Q What is Simpians?

Simpians is a massively multiplayer (MMO) persistent browser-based hunter-gatherer multigenerational evolutionary simulation fantasy strategy game with the objective to survive, adapt, discover, and evolve.

As a player you are the tribe's match maker, you can overwrite and match Simpians to their mates hence guiding natural selection of your tribe genomic destiny. You will decide the roles of your Simpians as who will go on raiding the neighbouring tribe or hunting wild animals. You will also navigate your tribe in a procedurally generated world filled with finite resources and other players who are trying to survive. As the generations of your tribe go by you will have the ability to view the ancestors of your tribe and witness how player controlled natural selection takes its course. Once the player has survived the test of time a story will slowly unveil revealing a deep entertaining background story of Simpians.

A game like this will show people how important it is to live sustainably given finite resources, and how important cooperation is to survival. Perhaps the game will also demonstrate how humanity is really a giant single distant family as we witness genomes mix, flow, and saturate throughout the population. Perhaps the data collected in this game will shed new insights into evolution and the study of genomics? so lets take a step forward in gaming simulation complexity to a new level!

Q When will it be available?

The release dates are subject to change but the following dates are planned:

Pre-Alpha/Alpha: Started in December 2013 Beta: TBA Public Release: TBA

Q How much will it cost?

The cost will be somewhat unique and original that has never been tried before (at least to my knowledge). No player gets an advantage in any specified world, and no useless flair/customization is available for purchasing. Each world is proportionally priced based on computing cloud usage, except free worlds, hence the audience will push the boundary of specified limits and simulation complexity based on demand, and as cloud computing cost decreases over time so will the cost of Simpians.

They're will be two types of worlds, free and paid. Free worlds will be very tough to survive and are meant as an introduction to the game. The cost of all other worlds will be a relatively small monthly service cost (the price of a coffee?) which will be calculated proportionally based on the cloud computing cost with a markup.

This new model will have the following effects, it will let players drive the level of world computing complexity that is created by demand, and players are treated with respect and will know exactly what they are paying for - no artificial barriers will be placed in the game just to maximize profits and the act of price gouging the gaming experience. There will be no pressure on the players to pay to get the full experience or to get an advantage over other players. Let's show the world how gamers should be treated while driving up the innovation of computationally complex gaming!

Q What is the gameplay like?

As the player your responsibilities to your village are as follows:

Match Simpians to their mates as you see fit (they will automatically match but as a player you can override their matches). Assign one of three roles of each Simpian, a gatherer, a defender/attacker/hunter, or idle. Set the movement location on the map as you roam around to hunt and gather. Set the eating rations amount for the tribe. Decide to raid or trade with other tribes. Decide to hunt wild animals for higher food payout at a risk of injury to the hunting party. When given the opportunity relocate your tribe to a new world. The game is designed for the player to become attached to their tribe over the generations. To understand the different family lineages and to balance the abilities of the tribe in order to survive. For example as you head out for a raid you would not want to send all your young males/females of your tribe, loosing them before they are able to have children may cut off family lineages and may hamper your tribes ability to survive. Likewise, if a genetic mutation has produced a stonger Simpian you will attempt to make sure he/she is ideling around and having as much kids as they can.

Q Who is the developer of Simpians?