The god game needs a new champion and perhaps Universim from Alex Koshelkov will reignite our passion for the genre through managing, expanding and even punishing their followers.
Universim is being developed by a small indie studio called Crytivo Games and a Kickstarter has just launched looking for $320,000. In Universim players will research tech and develop a civilisation on a planet taking it from its early beginnings through to modern tech and eventually to the stars and colonisation of other planets. There’s no direct control over the population when it comes to building so it’s no SimCity. Universim is AI driven but guided by the player who takes on the role of God. It’s what Crytivo call organic gameplay.
Once a civilisation is developed and the player masters space flight through research decisions it’s time to expand and start colonising other planets. With resources a key factor to expansion and development they’re bound to run out at some point. New planets can be discovered, explored and colonised and each will bring its own unique environmental challenges which players can manipulate through researched technology.
It’s a god game and no decent god game would be complete without natural disasters and dynamic events such as  aliens, wars, famines and riots. All of which can happen at any time. Players will also be able to punish their population by triggering disasters and generating wrath. In Universim you will have the wrath of  a god on your side.
The game will be DRM-free and doesn’t require an Internet connection to play but there is an option to connect to the Internet and benefit from what Crytivo is calling a Dynamic News System. This will deliver news and information based on the other players’ actions while playing. Players will be able to also “write their own stories”, although I’m not quite sure how that will work.
This is just the basic game but they would like to create even more by offering a full multiplayer mode at $920,000. When you read what they have planned for multiplayer it would be a real shame not to see it actually happen. There’s a “co-op” and “versus” mode for up to 8 players either working with or against each other which sounds brilliant.
This is a Kickstarter I would recommend spending some time reading over and it’s a game that I think should be made. Watch the video below and read more on the Kickstarter page.
