So far, so good.  Reactions to Cell are all over the map, and most of them include a note of quizzicalness.  An indie project wouldn't be worth doing, we think, if it were immediately comprehensible, so this is validation that "automata arcade action" is safely within the realm of experiment.

Nonetheless, since this type of gameplay is new, we wanted to provide a more extended preview of what the game is like.  Simulations (like cellular automata) don't always translate into good games, so our challenge was to discover what the fun interactions might be in this space.

We had to add a few elements to the strict notion of "cellular automata" -- namely voxel-based sprites and dynamic light (of a sort) -- in order to make the interactions fast and visceral, and we had to match gameplay challenges to the timescale of the automata sim, which even at 15 FPS reacts more like an RTS than a shooter.  So we've paired a drawing mechanic with two shooting mechanics to create an RTS-like tradeoff between attacking and building your forces.

This is quite fun at the advanced levels for those of us with two years of experience testing the game... The trick, of course, will be easing new players through this learning curve.  And to that end, we're starting by releasing a low-fi, informal video that makes all of this more explicit in the context of actual gameplay footage.  We hope it whets your appetite for the game itself, which if successful will ease you with kid gloves through battles that gradually approach the speed and complexity of the one depicted.

For more detail on the game concept and underlying technology, please see the Trailer Announcement, or follow us on Twitter via the panel on the right for upcoming announcements as the game makes its way to market.