How Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Turns Human Evolution into a Game

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk to Patrice Désilets of Panache Digital Games about their recent game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. In my write up for Escapist Magazine, I cover how Ancestors “gamifies” human evolution.

Speaking with Patrice was really fun. I had heard of him before because he’s a bit of a legend in video games, having been the person behind the Assassin’s Creed games. I didn’t actually know beforehand that I would be speaking to the man himself!

He was very forward with their goals while developing the game and how they tried to represent evolution. The main focus, which he made clear multiple times to me, was that they wanted to emphasize the experience more than anything. They did want to use science where they could, but not at the expense of the experience. This was why, for example, there are no deleterious spontaneous mutations in the game, and why there might be some elements in the environment that may not have actually been there in the real world. However, where they could, they tried to stick with science, especially regarding representing how long it took for humans to evolve from their ancestors.

Anyway, it was a ton of fun speaking with Patrice and writing the piece, so head on over to Escapist Magazine to read the whole thing!