Are the forever stages randomly generated?

In Osmos, you can play a random version of any level. However, all of the standard levels that you play are not randomly generated; they are the same for everyone that plays the game. Once you've beaten all the standard zones, you unlock forever zones which claim to go on forever (have an infinite number of levels). I could imagine them going on for a very long time without being random, but not forever.

The developer, writing about the standard levels (according to the context), states both

All levels in their default form are winnable — randomization is never necessary. - Roadside Assistance blog post

and

Levels in Osmos are procedurally generated - The Perversity of Inanimate Objects blog post

So, the default form of all of the levels in standard zones in Osmos are procedurally generated but not randomly generated. Are the levels in the forever zone random? Are they the same for everyone?

Here are my ambient impasse forever levels 3 and 4:

Solution 1:

Short answer: Yes, but so can the "standard" levels be with a fixed seed.

I think there is some confusion on procedurally VS randomized - they are not exactly different things, but strongly connected.

Procedural generation means "content [is] generated algorithmically rather than manually" - this algorithm is parametrized, such that when you provide it with parameter values, it will generate a level. For the same parameter values, the level will always be the same. And if you randomize these values, you get a random level instead. (You may stop reading now if you're not into details)

Due to the (probably vast) amount of parameters, it is very common to go one step further and use another algorithm to generate these parameters from even less parameters, usually a Pseudorandom number generator which takes one single argument, called a seed, and which then can create infinitely many numbers from it. So now you just need one seed to obtain as many parameters for your level generator as you need, and if you use the same seed you will get the same level again (which is e.g. why for Minecraft people don't need to distribute their savegame to share a nice world but simple provide the seed).

Whether the standard levels in Osmos are also generated procedurally (i.e. someone fixed specific values for the level generator and made sure these level versions are winnable) or their design was entirely manually (i.e. really placing each object at their specific position) I cannot tell, but either is possible and since randomization of these values will randomize the levels and this is implemented anyway for the forever levels, I suspect the former is the case since that would only require storing a seed instead of an entire level. This could also be used to argue why there is no savegame mechanism - it was never necessary to (re)load a level but it is simply recreated from its parameters.