A few weeks ago, I saw EEK3, a digital showcase of indie games with a Haunted PS1-like aesthetic. One of the games that caught my eye was Cellular Harvest, which is about an auditor sent to an alien planet to document life on the planet. It is currently on sale and I played it and it was quite good.

The backstory is that in the future we seed life forms and come back much later to see if they are worth harvesting as consumer goods. Perhaps we can grind up the shells of these strange slugs and make something that can be used for tile joints. Did you know that shellac is made from a resin secreted by insects? Carmine dye also comes from insects, but it is made by boiling cochineal insects, not the resin that is scraped from trees. It is still used to make food look red, but only by casually adding insect juice to the food we eat.

Anyway, back to "Cellular Harvest". This is a relaxing photo game in which you roam a planet that graced the covers of 1970s science fiction books, looking for strange insects, fish, and birds. Multiple photos of each creature are needed to fill an album. Instead of artistically photographing the first eyeball stalk you see and then ignoring every other eyeball you pass, you need to find four eyeball stalks.

It's not all chill times in the colorful world of slime, though; EEK3 was a showcase for low-poly horror games, and the unsettling atmosphere is intentional. The creatures are grotesque at times, and it is your job to determine if these creatures can be made into antiseptic or cosmetic products. The area available for exploration is relatively small and the game is short, but be prepared because "Cellular Harvest" goes places.

It is available on itch.io in packages where you get both the green and purple versions, which are identical except for the color of the sky. I played the purple one.

Disclosure: PCG contributor Xalavier Nelson Jr. worked on Cellular Harvest.