Humankind, Amplitude’s ambitious foray into the historical setting of 4X games. To many, this seemed like a departure from our expertise and experience with the Endless universe, but in truth Humankind had already been on the minds of our founders ten years ago, even before the birth of Amplitude. In many ways, Humankind is the game that Amplitude was founded to make, the dream that inspired the first few to strike out on their own with a new company.


Yet even with ten years of experience, and a vision that has lasted just as long, we still trust our community to help us make the best games we can, and so many of you have gotten to try the game last December with the Lucy OpenDev, and those who did not probably still followed the videos and discussions pretty closely. In that scenario, you got a glimpse of something we had kept close to heart so far: The Avatar AI. 

Yes, not just AI, but Avatar AI. The Avatar you create to represent yourself and your people will have an AI you can tweak with traits just like the ones you saw on your opponents in the Lucy OpenDev. Of course, these traits won’t matter when you’re playing the Avatar yourself, since then you will be giving the orders, but when your friends put “you” in their single player games after you have shared your Avatar with them, it will act according to the traits you set. 

Perhaps you want the Avatar to emulate the way you play as closely as possible, or perhaps you want it to play completely unlike you to surprise your friends. In any case, if you’d like to know more, you can find more details in the Feature Focus blog and video: 




Now, OpenDev is great to get a burst of concentrated feedback to help us refine game systems and tweak the balance, but it doesn’t quite have the same sense of co-creation as the votes and contests for the Endless games did. In a historical setting, we cannot go as wild with factions, abilities, and lore as we could in sci-fi or fantasy, though. 

So we decided to create an official mod, to both show off a little of what you will be able to do with the modding tools, and give us more freedom to work with the community for its content. Today, we are starting this process with the first vote, and it is a big one, determining the direction we are going in: What is the theme of the mod? 




I’d be remiss not to mention that for our anniversary, we’ve also added two sets of Humankind-related wallpapers to the Rewards page. Whether you fancy a peaceful cityscape, a chaotic battle, or an unexpected meeting of the universes, you’re sure to find a cool new wallpaper or social media banner there!

Today we’ve got a new Feature Focus for you, about a feature that you have been getting glimpses of for quite some time but haven’t really gotten to play with yourself yet: Avatars and their AIs. Hang on... AI? Weren’t the Avatars meant to represent the players? Why would they have AI? Well, if you want to find out, you better check out the video and the blog below:




In a game where cultures shift frequently, how can a player recognize the different civilizations they are dealing with? Sure, there’s player color and perhaps an icon, but those are so impersonal. Dealing with the red player or the horse empire is just not as much fun as putting a face to those dastardly neighbors who just stole your outpost, or the good friend who will come to your aid (or not...) in the brewing war. So in Humankind, all civilizations will be represented by an avatar, and as a player you will get to customize your own and share it others. 

Customizable characters are something completely new for Amplitude. It took a lot of work to develop this system from the ground up, and to find a style and the right techniques and shaders that will make these Avatars feel coherent with the rest of the game, like the art and terrain. The Avatars will also wear costumes that represent the cultures you choose, and we wanted these to feel as authentic as possible within our technical and production constraints, so we had to check pretty much every detail with our historian.




We wanted to give our players a lot of freedom with how their avatar looks, whether they are trying to represent themselves or a fictional leader they envision for their civilization. So we focused on facial customization with a lot of different features and a variety of options for each feature. On top of this, you will get to pick a Personality for your Avatar, which determines how they respond to diplomatic interactions with dialog and gestures. 




Creating an Avatar for yourself is fun for single player, but it really shines with friends. Of course, your friends will see your Avatar when you’re enjoying a multiplayer match, but more than that, you can share your Avatar with your friends through Games2Gether so they can play against “you” even if you’re not around! 

This is not just visual, either, as you can customize the way your AI will behave! There are three aspects to this AI customization, some of which you got to see in action in the Lucy OpenDev: 

• Archetypes are the general tendencies and behavior of your Avatar. Do they try to plan far ahead, or do they fly by the seat of their pants? Are they staunch allies, or will they backstab you at the drop of a hat? Will they bear a grudge if you do the same to them? You can tweak these on several different axes in either direction, but you will only get to tweak so many of them at the same time, so choose carefully.

• Biases are a lot more specific than the archetypes. They represent a kind of quirk or almost an obsession your AI Avatar will have. Do you never surrender until the bitter end, or refuse to give in to any demands? Your Avatar can do the same. Or perhaps you love the idea of picking an Ancient Era culture, and taking it to the Contemporary Era? You could have your Avatar play to that, too. 
• Finally, you can give your Avatar certain Strengths, passive bonuses you can use to supplement the play style you would like for your Avatar. If you’re a player who enjoys the warfare and battles in Humankind, perhaps you want our Avatar’s Emblematic Units to be more powerful. Maybe you prefer research and trade, so you’d rather give your Avatar a little boost to Science and Money generation. 

Of course, some of these options and combinations may be stronger than others, so they are assigned a score you will have to spend to add them to your Avatar. Other options might not be available to you at first, and are unlocked through achievements in the game. 


We hope you enjoyed this peek at what we have in store with the Avatars and their AI. Let us know what you think! 

Hey all,


The new year has rolled around, and that means it is time again at last!

“Time? Time for what?” some of you might ask, especially those who joined us over the past few months to talk about or maybe even try out Humankind. The answer is simple: Amplitude’s birthday!

Every year in January, we celebrate the founding of Amplitude Studios, the creation of the Endless universe, and our work with the community over the years. While it started small back in the day, the celebration has grown just as much as Amplitude, lasting several days with a fan meeting, streams with special guests from the studio, and new rewards on Games2Gether. This year is particularly special though – 10 years of Amplitude, and Humankind joining the celebration – so we thought it was time for a brand new name: Please, join us for AMPLIFIED 2021!



So, if you want to learn more about Amplitude and our games, stick around for the next few days, and stay tuned for some announcements in the next few days. And if you want to listen to our devs talk about our history, ask them about our games, or just hang out with other Amplitude fans in chat, join us for any of the streams below:
Guest streamers include Marbozir with Dungeon of the Endless, and BearlyTactical and Gamerzakh with Endless Legend.
Keep your eyes on our channel for anybody we might host!



We are extremely excited for Humankind to join our portfolio soon, but we still love the Endless™ Universe, and we know so do many of you, so to celebrate 10 years of the Endless Universe, we want to invite you to participate in a low-budget cosplay competition. Grab whatever you have on hand and throw together a quick costume of any character from the Endless universe. (By our last count, there’s about 300 of them, so there’s plenty of choice!)

I know creating a cosplay may sound daunting at first, but remember this is not about creating a detailed costume, but about being clever with what you have on hand to show who you are cosplaying, and (most importantly) having fun! Just check out these two brilliant in-house examples.


Can you tell which characters these are?


So now that you got a cosplay costume, how do you participate in the contest, and what can you win? Just three simple steps, only one of which takes any work on your part!

1. Post a photo of your cosplay to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #AmplifiedCosplay before Friday, 22nd of January, 9:00 CET. By submitting your contest entry, you agree that we may retweet, repost, or otherwise share the picture to promote the contest and pick a winner.
2. Once submissions are closed, Amplitude will pick their top ten favorites to enter the finale.
3. During our stream on Friday, we will present our top ten and let the viewers cast their votes for the grand winner.

The top ten entries will all receive one Endless game or DLC of their choice, while the top three will receive additional prizes:

• Third place: A Humankind Steam key
• Second Place: Their choice of one Endless game and associated DLCs, plus a Humankind key
• First Place: All Endless games and associated DLCs, plus a Humankind key

As always for our anniversary, we’re adding more rewards to Games2Gether as well, available to be claimed on your rewards page on G2G:

• Virtua Fighter 2 (Mega Drive/Genesis version), courtesy of our friends at Sega. Available to be claimed only during Amplified, until January from January 20th at 11:00 CET to January 25th at 17:00 CET
• TGA Teaser Art Wallpapers, the Endless Humankind crossover nobody expected, available starting Wednesday, January 20th, 17:00 CET
• Endless Space 2 Artbook, long in the making, it will be available for download starting Thursday, January 21st, 17:00 CET
• Humankind Wallpaper Pack, including 6 pieces of art from the first OpenDev in convenient wallpaper and banner formats, available Friday, January 22nd, 17:00 CET
• An Amplified player icon for Humankind for anybody who logs into G2G during Amplified. (No need to claim this by hand.)

So, go ahead and claim your digital swag!


We hope you'll have fun these next few days, and here's to several more great years!

- The Amplitude Team

As we told you last week, we’re having a new Humankind OpenDev Scenario for everybody* who has pre-purchased the game on Steam! From now until December 28th at 16:00 CET, you can try the game out yourself and let us know what you think. 

At more than 100 turns, facing off against 7 other civilizations from the Neolithic to the end of the Early Modern Era, this is the biggest chunk of gameplay we’ve shared with you so far. And as always in OpenDev, we look forward to hearing your feedback about your experience with the game.




So how can you play the Humankind Lucy OpenDev? Just follow these simple steps: 

1. Make sure that HUMANKIND™ is in your Steam library.
   1. If you have pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition on Steam, it should be there already
   2. If you have purchased a Steam key from another retailer, you must Redeem the key on Steam first before proceeding to the next step
2. Visit GAMES2GETHER
   1. If you already have an account, go ahead and login
   2. If you do not have an account, please create one
3. Steam connect your G2G account on the rewards page here. If you have already connected your account in the past, you may need to re-sync
4. Click on the “Lucy OpenDev” reward and hit Redeem.
5. Go back to your Steam library, and Humankind – OpenDev should appear there automatically 

Note: During events like the OpenDev, Games2Gether often experiences periods of intense traffic. If you are having any issues redeeming rewards, syncing accounts, or logging in, then please try again a few hours later.

While you wait for it to download, feel free to watch our quick Getting Started video before you dive in: 




In this OpenDev scenario, you will be playing as Lucy Adam, star of our recent trailer, but in the full game, you will get to customize your own avatar and share it with your friends. Not just their appearance, but their behavior as an AI opponent as well! You can learn more about that in our Feature Focus soon. We’ve also created some special avatars for some of our favorite twitch streamers that you can unlock as AI opponents to play against in Humankind by watching their streams. If you watch enough of their streams, or by other participating streamers, you can even get free access to the Lucy OpenDev!



Eager to get your hands on these cool Avatars or the Lucy OpenDev? Just follow these simple steps to prepare for the Twitch drops:

1. Make sure you have a Twitch account
2. Login to your Games2Gether Account (or create one if you need to)
3. Go to your "Profile" page, and from there to your "Account Settings"
4. On this page, you can see a button to Link your Twitch account.
5. After you click this button, you will be prompted to log into twitch and confirm the link
6. You should be set now. Go and enjoy some HUMANKIND™ streams!

You should get the Streamer Avatars after watching half an hour of their streams. For the LucyOpenDev, you'll have to show a bit more endurance, and watch a total of three hours across any of the participating streamers. Once you have watched enough to gain access, the Lucy OpenDev reward will appear in your Games2Gether Rewards page, and you can redeem it as described above.



We hope you'll have fun with the Lucy OpenDev!



*The Lucy OpenDev is available only in English and only on PC.

Since our first OpenDev back in August, one of the most common questions we’ve been seeing has been: Will there be another OpenDev? 

The short answer is Yes. 

For the long answer, check out our awesome new trailer and all the details below:




Wait a minute... What was that at the end of the trailer? That’s right, we have narrowed down the release date to April 22nd, 2021 on Steam! 

“But that’s still a long time off!” we hear you say. Don’t worry, we’ve got something to tide you over until the end of the year. From December 15th at 16:00 CET (10:00 EST, 7:00 PST) to December 28th at 16:00 CET, anybody who has pre-purchased Humankind on Steam can try out the new (English language, PC only) Lucy OpenDev. 

This is the biggest OpenDev scenario we have released yet: four full eras and seven AI opponents! Lead your people for more than 100 turns from the Neolithic to the end of the Early Modern Era and try any of the forty different cultures in these eras. Ten thousand potential combinations should keep even the most dedicated of our players busy for a while! 




So how can you play the Humankind Lucy OpenDev? Just follow these simple steps:

1. Make sure that HUMANKIND™ is in your Steam library.
   1. If you have pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition on Steam, it should be there already 
   2. If you have purchased a Steam key from another retailer, you must Redeem the key on Steam first before proceeding to the next step 
2. Visit GAMES2GETHER
   1. If you already have an account, go ahead and login 
   2. If you do not have an account, please create one 
3. Steam connect your G2G account on the rewards page here. If you have already connected your account in the past, you may need to re-sync 
4. Once the OpenDev begins on the 15th, click on the “Lucy OpenDev” reward and hit Redeem. 
5. Go back to your Steam library, and Humankind – OpenDev should appear there automatically

In this OpenDev, you will be playing as Lucy, but when the game releases you will be able to customize your own avatar and share it with your friends to play against. We’ve been working with some of our favorite twitch streamers to create special avatars for them, and you can unlock them as AI opponents through Twitch drops by watching their streams. Watch enough Humankind streams on Twitch, and you might even win a key to try the Lucy OpenDev yourself! 




Of course, OpenDev is all about getting your feedback, so we’d be remiss not to tell you what we’ve learned from our last OpenDev and how we plan to address it. 

• Many of the OpenDev players were excited by the potential of combining different cultures, both thematically and mechanically, and we have seen numerous speculation threads since then. 
• Events and Civics remain a popular way to gradually shape your civilization over the course of the game. 
• Most players found that they moved too quickly through the eras and the technology tree. We agree that the pace of the game is currently too fast in those respects and are working to balance this. 
• While the underlying systems of Diplomacy and Trade were popular with players who dug into them, we received a lot of feedback that these systems are difficult to follow and understand. We are adding additional interface elements to help players keep track of their diplomatic relations and trade deals, for example a history of interactions you can access on the Diplomacy screen. 
• Many players also found it difficult to judge how well they were doing compared to other civilizations, so we are looking into ways to display the Fame of other civilizations to the player. 
• We have received a lot of feedback on the balance of cultures and are working to address this. For example, many players felt the Celts and Huns were much stronger than the other cultures, so we are reining them in. 
• Some players found the stability system difficult to understand, while others thought that it was too easy to maintain high stability. We are doing a balancing pass on Stability to address these issues. 
• While the religion system as a whole was fairly popular, many players felt there were not enough tenets to choose from and it was too easy to reach the highest tier of tenets. To address this, we are adding new tenets and a new tier. 
• Many players were confused by the Historic Religions and why they are taken as a Tenet. We have changed this so that players can choose a Historic Religion when they adopt another tenet, rather than doing so instead of adopting a Tenet. 
• While most appreciated the presence of the Independent Peoples, many were disappointed that they were divided into only two groups. We are going to further differentiate the Independent Peoples through Ideologies. 
• A lot of players found that conquering Independent People was quick and easy, assimilating them was difficult and obscure. We’re working to make conquest more difficult and assimilation more rewarding, while improving the clarity of the User Interface. 
• As many found it strange and potentially tedious or exploitable that you could field an unlimited number of armies, we will likely return some limit on the number of armies you can field without penalties. 
• Many players also felt that they could take too much from other civilizations after only a handful of battles in a war. We are still working to balance the Morale gains and losses as well as costs to address this issue.

We hope you will enjoy this new OpenDev scenario and keep providing us with constructive feedback!

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