August 2025
Lots of art news and game updates!
Hi everyone!
I’ve been totally immersed in working on Cellscape and just suddenly realized it’s August already! I have so much news piling up and need to share some before it’s too much for one post.
New Rotifer Commission
This very special commission was a gift between two friends who share a passion for microbes. They both love to explore the beauty of microscopic life and share their findings with others on Instagram. Desi (@desi_morrison) has even sent Katelyn (@dope.microscope) samples from across the US in winter when she didn’t have anything to look at. So sweet! Katelyn wanted to express her appreciation for her friend by commissioning a painting of one of her favourite microbes. We decided on Collotheca, based on this beautiful video Desi had shared.
It was a ton of fun working with Katelyn on this project. It turns out we have a lot more in common than just our names (with the same spelling too!). While social media overall has gone tragically downhill over the last years, we can’t forget how incredible it has been to be able to make connections like these that probably never would have been possible otherwise. Especially to find like-minded people with such niche interests as this!
Now that the gift has been received (she loved it!!) I’m delighted to be able to share it with you as well.
Since this was a special commission it will not be available in my print shop. However, INPRNT is currently having a site-wide summer sale, so you might like to check that out if you’re interested in other prints for your home, office, or lab :)
Norges Vel Soil Life Exhibit
The Royal Norwegian Society for Development (Norges Vel) is a nonprofit organization that does a wide range of projects related to sustainable development goals both here in Norway and internationally. They own and operate Hellerud Farm near Oslo, and this year they are refurbishing the main farmhouse to serve as a conference center. Since they are involved with projects on soil health, they decided to include an opening exhibition featuring soil, and they licensed some of my artwork to help bring it to life. The exhibition itself was created by Thomas Andersen of Thomashawk Design.
They also commissioned glass artist Kjersti Johannessen to make gorgeous microbe-inspired sculptures, which even had soil from the farm mixed into the glass itself!
It was a huge honour to be part of this beautiful exhibit, and I hope it will help inspire many visitors to wonder about the mysterious world of soil life.
Compost Academy Logo
I rarely accept logo commissions. However, in this case Keisha of Compost Academy approached me with a logo she and her team had already designed themselves using AI, but they weren’t happy with the way the tardigrade looked and wanted me to draw them a new one.
The reason I don’t normally accept logo requests is that there are a lot of special considerations with logos that aren’t part of normal illustration work, and they come with significantly more pressure than other types of artwork. I decided to take on this project anyway since the main graphic design was already done, and they had a very clear picture of how the new drawing should look. It was still a challenge, but I did love getting a chance to draw in this inky style!
Here’s the finished logo:
Compost Academy offers various courses and workshops focused on improving soil health and restoring degraded soil by understanding and working with biology. Their 2025 program has already started but it’s not too late to join if you don’t mind catching up with recordings. Keisha was kind enough to give me an affiliate link (the button below), which lets me earn a commission if you happen to sign up from it :)
By the way, if you’ve seen images of tardigrades before, you might be wondering why this one’s face is so round, and why it has visible eye spots. This wasn’t just an aesthetic choice.
If you do an image search for tardigrades you’ll mostly see SEM (scanning electron microscope) images of them with squashed-in faces and no eyes. That grumpy-looking forehead is adorable, but it turns out those images are somewhat misleading, as the process of preparing specimens for SEM can have some side effects; apparently in this case causing the tardigrade’s faces to collapse in on themselves. The SEM also only shows surfaces and can’t see through things like translucent membranes. Since the tardigrade’s eyespots aren’t on the surface, you can’t see that there’s anything there. With a light microscope we can see living tardigrades, and they do indeed have little dark eye spots, and their faces are full and round.
If you’re interested, I highly recommend this episode of the Ologies podcast all about tardigrades!
I didn’t know about this when I did my earlier tardigrade drawings, so those ones have the crushed faces and no eye spots. Should I try to update those drawings, or make new ones and accept that the old ones were made with old knowledge? I guess dinosaur artists have these dilemmas too, like when researchers figured out theropods actually held their forelimbs with the palms facing inward like birds, rather than downward like they do in the Jurassic Park movies.
Cellscape Game Updates
I’ve made tons of progress on Cellscape since the last update. It’s really starting to come together!
Pathogens
After increasing the bacteria spawn rate to make food more available, I kept having these huge swarms of Colpoda taking over the game scene, since they also eat bacteria as well as other flagellates, and they reproduce fairly quickly.
I absolutely loved that this happened, because it’s quite realistic. My game is really acting like an ecosystem! However, it’s not ideal for game design because it quickly makes huge areas inaccessible, and there’s nothing players can do to overcome it.
Of course I could just slow down Colpoda’s reproduction rate, but I decided to add a new pathogen mechanic instead. This would add a new dynamic to the ecosystem and could be used to give the player some agency too.
Now, when the Colpoda population crosses a certain threshold, a small number of tiny virus particles will start drifting around the scene. If a Colpoda comes in contact with one, it will become sick. It stops swimming and eating, changes colour, and then disintegrates into a cloud of nutrients. When that happens, it also ejects a number of secondary virus particles which are short-lived, but will infect any other nearby Colpodas that run into them. If there is a particularly dense swarm of Colpodas, it causes a chain reaction and thins them out.
This mechanic works passively and is effective at keeping the Colpoda population in check. However, since we also want the player to have some agency, it’s possible to pick up a virus particle, carry it to a Colpoda and infect it directly. If you want to trigger a chain reaction to get the biggest effect, you’ll have to venture into the most densely packed crowd, and try not to get eaten on the way!
Nutrient Clouds
The pathogen mechanic lead to another new mechanic which will likely play a big role later in the game. When the infected Colpoda cells disintegrate, they release a cloud of nutrient particles. Those clouds are not directly useful to the player, but they attract nearby bacteria and cause them to divide, creating a small feeding frenzy. That can be a nice little boost to your division score, but remember to move away before you divide so your child doesn’t become extra competition.
When I first set this up, I didn’t think to add any limits on bacteria division at nutrient clouds. So all nearby bacteria would zoom over to the cloud and immediately divide. They produced one or two children which would then also divide, and their children, and so on.. and it all happened so fast the game (and the Unity editor itself) would just crash. I added limits to the bacteria division so things are running smoothly now.
Game Timer and Scoring
The game now keeps track of your highest score, and I’ve added a timer to track the duration of your run. I’m thinking to have a sortable chart showing your top scores, including a point score based on how many times you divided relative to how long the session was. So you’ll be able to sort your best scores by most divisions in one run, longest survival time, and highest division rate.
If you’re like me and would rather not feel the pressure of a ticking clock, no worries! You’ll be able to hide it with a toggle in the settings. Speaking of which…
Settings
Settings are a very boring but super important part of the project. I spent a few weeks creating an options menu where you can set preferences for things like audio, gameplay, and graphics settings. This part isn’t fully finished, but it’s in a good place for now. I’m so so happy to have made it past this particular milestone!
Next up: Biofilms
The next big game mechanic I’ve been itching to get started on is biofilms. These will be represented by patches with clusters of bacteria and slime that will act as resource and/or hazardous areas, depending on the type. The effects will include various buffs and debuffs that affect your ability to survive, and will introduce some more strategic elements into the game.
If you’re interested in Cellscape and haven’t wishlisted it on Steam yet, you can do so here: Cellscape on Steam.
Thank you so much for reading!
Wish you all the best,
Kate
Besides the commodity amoebas and unicellular ciliates, my first exciting creature that I found under the 'scope was a rotifer. I drew it. And then, OH-MY-GOSH, a tardigrade. I drew it, too. That was 50+ years ago. I still find them uber-enthralling.