What if the studio behind Endless Space and Endless Legend took a crack at Civilization? It’s an exciting thought and looking to be an exciting game: Humankind, due to launch next year. Following the announcement in August, Amplitude Studios showed more of the historical 4X strategy game in motion with its first “gameplay trailer” tonight at The Game Awards. The video is mostly shots panning over cities but coo, those are some big cities. The video also shows some of the leaders we play as, though you’ll not recognise them from history books.



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Even for the loose term “gameplay trailer”, that’s a bit generous. But those really are some quite fancy cities.

One of Humankind’s curious ideas is shifting civilisations between ages, changing between ten cultures across six eras to build an empire with quite a different history. That’s why we develop an avatar rather than picking a historical figure. Amplitude said today that avatars “will evolve visually over the course of the game according to the way you play, the achievements you earn, and the way you develop your cultures and your civilizations.”

Our Alice Bee had a look at Humankind a few months back and a chat with Amplitude:

“We are huge fans of Civilization,” said [executive producer Jean-Maxime Moris]. “But you know, they’ve been around for 25 years and it’s time for new ideas, and a bit of freshness.” [Lead game designer Maxence Voleau] described it as a “friendly competition” and said that they’re inspired by Civ, and hope they can inspire them too. “I think there are games for everyone, and they can co-exist,” he said, which I thought was a nice sentiment. Moris laughed, and called him a hippie, adding that they love “peace, love and humankind.”

Humankind is due to launch in 2020 via Steam.

Check out the night’s other announcements and trailers on our Game Awards tag.