Cell Machine turns cellular automata into compact logic puzzles. Arrange a fixed set of rule-driven cells, start the simulation, and hope the resulting chain reaction reaches the enemy before your beautiful contraption proves beautifully wrong.
What is Cell Machine?
Every piece has a plain job: move, accept a push, slide along one axis, rotate neighbors, duplicate another cell, or refuse to budge. The puzzle comes from composing those tiny rules. You edit only the starting grid; once play begins, control gives way to cause and effect. A step button lets you inspect one generation at a time, while restart returns the board to an editable state. Created for the 2020 GMTK jam theme Out of Control, the game makes that phrase mechanical: a modest setup can bloom into an exponential mess with nobody left at the wheel.
What you can do there
- Arrange cells on a grid
- Run or step the simulation
- Build a chain reaction that destroys the enemy
Why we picked it
The rules are readable enough to reason about, yet their combinations can behave like little machines with opinions. That balance has traveled: later cellular-automaton projects explicitly credit Cell Machine as an influence, a persuasive sign that its compact jam design found life beyond the original weekend.
How to get the most from it
Start from the enemy and work backward. Ask which cell must reach it, what must push or rotate that cell, and how the timing lines up. Use Step to find the first generation where the plan goes crooked; change that cause instead of rebuilding the whole contraption.
Good to know
The current listing offers browser play and a 20 MB Windows v0.1.1 download. It documents seven cell roles and was built in Unity, but it does not specify touch support or accessibility options. The September 2026 page update is dated without a corresponding change note.
Who made it, and when?
Sam Hogan is the credited creator or organization. The earliest supported launch date we found is July 12, 2020. A documented update was recorded September 16, 2026.
Creator’s official page Open Cell MachineMore like this
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