A New Age

Introducing Humankind, the Sega-backed Civ killer from the Endless Legend devs.

- Jeremy Peel

On ground level, the street that houses Amplitude Studios is a uniform block of contemporary cafés, flats and office buildings. But stand on the eighth-floor balcony and the first thing you’ll notice is the 1930s. The concrete dome of the Église du SaintEsprit glints under a Parisian sun, and beyond stands a strange urban mountain, the artificial peak of the Parc Zoologique de Paris. Downwind, on a breezy day, you can smell the monkey faeces.

These are the monuments of a people who left their mark on the world. Achievements that survived assimilation into the cultures that followed, becoming part of the fabric of a nation. They are emblematic of Humankind, Sega’s new Civ rival from the makers of Endless Legend.

“The reason we created Amplitude was to make Humankind,” says studio head Romain de Waubert de Genlis. “It was a dream we had, to create a historical 4X game. We knew it was a big task. It’s the Everest of 4X, and you need to learn to climb other mountains first.”

And so Amplitude went to space, making its debut with an interstellar empire builder. Then it embraced fantasy, perfecting turn-based expansion across a hexagonal land. The studio dabbled in roguelikes and tower defence for the spin-off Dungeons of the Endless, and developed a shared universe to encompass all of its games. It established a rare reputation for storytelling in the strategy genre, and for meaningfully involving fans in design decisions. And then Amplitude signed away its independence to Sega.

“We had to find a partner that would be the big brother to protect us from distractions,” says de Waubert de Genlis. “That would give us the means to make this huge game.” The Sega acquisition has allowed Amplitude to grow in size, and to work with studios like Creative Assembly on animation and mo-cap. Humankind