We've got exciting news to share with you today!
Some of this is news many of you have been waiting and even asking for.
Some of this will be a surprise, but a welcome one to be sure.


HUMANKIND Release Date and Pre-Orders

Firstly, the date many of you have been waiting for: We will release Humankind in April 2021.
Secondly: Humankind is now available for pre-order on Steam. If you pre-order the game now, you will receive exclusive pre-order bonus content, and you can even grab the Digital Deluxe Editions with even more bonus content at a 15% discount!
Check out our new trailer and the bonus content below:



Digital Deluxe Edition Bonus Content

• In-Game Notre-Dame Pack
  
  • Notre-Dame Wonder – to be built in game
  • Notre-Dame Narrative Events - Adds Narrative Events themed around Wonders such as Notre-Dame
  • Victor Hugo Avatar Set - Adds Victor Hugo Set to customize your Avatar
  • “Inspirational” Avatar Personality - Adds the “Inspirational” Personality to customize your Avatar
• Official Digital Soundtrack – All HUMANKIND™ tracks created by Arnaud Roy (previously known as FlybyNo) in .mp3 format
• Unit & Tech Tree .pdf - An at-a-glance view of the full Unit & Tech Trees of the game

Pre-Purchase Bonus Content

• Boudicca Avatar Set - Adds Boudicca Set to customize you Avatar
• Player Profile Pre-Purchase Decoration - Adds an exclusive Decoration to customize your Player Profile
• Player Profile Symbol Set - Adds 10 exclusive Symbols to customize your Player Profile

You can also pre-order the physical edition from select retailers. All the bonus content mentioned above is included in this edition, along with a physical copy of the Tech Tree & Unit Upgrade Poster, and a limited edition decision coin (One more turn, anyone?)


We hope you're as excited about these news as we are.

-- The Amplitude Team

Hello everyone,

We're back with more info about the results of OpenDev. We already shared some fun facts about the data we got recently, but today we want to talk about your feedback and our plans.

OpenDev was a new approach for us, so we were honestly a bit nervous going into it, but all of you were really excited to participate, and you provided us with a ton of valuable feedback. We took our time to analyze the survey data, read the forums, and discuss changes based on your feedback, and now we are ready to share some of our takeaways from OpenDev and our plans to address them.

We've prepared a list of common feedback and our plans to address it below, but if you want to know more about OpenDev, check out our recent panel at EGX:




Common OpenDev Feedback and Plans

• Many OpenDev participants reported that the option to attach outposts to cities was difficult to find and use, so we are working on several improvements to the UI. Attaching will be possible from both outposts and cities and display a list of possible targets.
  
  
• To help players understand their economy and manage their cities, we are also improving the tooltips for resource incomes and working on the organization of the city management screen.
  
  
• The battle map received a lot of critique regarding its presentation and readability. We are working to improve the visuals of the battle overlay and the fog of war, and plan to implement additional feedback regarding terrain and its effects (especially forests and rivers), elevation differences, movement range, zone of control, and line of sight. We are also considering an option to disable the battle overlay and view the fully detailed 3D terrain instead to allow you to immerse yourself in the world.
• Many players have voiced concerns about the pacing and duration of combat. We’re working on a system in which you no longer need to wait for animations to finish before issuing the next order, drastically increasing the speed at which you can take your combat turns. We are also continuing to work on an Instant Resolution feature for players who want to "skip" a battle.
  
  
• We are also improving the visual and sound effects to make the combat animations feel more impactful and satisfying.
• Deployment Zones and Reinforcements were difficult to understand for many of our participants, and we are working to provide both clearer rules and better feedback for these systems.
• The "Capture the Flag" system was a frequent point of discussion. While we want to retain this system to prevent kiting and put pressure on the attacker to act, we will make an effort to present this system in a more immersive way.
• As the impact of walls during sieges was not clear to many players, we are tweaking their visual presentation and are examining changes to their effects.
• To make combat strength and damage easier to understand, we are working on how damage predictions and results are displayed, with a stronger emphasis on the combat strength difference that governs the damage.
• In our ongoing effort to balance the combat, we are examining the balance of ranged and melee units, considering a further division of unit classes to make unit roles more easily identifiable in battle through different icons, and refining unit abilities to better match the behavior many testers expected.

If you’ve missed OpenDev yourself, you can check out our streams of the three scenarios on Twitch or on the Humankind Youtube Channel:

Finally, we want to thank you all again for your interest and participation in OpenDev. You rock!

Hey everyone!


After 10 meme-filled weeks, we have selected our 10 grand winners, but the All Time Winner has yet to be chosen – the community will decide by vote on who gets crowned as the absolute What If meme-MASTER.

The All Time Winner chosen by the community gets to walk away with the ultimate reward: the ENTIRE SEGA PC games library!



How to vote:

• Log in to your G2G account.
  
• Look at the 10 What IF memes at http://whatif.humankind.game
  
• Pick the one you think is best.

Everyone participating in the vote has the CHANCE TO WIN a free Humankind Steam key – two winners will be selected at random.

Voting is open until October 1st at 4pm (GMT) – It is only possible to vote once.

Throughout history, religion has shaped the course of Humankind in many ways, and we wanted to capture this in the game. Religion will evolve over time as they often form large blocs that spread across the map. Yet even two civilizations that follow the same religion may not treat it the same way. While some may be intent on spreading their religion, others may welcome foreign beliefs. Find out more about how religion shapes the identity of your people or influences your neighbors in the video and blog below.






Religions in Humankind start out small, with each civilization following their own religion, but will often consolidate into larger and more powerful blocs. Once your population grows enough, you are given the opportunity to lay the foundations of your first religion, either Shamanism or Polytheism, which will also grant you access to your first Holy Site. As your religion gains more followers through population growth or conversion, you will be able to adopt Tenets that grant different bonuses. You may also be able to adopt a historic religion that will grant you access to an additional Holy Site. Only the religious leader, the civilization controlling the most Holy Sites dedicated to this religion, gets to choose Tenets as the religion grows.





Just as each civilization follows a state religion, each territory will have its own majority religion. Every territory produces faith based on its religion, religious extensions, and civics, and if it generates more faith than its neighbors, it will increase its influence and eventually convert them. This can cause grievances and be a cause for war, so you may want to adopt a foreign religion to avoid these tensions, or perhaps to benefit from its bonuses and help it grow more quickly. This will take a few turns, but if a large part of your population believes in this new religion, you will benefit from increase stability during this reformation.






Whether your people follow the religion they founded or that of another civilization, Civics allow you to define how your society interacts with religion. Are religious rites a personal affair, or performed in the community? Do your people tolerate other religions, or reject them? Does your civilization prefer a secular separation of church and state, or does it reject religion entirely? Or do you leave religion up to your people, and invest your Civics Points in other areas?






Of course, some cultures will interact more directly with the religion system than others. For example, the Olmec are good at spreading their religion thanks to their Colossal Heads, while other cultures have Emblematic Quarters that synergize with Religious Extensions, like the Frankish Scriptorium. The Teutonic Knights even get a bonus when fighting units following another state religion.






While that is all we have to share about religion in Humankind for now, we also want to share some fun facts about OpenDev. Thank you all again for participating and providing so much feedback!

Hey everybody !


The time we have all been waiting for has finally arrived: the Humankind OpenDev period starts now!

If you've been selected to participate in the first scenario, you will soon receive a welcome email. Make sure to check our spam folder too! We all know how zealous those filters can be. Check back tomorrow as well, as the emails may take up to 24h to arrive. Once you know you've been selected, go to your Games2Gether Profile page and look for the OpenDev Reward at the top of the page. Redeem this reward to add Humankind OpenDev to your Steam library and be among the first people to play Humankind!

If you haven't been selected yet, don't give up hope! We will ad more players over the course of OpenDev, so you may still get to participate with the second or third scenario, and you can even still sign up! In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for a lot of fresh Humankind content, as OpenDev participants are free to share their experiences or livestream. You can also join us for streams every week, starting today at 6PM CEST.





A few key points to remember:

• 
  Share your experience! - The contents of OpenDev are not under NDA, so feel free to stream or make videos! (Please do mention that this is an early version of the game, though.)
• 
  OpenDev Access needs to be redeemed through Games2Gether - Access to OpenDev is distributed through our Games2Gether Reward system, so double-check that your Steam account is linked.
• 
  Check the OpenDev subforum - There is a forum for OpenDev participants to discuss their experience and post feedback. If you cannot see the forum, please log out and back in again.
• 
  Scenarios are time limited – Each will be available from Thursday at 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST / 07:00 PDT through Monday at the same time
• 
  The scenarios end with a survey - We know surveys can be boring, but please take your time to fill out the survey after you finish a scenario. The survey is vital for the feedback gathering of OpenDev.
• 
  We will grant access to additional applicants with each new scenario – Keep checking their email in the coming weeks!
• 
  Getting access later grants access to all previous scenarios  – In fact, we would prefer that even if you join later you play the scenarios in order as they have a bit of an tutorial progression to them
• 
  Applications will remain open during the entire process – Even if you weren’t selected for this first round, you can apply now for a chance to be included in the 2nd or 3rd wave of players

We're thrilled by the interest you have all shown in OpenDev and are looking forward to your feedback. Let's make Humankind a great 4X game together!


We hope you'll have fun with this first taste of what the game has to offer,

-- The Amplitude Team

Hey everybody,



We have already talked about how you can shape your civilization by picking different cultures before, so today we want to tell you about another way you shape your civilization and their history in Humankind: Civics and Ideologies! Check out the video below or read the blog for more information.




Civics represent many different aspects of your civilization. They are a legal and structural reflection of the moral choices, values, and beliefs of your society. How is your government structured? Who owns the land? What are the religious rites of your society like?



These Civics are unlocked by specific gameplay situations, so that the choices you can take always relate to the achievements and experience of your people in some way. However, to enact any Civics, you will also need Civics Points, which are gained slowly over time if your empire is stable. For each Civic, you can enact one of two options that provide immediate gameplay benefits, but also shift your ideologies. Once enacted, Civics are difficult to change except in specific circumstances or events. For example, if the culture of your neighbors influences your people, they may ask you to adopt change your Civics to more closely match your neighbors.



Ideologies represent the values and shape of your civilization in a different way, a result of many individual decisions taken over the course of the game.
Each time you select a Civics option or make a decision on a narrative event, you move your society along one of the four ideological axes. These axes are Economy, Geopolitics, Government, and Society. Each axis is divided into five different steps that provide different gameplay bonuses, with a balanced bonus at the center and more specialist bonuses at the extremes of the axes. In addition to these bonuses, Ideologies will affect diplomacy, and how easy or difficult it is for you to wage a protracted war against a neighbor. It is harder to keep your people motivated to fight a neighbor they share values with.

In addition to Civics, your Ideologies are influenced by Narrative Events.
These events are inspired by historical events, and are triggered by specific gameplay situations. Thanks to these specific conditions, you may discover new events even after playing many games of Humankind, and experience new combinations of events each game. On top of their immediate gameplay benefits, costs, or consequences, many of these events can lead to further events later in the game. Furthermore, you will always have to weigh the immediate results against the long-term shift of the Ideologies of your civilization.



Since Ideologies are shaped by your Civics and choices during events, they will dynamically shift over time. This system allows you to shape your civilization, and experience the history and journey of your people.


Hope you enjoyed this brief look at the Civics and Ideologies systems in Humankind!

Let us know what you think below.

Hello everybody,



it’s been a while since we could last share a Feature Focus with all of you, so instead of dwelling on how the change to Work From Home has affected how we create these videos, let’s just dive right in:


The sound is as important to immersing yourself in a video game as the visuals are. Little pulls you out of an experience as quickly as what you hear not matching what you see. So we wanted to make sure that what you hear in Humankind always reflects the environment you see.

We have recorded many hours of sounds for this, and have combined them to create appropriate soundscapes for the different landscapes you can find in the eleven biomes in Humankind. The sound system is also dynamic and adjust to what you are looking at and how far away it is, so for example as you pan around the map and move closer to the ocean, you will hear the crashing of waves, as you zoom in on a jungle, the sounds of animals will fade in.

However, all of this is best experienced by checking out the two videos below with more details and examples!







We hope you enjoyed this little look at the sounds of Humankind!

What would the internet be without memes? Probably a much less interesting and funny place.

Sometimes we use them to say something in just one image.

Sometimes we use them just for fun.

This time, you can use them to win.


Today, we are launching the official Humankind What If website and associated contest. For the next few weeks, we want you to share your memes about alternate history as we ask you: What if? What if?

What if the Khmer fought at the Battle of Hastings? What if the Roman empire had never fallen? What if you were able to reshape the course of history?




You may not be able to do that in game yet, but you can do so through memes. For 10 weeks, we will announce a new theme every week (Language for the first week) and ask you to share your memes for that theme to win prizes like game keys, or the chance to play Humankind before release as part of OpenDev. Then, our weekly winners will face off in the community voting challenge for a chance at the grand prize: The entire Sega catalog of PC games on Steam!

You can find all the details of the contest as well as a meme generator over on the official What If website.

And don’t forget, you can still sign up for OpenDev for a chance to participate even if you don’t fancy joining the contest!


We’re excited to see what you will come up with every week!



Have fun
- The Amplitude Team

Hello everyone,


Over the past few weeks, many of you have been asking how the current health situation has affected the Amplitude team and the development of Humankind. Let me begin by saying that we take the well-being of our team quite seriously and that everybody at Amplitude is doing mostly fine. We made an early decision to transition into a working-from-home environment, and with the help of SEGA, we were able to accelerate this process efficiently, and the development of the game has been progressing steadily since.
However, the different work environment has certainly had an impact on our workflows, sometimes in unexpected ways. After much deliberation about this new reality of ours, we have decided that in order to deliver the game of our dreams, to move the release of Humankind to 2021.


We have also received many questions if Humankind will go through an Early Access period like we have done in the past with our other games, and the answer is that we will try something different with Humankind, something new and exciting that we call OpenDev!
Community involvement has always been a cornerstone of how we make games, but we feel we can do something more impactful with the development of Humankind than what a classic Early Access period can provide, and with OpenDev you will get to play three different scenarios and a more streamlined way to provide your feedback. You can find all the details about this in the dedicated OpenDev blog.


With Humankind taking off at full speed, we have noticed that many of you wonder what this means for Endless Space 2. Well, we have not forgotten you! — We are working together with Clumsy Dwarves (formerly from NGD studios) to deliver a series of patches for Endless Space 2, which are aiming to address a number of problems reported by many of you in the community.
The first of these patches will release this month, and it will fix some of the most critical and commonly reported bugs! More patches will follow in the coming months, so stay tuned for more information about those. We want you to be able to enjoy Endless Space 2 for a long time, so these patches are made with love as well as code.


- SpaceTroll

Hello everybody,


In our previous Feature Focus videos we talked about our vision for Humankind and some of the game’s core systems. This week we will turn our attention to another aspect that will help players immerse themselves in the game: The Soundtrack.

Check out the videos below, or read the summary in the blog.




We think many of our long-time fans will be happy to hear that the soundtrack for Humankind has been arranged by Arnaud Roy, who previously created the Endless soundtracks under the name of FlyByNo.

Arnaud is quite excited to work on Humankind, because it truly constitutes an epic challenge to create music for 60 different cultures from different historical eras. To cover the breadth of cultures and to tackle this daunting project, he worked with ten different solo musicians, each one being an expert in different styles of traditional music as well as instruments.

The cultures represented in the game were divided into several cultural groups, and roughly 8 hours of music pieces were recorded for these groups in total, all based on either traditional compositions, or improvisations by the musicians themselves. To give a few examples, you will hear Mesoamerican flutes, the guzheng (also known as the Chinese zither), the oud, a baroque string trio, and a replica of an ancient Greek cithara (played by Arnaud himself) when listening to the music of Humankind.

In addition to the traditional pieces, Arnaud arranged about 90 minutes of orchestral music. This music attempts to evoke nature and a sense of exploration through its musical direction, for example the prominent use of wind instruments. These orchestral pieces also feature performances by the traditional instruments used for the different culture groups, as well as choirs, which have almost become a signature of Arnaud’s work for Amplitude. The lyrics for these choirs are drawn from classical literature in Latin and Greek this time, for example Ovid and Sophocles.


We hope you enjoyed learning a little more about the soundtrack for Humankind, and invite you to check out the main theme: