Hi everyone! The Lifecraft 0.2.0 Digestion update has been released!
This update focuses on the much talked digestion and extracellular updates going finally public! We've also introduced a lot of user interface changes and quality-of-life improvements, making the game much easier and more streamlined to play. We’ve implemented many suggestions (including those from negative reviews—yes, we’re listening).

Here's a bunch:

Pick and drop multiple items with shift
Better microtubule placement
Drag and drop items
Automate Intracellular building
It also marks the beginning of our first extracellular expansion: digestion! You can now expand your cell with extracellular digestive tissue on a much larger scale. Exchange digested materials with appropriate stoma, tanks, vessels and anus structures, and then use them to further expand your cell.

We also wanted to add new organisms that are currently in development, but we felt the changes we had so far were starting to pile up. So, we decided to release this improved version of the game first.

In the coming weeks, we’ll add new achievements, goals, journey and incorporate all the feedback we receive on this patch.

We hope you enjoy the changes, and as usual, you can find us on Discord to share your experience directly with us and our community.

Changelog:
• Items on microtubules now move together (no more spring behavior!)
• Added small intestine intracellular and extracellular tissues
• Added ileum vessels to convey food
• Added stoma to absorb food from outside
• Added a primitive anus to dispose of digestion waste
• Added tanks as a generic way to process extracellular resources
• Added a retriever structure that can retrieve floating items around it
• Added the initial exocrine system used to send enzymes to tanks
• Added extracellular enzymes for food processing
• Added the energy supplier ultimate to sandbox mode
• Added an advanced item tunnel that’s as fast as advanced microtubules
• Added the Mega-ATP molecule, used to power extracellular buildings
• Added a microtubule placement mode with auto-routing
• Added a microtubule clear area mode
• Added valves to manually block transportation over vessels
• Added a primitive diffuser
• Added a primitive retriever
• Diffusers can now deliver objects to building placeholders
• Added a multi-pickup and multi-drop key modifier, bound to SHIFT (fewer mouse clicks, yay!)
• Added drag-to-pickup for items
• Added warnings related to low energy production
• The recipe list window now has a search field
• Tissue expansion now recycles existing tissue that can be retrieved
• Added a tissue matrix extracellular building that can store a large amount of tissue for expansion
• Some buildings now show their range on hover
• Cytostomes now have a precise throughput in items/second
• Disposers now have a precise throughput in items/second
• Launchers now have semicircular ranges
• Zooming the map far out now shows a symbol on resources and chunks
• Dispatcher bubbles now have straight routes
• Improved readability of the information panel for structures
• Fixed an issue with free microtubules being returned on replacement
• Fixed transparency near the mouse for ground props, which was getting stuck
• Fixed a crash when changing options related to hiding unknown recipes in the start view
• Fixed a crash when manually exhausting a heap
• Fixed a crash when starting a game with maps enabled in the main menu
• World sound volume and panning are now more realistic
• New extracellular structure HD graphics
• New extracellular structure sounds
• Many graphical updates and fixes
• Added a new tutorial
• Added an option to keep recipe tooltips anchored to a corner
• Added an enable/disable autosave option (defaults to enabled)
• Added an option to show raw materials in recipe tooltips (defaults to on)
• Hovering over a recipe in the recipe list now highlights the required materials
• The character is no longer hidden when walls are hidden
• Dozens of UI improvements!
• Lots more that we probably forgot somewhere along the line!

Hi everyone! In recent weeks we’ve been working on many features, we’re going to list some of the major ones below.

Pathfinding system has been completely revamped, which is laying the groundwork for more advanced features like hemocytes breeding (more on that later).

Previously, bubble paths were zig-zagging between chunks, which didn’t feel quite right. We’ve reprogrammed them so that bubble paths are now direct, making them look more organic and move faster.

We’ve introduced hemocytes (tiny defensive creatures) as a new type of extracellular defense. You’ll need to breed and grow them. They have their own unique minds and automatically decide where to patrol, defending your extracellular zones from bacterial activity. This brings new extracellular structures: the incubator, the feeder and the niche.

Almost all the extracellular structures have been redrawn in much more detail to keep the look cohesive with the intracellular zones. Extracellular walls are now thick, as they should be, and structures no longer look pixelated. All buildings now have new unique sound effects, adding to the gurgly experience!

We’ve also started working on a casual mode, which is coincidentally also a mod. This should open the doors to people who think the game is a bit too complicated, making it more accessible to a wider audience.

Diffusers, Dispatchers, and Retrievers have been revamped, and each one now has its primitive version that works without power, offering more options.

We’re continually implementing lots of quality-of-life improvements, UI updates, and overall polish to enhance the game. We feel the game is much more mature now; it flows better in many ways!

Expect a new nightly build in the next few days, as we keep working on the public release.
We'll keep you posted!

We’ve probably left out a lot of stuff, as usual follow us on Discord where you can see the progress since we post there frequently.

Thanks for reading :)