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Computer Lunch Games

Andrew Garrahan and Kati Nawrocki,
Co-Founders

New York, NY
Computer Lunch co-founders Andrew Garrahan and Kati Nawrocki at their NYC studio Snapshot of our solar system in the Cell to Singularity video game
2025

Computer Lunch turns the story of evolution into a game millions love to explore

Founded by Kati Nawrocki and Andrew Garrahan in New York City, Computer Lunch Games mixes art, code, and curiosity to build educational games for the science-minded. In 2018, the team launched Cell to Singularity on Google Play as this “science theme park” where players tap through evolution’s big milestones: from single cells to spacefaring societies. Today, the game’s global community returns for regular updates, not to mention, lively debates on Discord.
Origin story: two creators, one theme park in your pocket

The way they tell it, Kati and Andrew had their meet cute at a holiday party: two people, who happened to love everything art and code, and who started a conversation that has never really stopped.

They talked about children’s books, music, and what makes a good game. Then, a few months later, they were sketching and prototyping all manner of projects with one another.

Fast forward a few years later, and they’d assembled a whole game development studio, named after Andrew’s former music handle: Computer Lunch.

Early releases from Computer Lunch Games were small, but earnest. There was a storybook app starring “Pooky the Hedgehog.” Then came Sidewalker: Late to Work, a runner that gave you the chaos of NYC foot traffic.

“We poured everything into those projects,” they said. “And then we learned a tough lesson… as an indie developer, great ideas aren’t enough on their own; you have to help people find them.”

So they kept at it. And each build taught them something new; each launch, they got a little smarter. Until, in 2018, a new idea took hold: an idle game that tells the story of evolution itself.

Cell to Singularity was only early access at first. They planned it that way, so that they could listen to player feedback, and then use that to push thoughtful updates every couple of weeks, while tweaking the Google Play Store page along the way — all helping to bend that daily install curve upward.

“We wanted to make the best game about evolution,” they committed to heart. So, when they won Editor’s Choice on Google Play, and then later got a nod for the Google Play Awards Audience Choice, they felt “okay, we’re onto something now.”

Today, Cell to Singularity is a science theme park right in your very pocket, as Andrew and Kati like to refer to it — part museum, part playground.

One day you could be exploring dinosaurs; the next, the deep ocean. Millions have experienced this theme park for themselves, and more than a million come back each month.

Ask Kati and Andrew their favorite fun party fact about Cell to Singularity, and they’ll tell you how a character in a popular series of romance books name drops the game! That one still makes them grin whenever they tell it.
Snapshot of the Amphibian Tree in the Cell to Singularity video game
Fuel for the tree of life (and a free game)

From day one, Kati and Andrew knew they wanted the game to be accessible to all.

Simply put, that meant free to download. And that also meant an ad-supported business model, one that works today with in-app purchases.

“Free is a very accessible price, especially internationally,” they explain. “Rewarded ads let players opt in to see them in return for something valuable in the game.” You watch a short clip, and get a power up in exchange, for instance. A promise comes with that exchange as well: “No one sees an ad unless they choose to.”

So, as the studio’s broader monetization strategy came into focus, AdMob became an obvious pillar. Why? It boils down to performance and control for the team.

“AdMob has been one of our high performers in terms of eCPMs,” they say, referring to the metric that measures how much revenue they earn for ad views, “and there are even tools to help us filter out categories of ads that don’t fit with our audience.”

And for a game with a big base of education-minded players (and plenty of their parents in the mix too), the suitability of the ads for the community cannot be understated. Plus, the rich inventory of rewarded ads that AdMob offers is the studio’s preferred format in the game.

Meanwhile, the studio gets paid so that they can hire and invest back into the game, adding more to the proverbial theme park so that folks have more to do, see, and learn — a virtuous cycle.
“Free is a very accessible price, especially internationally. Rewarded ads let players opt in to see them in return for something valuable in the game.”
Meet the Computer Lunch team behind Cell to Singularity
Where biology, technology, and community all converge

Ad revenue, along with in app purchases, have really turned Cell to Singularity into a self-sustaining engine. In fact, the studio has grown from just Kati and Andrew to a whole crew now, full of specialists across programming, art, design, production, and marketing.

Today, they count ten full-time employees in New York City, all reporting to the same boss at the end of the day — the players. “We make the game; they keep us honest,” as Andrew and Kati like to say.

And there’s never any shortage of feedback. All they have to do is turn to Discord, where discussions can get quite nerdy. But Kati and Andrew wouldn’t have it any other way.

Just take the great “giant squid vs. blood comb jelly” debate. When the team asked the community which deep sea creature should make it into an update… boy, did things get rowdy.

Fans would change their profile pics in favor of one versus the other, they wrote essays, and flooded the Discord with arguments like “sure, the squid is big, but the blood comb jelly is cooler, and here’s why.”

In the end, the giant squid won out, but the team considers the real winners to be the community itself, especially when so much energy and care is brought to the game by the players.

So what’s the next evolution for a game about evolution? Well, the community can rest assured that the roadmap remains ambitious and that the team has big ideas for the future.

Just look at their past track record with events like Extinction! and Human Body! and expansions like Dinosaurs and Space — all of which return to this idea of what happens when biology and technology play a game of their own.

You can start with single celled organisms, but then watch as complexity quickly stacks: multicellular life into nervous systems into social behavior. Tools become extensions of the body. Information jumps from neurons to silicon. It’s right there in the title: Cell to Singularity.

What hasn’t changed though is the studio’s stance on access: the game stays free, period — made possible thanks to ads, which provide nearly half of the company’s revenues today, and helps to fund that next expansion, the next writer, the next artist.

“Not everything goes perfectly the first time,” they reflect. “But if you keep iterating, the results compound.” That’s true in evolution, and it’s true for gaming.

About the Publisher

Kati and Andrew co-founded Computer Lunch Games to make games that spark curiosity. With backgrounds in illustration, children’s storytelling, music, and programming, they set out to turn big ideas like biology and technology into science-based experiences. Their flagship title, Cell to Singularity, began as an idea and grew, update by update, into this living, breathing science theme park in your pocket. Today, they lead a team in NYC and continue to expand the game’s world with new events and expansions, all with help and feedback from the game’s own community.

Tardigrade (water bear) in the game about evolution Cell to Singularity
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