Agar.io

Agar.io
Agar.io mobile logo
Publisher(s)	Miniclip (mobile)
Designer(s)	Matheus Valadares
Platform(s)	Browser, Android, iOS
Release	Browser 28 April 2015 Android, iOS 24 July 2015
Genre(s)	Action game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Agar.io is a massively multiplayer online action game created by Matheus Valadares. Players control a cell in a map representing a petri dish; the goal is to gain as much mass as possible by swallowing smaller cells without being swallowed by bigger ones. The name comes from the substance agar, used to culture bacteria.

The game was released to positive critical reception; critics particularly praised its simplicity, competition, and mechanics, while criticism targeted its repetitive gameplay. Largely due to word of mouth on social networks, it was a quick success, becoming one of the most popular web and mobile games in its first year. A downloadable Steam version was announced on 3 May 2015, and the mobile version of Agar.io for iOS and Android was released on 24 July 2015 by Miniclip.

The objective of Agar.io is to grow a cell by swallowing both randomly generated pellets, which slightly increases a cell's mass, and smaller cells, without being swallowed by larger cells. The browser version currently holds four game modes: FFA (Free-for All), Teams, Experimental, and Party. The mobile version of the game includes: FFA (Free-For-All) and Rush Mode. The goal of the game is to obtain the largest cell; players restart when all of their cells are swallowed by another player. Players can change their cell's appearance with predefined words, phrases, symbols or skins. The more mass a cell has, the slower it will move. Cells gradually lose mass over time.

Viruses split cells larger than them into many pieces (16 or fewer, depending on the mass) and smaller cells can hide underneath a virus for protection against larger cells. Cells in 16 pieces can eat viruses without splitting, though it's usually dangerous running around in sixteen pieces. Viruses are normally randomly generated, but players can make new viruses by feeding a virus, i.e. ejecting a small fraction of a player's cell's mass into the virus a few times, causing the virus to split up and hence create another virus.

Players can split their cell into two, and one of the two evenly divided cells will be flung in the direction of the cursor (a maximum of 16 split cells). This can be used as a ranged attack to swallow other smaller cells, to escape an attack from another cell, or to move more quickly around the map. Split cells eventually merge back into one cell. Aside from feeding viruses, players can eject (release) a small fraction of their mass to feed other cells, an action commonly recognized as an intention to team with another player. A player can also eject mass to trick enemies into coming closer to the player. Once an enemy cell is close enough, the player can split his/her cell to eat the baited enemy.