The game is really starting to come together with lots of refinements in the gameplay and UI. I've also been working on the sapien models and animations, and in this video I go into some specifics of how the models have developed over ti... (Read More...)

The first alpha testers are creating some pretty large tribes which has exposed a number of issues. This video shows some of the problems and solutions I've found around pathfinding and AI, as well as some new content and mechanics that ... (Read More...)

Finally the game has gone out to the very first few testers, and it's great to be getting some feedback. (Read More...)

In this video I show you how the new clouds are looking and the methods I used to create and render them. (Read More...)

I decided it was time to increase the detail of the terrain, both in the map and in the distant hills and mountains. It was a bit tricky, and in this video I explain some of the techniques I used to pull off. (Read More...)

This time I started by working on the new tech tree, with a big overhaul of the skills system making it easier to tell your sapiens what to do. Then I made some major improvements to the grass and tree foliage rendering. (Read More...)

I'd been putting it off, and it was no small task, but I decided it was finally time to add dirt and stone paths to the game. (Read More...)

If you've been crying out for more gameplay, here it is! Here are two videos showing a full developer play through of the game in its current state. The game is still quite rough around the edges, but this should still give you an idea o... (Read More...)

This time I focussed on AI, getting the sapiens to find comfortable places to sit when they want a rest, and looking at things of interest. They also have basic multitasking, allowing them to wave at each other while walking or sitting. ... (Read More...)

This time I've been focused on terrain, how you command up orders to dig, fill and clear areas, and how you choose what type of earth you want to fill with. (Read More...)

It's been a while! With the Covid 19 lockdown, I haven't been able to get a lot of work done on Sapiens. In this video I explain why, and talk about future plans. (Read More...)

It's the alpacalypse! I decided to add alpacas to start heading in the right direction content-wise, and then I got hunting up and running again. While working on this, I sent Moku off on a mission to fetch pine cones, and hit few probl... (Read More...)

I've added a number of new animations to Sapiens over the past couple of weeks. In this video I go behind the scenes to show my process and workflow for creating animations and importing them into my custom engine. (Read More...)

This time the focus has been on a new mini-map radar view for selecting multiple objects. I've also started working on individual personalities, variations in the motivations and behaviors for nomad tribes, and the ability to recruit nom... (Read More...)

I've had a nice break, but it's time to get back to work and I've started adding nomadic tribes which pass through the area. (Read More...)

With the addition of farming, seasons, life cycles, genetics, improved AI, house building, full modding support, chickens, hunting, crafting, and a whole bunch more, 2019 Was a very productive year. (Read More...)

This week I tried to pull back on the rate at which I record videos, but failed miserably so here is another one! (Read More...)

With a continued focus on gameplay, this week I worked on the relationship system, and the re-addition of pregnancy and sapien life stages. (Read More...)

Over the past week I've made good progress on the planting and farming mechanic, and you can now plant apples to grow trees. (Read More...)

Farming is the next feature I want to work on, but for the planting, growing, fruiting, and harvesting cycles to make any sense, I needed to add seasons. It went really well and the new varying seasons make the world feel a whole lot mor... (Read More...)

In this video I show the new map mode that allows quick zooming between space and your sapiens on the ground. The global map is also now used to locate a starting location and tribe for the game. I'll talk a bit about how the terrain eng... (Read More...)

In this video I show the new Steam Workshop support, and talk about how the mod environment works for both mod developers and players. I've also overhauled the particle engine and added a new tag based system for biomes. (Read More...)

Rivers can be a bit of a problem with procedural terrain, so instead of trying to calculate rivers on top of perlin noise based terrain, I've instead started with the rivers and built the terrain up from there. (Read More...)

Children are now in the game! Along with children came aging, and the idea of families & relationships, which adds more of a sense of realism and progression to the game. (Read More...)

Back to gameplay! The skill system is now in place, the crafting system has been overhauled, and it's finally starting to feel like a game. (Read More...)

I decided if I was going to support Virtual Reality, then now was the time to make it work. (Read More...)

Over the past few weeks I've been mostly working on pathfinding. (Read More...)

This time I've been working on the building mechanics and the crafting of a simple hand axe and stone spear. There are also many little improvements in the UI, especially around the display of tasks that can't be completed. (Read More...)

It's been a busy couple of weeks, with lots of fixes and tweaks, some new UI, and a new method for placing items in the world exactly where you want them. (Read More...)

Over the last couple of weeks I've been focusing on making the game more enjoyable to play, with usability improvements and lots of little bug fixes and tweaks. I've also added primitive thatch houses. Don't forget to wishlist on Steam! (Read More...)

What is this game? Will you be able to go to space? Can I beta test? Why did you make your own engine, are you crazy? It is time to explain in more what this game is all about, and what my future plans are. Hopefully this clears up a few... (Read More...)

The chickens are back! This time they can move around, run away from near by sapiens, and the sapiens can use small rocks to hunt them. I've also been working on the skill system, adding specializations and changing how tasks are priorit... (Read More...)

Sapiens now has a shiny new Steam page! A couple of weeks ago, YouTube started featuring the Sapiens 4 years of development summary video. Since then, the game has been getting a huge amount of attention, and the videos have been viewed ... (Read More...)

This month the user interface received a total overhaul, so now every panel and button is rendered as a 3D mesh, and lit in-game. The sapiens are now eating and sleeping, the building process has more detail, and the skill system is impl... (Read More...)

Until now, the sapiens have had a sort of hive mind, where they magically know exactly who should chop down a tree and carry what where. In this video I show the new AI where they actually think individually and react to what is in their... (Read More...)

In this video I share my thoughts on how the early game will work, and how the new storage areas will replace stockpiles. (Read More...)

It’s time to take a look back at how development of the game started, and how far it has come in the past four years. (Read More...)

After weeks of Vulkan work, just trying to get back to where I was, it feels amazing to be making good progress again. (Read More...)

For the past 6 weeks or so I’ve been mostly working on porting the rendering engine from OpenGL to Vulkan. In this video I explain my reasons for taking on all of this extra work, and talk about some of the challenges and surprises I enc... (Read More...)

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been away for a couple of weeks. I'm back to work now though, and my current job is to port everything over from OpenGL to Vulkan. (Read More...)

In this video I announce the new name! I’ve been very busy entirely changing the look, adding a female cave person, starting on the research system, and more. (Read More...)

There isn't really anything new to show off this week, and that's why I skipped last week's update too, but it must be time for a post anyway. (Read More...)

Goodbye flat shaded low-poly dullness, hello fancy new smooth leafy awesomeness! (Read More...)

This week there are now little groups of people scattered around the world. When you first join or create a world, you look around to find a tribe you would like to lead. It's a nice way to begin the game, and those AI tribes can stay th... (Read More...)

The cavemen can build themselves little houses now, and find their ways around holes in the ground. There’s also a new way of generating rivers, much faster terrain generation and a bunch of other little tweaks and fixes. (Read More...)

This week we can finally build houses! They're still very simple, but they have floors, walls, doorways and a roof, everything a caveman needs to stay warm and dry under the everlasting sunny skies (one day I'll add rain!) (Read More...)

This week I worked on grass and rivers. Initially I just wanted to automatically remove the grass when you build floors. But once I got that working, I got a bit carried away tidying up the grass code and added new grass types, as well a... (Read More...)

Kia ora! This is the first weekly update in 5 weeks. I know. Sorry! I went on a big surfing holiday in Indonesia, and when I go away, everything stops. But I'm back to work now, and I've made some good progress this week. (Read More...)

After finding some music that fitted the game, I realized the UI looked terrible, and gave it a makeover. I also implemented a snapping mechanic for building floors, added new stockpiles, and some new grass. (Read More...)

This week I've mostly been working on stockpiles. One thing I'm keen to avoid in Ambience is any kind of inventory management. So instead of stacks of items in UI slots in chests or baskets, the resources you find, grow, or craft will al... (Read More...)

In this video I show the new mammoth models, changes to the digging and order queuing interfaces, and the new particle engine and light sources. I’ve also added the concept of a selected person, to make it easier to direct them around in... (Read More...)

In this video I show the new interface for modifying the terrain by digging and filling, and show the new experimental dirt floors and branch walls. (Read More...)

In this video I show the new morph target based random face generation, the new concept of hunger, and picking and eating apples from trees. (Read More...)

I’ve been working on the terrain generation again, and this video shows off the new rivers. I’ve also got the cavemen building campfires, one rock/branch at a time. (Read More...)

In this latest video devblog, I’ve populated the world with new plant and tree models, and worked further on the orders system, with a few new orders now available. (Read More...)

Ambience has been in development for a couple of years already, but most of the work so far has been in creating a custom game engine. Until now there has been no real gameplay, just a world renderer. But that is all changing in 2018 (Read More...)