Oh My Godus: Beta Edition

As a big fan of Peter Molyneux's previous work (the Fable and Black and White series in particular), I was excited to see that Godus (the recent Kickstarter project by new studio 22cans) had made an appearance on Steam. So excited, in fact, that I fell over myself in my haste to download the beta version of the game and spend a few hours getting to grips with the fledgling god-sim in order to report back to those of you who (wisely?) choose to wait for the finished product.

The first thing Godus goes out of its way to do is to lower your expectations, with a little disclaimer on the loading screen that what you're seeing is only an estimated 40% of the completed game. That's fine - I don't think anyone could realistically expect more from an early-access game, and I think the percentage estimate is a nice touch, although if the game is really going to be 150% bigger and better, gameplay changes and additions could obviously mean that it could very well change hugely from the beta version before launch. One of the things I love about videogames is the interactivity of the development process (as discussed in a recent podcast) and the responsiveness of devs who release their games in beta - something that is not as prevalent or even attainable in other media.

Things can only get beta. (Sorry.)

And so the game begins: I'm on pleasant little island in the middle of the ocean. My followers are hanging about aimlessly. I'm informed that I need to fulfill four criteria before I can move up to the next age of my civilisation. Each card is gained by possessing certain resources. Easy.

From such gene pools as this are the smartest nations grown. 

This is it. I'm ready to get godding. My first aim is, as ever in these games, is to expand my influence. That requires a little population increase. I smooth a little bit more earth, clicking and dragging to shape the edges of each contour (and spending belief to do so). If you're a fan of Ordnance Survey maps (who isn't?), I predict you'll love this element of the game. Clicking and dragging the layers of earth to expand and contract them generally feels pretty responsive and the game will penalise you for trying to stretch too far or alter land outside your domain. Beware of landscaping too close to your followers' dwellings, though: their houses will crumble and they'll be evicted. (Luckily, if you realise your mistake and fix it before the house has totally collapsed, it will rebuild itself - a handy feature for those who are as overzealous and clumsy in their reshaping as me.) Soon I've flattened a nice bit of earth.

Get rid of that... knock that through... build an extension
there...

In the interests of expanding my army of followers as quickly as possible, I set about denuding the landscape of rocks and trees to make way for more houses. Belief is awarded for destroying these obstacles, which I suppose makes sense given that it would be pretty impressive to see rocks and trees being disappeared by some divine force. However, the unfortunate effect of this process is that my island became an urban wasteland, in which dwellings are crammed together and not a scrap of nature remains. What kind of god am I? Nonetheless, my bitterly depressing desert housing-estate soon serves its purpose: the houses are lit up with bubbles of tasty belief, which I gobble up and use to continue my destruction of the ecosystems of the island and further my ruthless expansionist aims. This part of the game can get a little repetitive - I found myself with rows of empty houses and a verrry slow population increase, despite dimming the lights and slipping on the Barry White. That said, clicking on the belief bubbles has makes a really satisfying ringing noise - each one is a different pitch, so you can play a little tune by clicking lots in a row.

I'm gonna tap that.

In the middle of my conquest over nature, I spot an intriguing sight: papers whizzing about a patch of ground. As my people continue to get busy, my population increase affords me a slightly bigger radius of power, until eventually I'm able to peel back the top layer of earth and reveal: a treasure chest! Yo ho, I'm rich. Bizarrely, it contains timber, although given that I've destroyed every tree in the vicinity I guess my people have a slightly warped view of what's valuable.

If you came here because you were promised an enormous chest:
you're welcome.

You think surrounding yourself with trees will protect you?
I eat trees for breakfast.

After conquering this island, I move onto the next. Much landscaping and wanton destruction ensues, except this time I feel slightly validated, because GUESS WHAT YOU GUYS, this island has a temple on it. Finally, my own temple. I'll paint it grey and brown to symbolise the blood of my enemies: the rocks and trees I slaughtered in my quest for divine glory. My intrepid followers are lured to the site of the temple by a marker that you can place to draw them towards you (or just give them a bit of exercise if they're getting a bit flabby). After a bit of construction work by my slaves - I mean, followers, totally meant to say followers - my temple is complete. I prepare to wallow in righteous power and belief bonuses, but... nothing really happens. Or if it does, it's not really noticeable. Hmm.

One day there will be a public service announcement
featuring a crying native of this island.

Not to be deterred, I decide to start moving my not-slaves over to the next big island. Aha! Look at the size of this one: it's practically a continent! So long, tiny cramped rock; hello, lush verdant paradise! I mean, obviously the lush verdancy is temporary, because I'll need to remove all the inconvenient bits of nature that get in the way of building cool houses. But still: nice to have a bit more colour than the grim desert of our collective homeland.

Yeah, who needs tents? Not like we're losing touch
with nature or anything.

My worst nightmare, amirite ladies? (Sorry feminism.)

Upon moving to this island, my followers have garnered enough resources to move into the next phase of civilization and can now build houses instead of tents. LUXURY. They have also received 100 gems, which in the game can be spent in the store, but are currently just used to speed up construction. This is useful if you're in a hurry, but not really necessary at this stage. It'll be interesting to see what perks they allow you to spend your gem-dollah on.

I will crush you, x AmY x

After colonising the new mega-island a bit, I notice a big ol' temple thing just outside my reach. I turn up the Barry White again and soon the temple is within my influence range. Hmm: Mount of the Gods. In a few minutes my trusty worshippers have knocked up the temple and I click into the window that appears. At this point I'm greeted with an extremely cheesy fake player who asks if I want to take part in a battle. I guess this is how you access the multiplayer lobby - seems neat, but I'll reserve judgement until we see how well it functions in the full game. The notes hint at the inclusion of multiple opponents in multiplayer - the idea of a divine royal rumble is very cool.


At the battle prep screen you'll be asked how many of your subjects you want to participate. In this scenario I chose the maximum, because I'm badass/I still don't know what I'm doing. The battle begins: it's a map with two teeny settlements - one each. The objective flashes up: You have 20 minutes to destroy the opponent's settlement. Game on!

I've played a couple of multiplayer battles and they've been pretty similar in terms of gameplay. For the first 15 minutes or so, I set about clearing land and building houses in order to raise a super-horde of tiny warriors. The AI doesn't seem to be doing anything and sits peaceably on the other side of the map. (Suckers.) Once I've amassed a huge number of followers, I lead them over to the enemy encampment using the totem. When they arrive, I set them to destroying the enemy houses and rebuilding them for us, and our noble (if slightly directionless) opponents all manage to die in the process. I like to think this is for the greater good.

All in all, Godus is shaping up to be a great game. There are elements of Populous and Black and White, as well as mechanics like the harvesting the belief of your followers and the cooldown periods for construction and accumulation of belief that will be familiar to anyone who has ever been sucked in by a Farmville-type free-to-play game. I’ll be interested to see how the finished game handles multiplayer, and whether the gems awarded for advancing your civilisation will be offered in the store to encourage microtransactions - something that I think could detract from the integrity of the game, but I'll keep an open mind. Though it’s not even half finished according to the developers, I’m already impressed by Godus: perhaps not enough to recommend the beta on its own merits, but it’s exciting to see from the embryonic stages that this already has so much potential to be entertaining and engaging. This is certainly one I'll be keeping my omniscient eyes on.

Godus is available on Steam here. Updates are a-comin' and devs predict that the full game will be out in 2014.