex games – both won critical acclaim for their storytelling.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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