Hi everyone!

This is just a quick announcement to let you know that the Sapiens 0.5 update is now open to everyone for testing on the unstable branch. I am aiming for the 18th of July for the full release.

Multiplayer is of course the biggest new feature in 0.5, and though there is a lot of tidying up left to do, its already working really well. We have a handful of persistent dedicated servers being run by the community already, with more coming online all the time, so if multiplayer Sapiens interests you, and youre willing to help test it before its stable, then nows a great time to jump in!

Switching to the unstable branch means you can play 0.5 now, and will get frequent (every day or two) live updates as I fix issues and implement new features. As a result, it can be unstable, some updates will create new bugs, cause crashes, even potentially corrupt your worlds, so you should backup your single player worlds first before installing. If this all sounds a bit too risky, thats no problem, the full stable release isnt too far away.

To switch to the unstable branch, right click on Sapiens in your Steam library, select Properties->Betas. Then you can select public-beta-unstable from the little pop-up button menu, and Steam will then download the latest beta.

Please do join us in the discord to report any bugs in the unstable branch, and to keep an eye on announcements for patch notes and things too - thats where its all happening.

Hope to see you in one of the multiplayer worlds soon!

-Dave

Hi everyone!

Ive been making great progress on the next big update, and have some news to share, Sapiens 0.5 will come with full multiplayer support!

Sapiens 0.5 will be available to everyone in 2-3 weeks time, on the unstable branch, with the full stable release coming in July.

Weve been running a private test with members of the community playing together on a persistent dedicated server for the past few weeks. Initially things were a little rough, with a number of bugs and performance issues to iron out. But despite this, it was clear early on that multiplayer was amazing.

I still enjoy just sitting down and playing Sapiens from time to time, but these multiplayer sessions have been by far the most enjoyable for me. Watching other tribes grow, checking up on their progress, stealing their ginger roots when they were offline, just general good fun.

Multiplayer adds a whole new dimension to the experience, and so I felt it was worth spending a little longer to get in and fix those bugs and optimize it now, and ditch the experimental disclaimer.

The main result of that extra time is that were now able to support more sapiens, and more players. These optimizations benefit single player too, so I have now doubled the sapien population soft-limit in single player, and Ive removed the camera restrictions too, so you can freely move and explore as far away from your tribe as you like.

This work is just about complete, and so Im moving back to finishing off other 0.5 features, fixing a few bugs in the new sleds and AI tribe trading mechanics, things like that. Overall its really coming together, and I cant wait for you all to be able to play, even more so now that Ill be able to join some of your worlds and see what youre creating. Not long now!

-Dave

Thanks everyone for all of your support throughout 2023!

The 0.5 update is progressing nicely, and over these past couple of weeks Ive made a lot of progress on multiplayer and AI tribes. But with the update just about to enter the first testing phase, its still going to be another few weeks before its ready. So while youre waiting, and with over 70 mods available, now is a great time to try out a few!

If you havent installed any mods before, Sir Lichs new Christmas 2023 mod is a great place to start, to add a purely visual festive vibe.

Vanilla Tweaks makes it easy to configure a wide range of new options to change the gameplay and interface, and set things up just the way you like.

Chop and Replant is a handy mod by Witchy that adds a new button to the radial menu, allowing you to automatically replant trees that have been chopped down.

Some role assignment automation is coming to the vanilla game in 0.5, but AutomatedRoles (also made by Witchy) gives you the ability to automatically mange your tribes roles already, with a bunch of control too.

Bone Crafting adds a bunch of bone related content, with furniture, bone broth, a giant axe and even wind chimes

And Time Control Plus adds some handy information to the clock.

Some of these mods require Hammerstone, which is a base mod youll need to install first. If you need any help installing mods, there is a great tutorial on the Sapiens wiki.

And if youre interested in making your own Sapiens mods, this is a fantastic place to start, and the discord linked there is great if you want to get more involved or have questions too.

I hope you have a great holiday season, and well see you again in the new year!

-Dave

Hi Sapiens fans! I've been working hard on the big 0.5 update, and it is getting closer to being ready for testing. There are still a few more weeks of development left to go, but it's definitely time to share some details about what's coming.

So what's new? Firstly, AI Tribes! Now in 0.5, when you are picking a tribe to lead, the other tribes around will actually be there in the game. They'll have their own villages, and you can send some of your sapiens over to meet them.



Once you have met an AI tribe, you can then trade with them, or complete a variety of optional quests. Trading uses a "favor" currency, where you gain favor by providing resources that they need, or for completing quests. You can use this favor to ask them to deliver resources in return, and the more favor you have with a given tribe, the better they will treat you.



Given that AI tribes will sometimes be some distance away, 0.5 also introduces sleds, which are a movable storage area. You can set them up like any other storage area, and use them to deliver larger quantities of items directly, or as part of a transfer route.



As well as AI tribes, there are a large number of other features and improvements. Here's a few of the bigger ones:
- We have a new notification list, so you can go back and look at what happened if you missed something
- There is now an option to auto-assign roles. If no sapien is available to complete a task, it can automatically reassign someone else
- New tool racks, shelves, and smaller and larger storage areas
- Much improved tribe selection and less restrictive map zooming, so it's a lot easier to find the right tribe and location to start.

And there is still more to come! One great thing about working on interactions with AI tribes is that most of that work was also required for multiplayer. So in 0.5, I'll be shipping experimental multiplayer support, and it's shaping up really nicely. You will have simple options for managing whether you share resources with other players, so you will be able to work together to build a large village and pool resources, or build up separate villages and trade (and later, fight) with each other, or some combination of both.

The 0.5 update won't have any conflict yet, but it's planned for 0.6, along with the full release of multiplayer. I am expecting to release 0.5 early next year.

Keep in mind that the features I've mentioned here and these screenshots are a work in progress, there will still be changes before the update is released. If you would like to keep up to date with progress, you can join the discord, and I'm now posting frequent progress updates here on the Steam discussion forums too.

It's been longer than I would like to get this update out, but we're on the final stretch now, and I'm really excited to get it into your hands as soon as I can!

- Dave

With this update your tribes will now function much more efficiently, and if they still don't quite do what you want, you now have a lot more control by prioritizing orders.

New in 0.4.2:
AI and fixes:
- You can now prioritize any order at any time. Sapiens will tend to choose prioritized orders to complete first.
- You can then deprioritize orders again to restore them to the default prioritization level
- Different plan types are now prioritized differently by default, so idle sapiens are much more likely to choose a recruit or hunt order than a store order.
- The outputs of prioritized orders retain the prioritization, so if you prioritize a gather order on an apple tree, then the store orders for the apples will also be prioritized
- If you manually assign sapiens to an order, they will drop everything and are much more likely to continue to work on that order.
- Sapiens are now a lot more likely to continue a single task to completion. Hunting in particular is much improved.
- Taking a required tool to an order site now requires the order's role, instead of the general labor role. This improves efficiency as that sapien can then complete the order, and it stops tools getting stuck lying around waiting for the right sapien.
- Telling a sapien to stop, or manually assigning a sapien to an order now causes them to drop what they were carrying
- More Fixes, optimizations, and UI improvements

Balancing:
- More visitor tribes in the early stages of the game
- Visiting sapiens tend to stay longer
- Crucibles now degrade when used
- Reduced quantity of manure produced, as it was excessive and degraded performance
- Reduced quantity of sapien vocals when time is fast forwarded

.4.1 is a minor bug fix update, mostly fixing issues relating to AI around compost bins, but with some important other fixes too.

- Fixes issues with sapiens getting stuck delivering to compost bins
- Fixes issues when restricting the use of rotten resources in the resources panel to disable composting
- Sapiens will now carry and deliver multiple items in one load to compost bins
- Compost now degrades after a year, as it was building up indefinitely and causing problems
- Improvements to AI prioritization
- Fixes issues when running on Linux under Proton
- The hammer now degrades when blacksmithing
- Sapiens no longer get hungrier while sleeping, which helps avoid having sick or injured sapiens starve and leave

Though this update does contain some AI improvements, I'm working on another update with some more major improvements to the priority system and AI too, so you can expect 0.4.2 soon.

This second major update to Sapiens introduces new challenges and game mechanics, tools, weapons and building materials, and your tribe can now enter the bronze age!

[h2]Windstorms[/h2]
Every couple of years or so, you can now expect to experience a windstorm severe weather event. These windstorms can damage buildings, blow things away, extinguish fires, and sapiens can get injured by flying debris. Windstorms are a fun new challenge to plan for and overcome.

[h2]Composting & Mulching[/h2]
Soil quality will now degrade slowly if you harvest many times from the same area. To enrich the soil again, you can now mulch using manure or compost. Manure can be found where animals have been, and compost can now be produced from rotting organic matter in compost bins.

[h2]Stone chiseling[/h2]
A number of new rock types have been added to the game, including granite, marble, sandstone (in a variety of colors) and lapis lazuli. Your sapiens can now chisel stone blocks directly from rock, and use these blocks to build walls, or chisel them into tiles for roofs and floors. Soft rocks like sandstone and limestone can be carved using chisels made out of hard rock, but to craft blocks out of the harder rock types, your sapiens are going to need bronze chisels.

[h2]Bronze[/h2]
Tin and copper ore veins are now scattered around the world. Once you've mined some and crafted a kiln and a crucible, you'll be able to research blacksmithing. With bronze your sapiens can smith chisels to carve hard rock, but they can also now craft a range of more durable and powerful tools and weapons.

[h2]New roof and floor types[/h2]
0.4 Adds a number of new roof pieces to help your sapiens build better houses and villages. With new corner pieces, smaller slopes, and triangular floor pieces too, you'll have a lot more design options than before.

[h2]And more![/h2]
- New option in the radial menu to "Rebuild" using different materials
- You can now limit the quantity of items stored in each storage area
- Improvements to building snapping
- Your sapiens can now dig and mine on steeper slopes
- The camera maximum height limit now rises as you build higher, so you can build as high as you like
- Adds options to change the cursor reticle size and shape
- New autopause feature after you don't interact with the game for a configurable period
- Mud brick structures can now get damaged in the rain if they are left uncovered
- New sound effects and animations
- Much improved controller support
- New keyboard options for camera zooming
- AI fixes and performance improvements
- Many other minor features and bug fixes

Sapiens is progressing nicely and the next big content update "Windstorms" will be ready to launch one week from now. The update is available for testing now on the unstable branch if you'd like to get an early look and help find those last few bugs.

Full release notes are coming, but here's an overview of what's new in 0.4:

[h2]Windstorms[/h2]
Every couple of years or so, you can now expect to experience a windstorm severe weather event. These windstorms can damage buildings, blow things away, extinguish fires, and sapiens can get injured by flying debris. Windstorms are a fun new challenge to plan for and overcome.

[h2]Composting & Mulching[/h2]
Soil quality will now degrade slowly if you harvest many times from the same area. To enrich the soil again, you can now mulch using manure or compost. Manure can be found where animals have been, and compost can now be produced from rotting organic matter in compost bins.

[h2]Stone chiseling[/h2]
A number of new rock types have been added to the game, including granite, marble, sandstone (in a variety of colors) and lapis lazuli. Your sapiens can now chisel stone blocks directly from rock, and use these blocks to build walls, or chisel them into tiles for roofs and floors. Soft rocks like sandstone and limestone can be carved using chisels made out of hard rock, but to craft blocks out of the harder rock types, your sapiens are going to need bronze chisels.

[h2]Bronze[/h2]
Tin and copper ore veins are now scattered around the world. Once you've mined some and crafted a kiln and a crucible, you'll be able to research blacksmithing. With bronze your sapiens can smith chisels to carve hard rock, but they can also now craft a range of more durable and powerful tools and weapons.

[h2]New roof and floor types[/h2]
0.4 Adds a number of new roof pieces to help your sapiens build better houses and villages. With new corner pieces, smaller slopes, and triangular floor pieces too, you'll have a lot more design options than before.

[h2]Much more[/h2]
0.4 is packed with many other smaller features, quality of life improvements and bug fixes. The look has been improved with new detailing textures and more realistic shaders. You can now build as high as you like, as the camera height limit rises when you build. You can mine on steeper slopes, and set a maximum quantity to be stored per storage area. There are new options for the cursor reticle and autopause when you're AFK too, amongst many other tweaks and fixes.

If you would like to try it out now, you can switch to the unstable branch:
- Right click on Sapiens in your library on Steam.
- Select Properties->BETAS and then choose "public-beta-unstable" from the pull-down menu.
- You don't need to enter a code, that's it, Steam will then download the latest beta.

Currently the unstable version is PC only, I'll be sending out the Mac version to the unstable branch early next week.

WARNING: If you join the unstable branch and create or load worlds on that branch, it is dangerous to then move back to the default branch and load those saves again. If you do decide to opt in to the unstable branch, you should back up your worlds regularly.

I hope you enjoy the update!
-Dave

The next Sapiens update is coming along nicely, and I thought it was time to let you all know how things are going.

After taking a bit of a break over Christmas, I started the new year working on a new mechanic for improving soil. So in 0.4 we will now have compost, manure, and mulching, which allow you to improve the soil quality and grow crops faster. To balance this and add realism, as you harvest or clear from the land, the soil quality now slowly reduces too, so eventually you'll need to move your crops to more fertile land, or mulch to put the goodness back in.



Just after that was done, we got hit by a cyclone in New Zealand. It was a significant disaster, and we lost power for a week. But once I was able to work again, I started adding new building materials. It has always been my plan to give different building materials different strengths and weaknesses, and I'll be working more on that soon, but first I wanted to add stone block structures to the game. Stone blocks were historically a widely used early building material, and Sapiens felt like it would really benefit from having them.

So you will now be able to chisel out stone blocks directly from the ground, and use them to build walls and columns, and craft tiles which can be used in floors and roofs. I also added new rock types, with the addition of granite, marble, and lapis lazuli, as well as sandstone in a variety of colors.



Historically the first chisels were made out of hard rock, but rock chisels could mostly only be used on soft rocks like sandstone and limestone, so that's what I have done in Sapiens too. However there needed to be a way to chisel granite and hard rocks too, and so I decided it was time to add bronze to the game.

You'll first need to mine copper and tin ores from the ground. Then at a kiln you can learn the new blacksmithing skill, and combine the ores to smelt bronze in a crucible. Once you have bronze ingots, you can then smith them into new tools and weapons. There are bronze variants of all of the existing tools, which will work faster and last longer. And of course you can craft bronze chisels which will unlock the ability to build with hard stone blocks.

With the addition of bronze and the new rock types, I needed to do a lot of work on the look of the game, adding more detail and realism to the textures, and improving support for metallic materials. So we now have shiny metals and bump-mapping on the terrain and objects too, which really helps to make the world feel more alive.



I still have quite a lot more planned for this update, so keep an eye out for an announcement here when it's nearly ready. And keep in mind that the features I've mentioned here and these screenshots are a work in progress, there will still be changes before they are released in a few weeks time.

If you want to keep a closer eye on progress, please join the Discord where I post much more frequent updates. Thanks for your continued support and patience while I'm working on the update.

- Dave

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

You can now play Sapiens on your Mac! Sapiens now runs natively and performs great on both Apple silicon and Intel.

Sapiens was always designed to be a cross platform game, which meant it took only a couple of weeks to add support for macOS, and it made a lot of sense to do this now so more people can play. Throughout the early access development, I plan to continue to add support for more platforms, more hardware features, more modding support, and more quality of life improvements and bug fixes. It's really important to keep this work going alongside additional gameplay features and content, like what was released in the recent herbal medicine update.

Have a great holiday season everyone, and I'm looking forward to working on the next big content update in the new year.

- Dave

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

I want everyone to be able to play Sapiens on as many devices as possible, and a mac port is a good first step. So if you have a mac, you'll soon be able to play it natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon.

You won't need to buy it again if you have already purchased it for Windows, and you will be able to find it listed in the Steam store within the next few weeks.

If you already have a copy for Windows, you can play right now by opting into the mac beta on Steam. This will help me to iron out any remaining issues before a full release within the next few weeks.

To opt in:
- You will need to have purchased Sapiens
- In your Steam Library on a mac, right click on Sapiens, and go to Properties->BETAS
- Enter "macosbeta123" in the access code box, and hit "Check Code"
- If it fails, restart Steam and try again
- You should now be able to switch to the mac beta, and install Sapiens on your mac

Sapiens for macOS requires macOS 10.15 or later, and will need either a dedicated GPU, or an M1/M2 chip to run well.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

.3.6 is a minor update with the following changes:

- Adds improved support for modding, and support for the new official "Moa" mod, available via Steam Workshop
- Fixes crashes
- Fixes issues with the notification text when injured while hunting
- Fixes issue where tall aspens could be invisible in winter
- Fixes issue with smoke and fire particles in certain world locations
- Slow motion debug mode is now mapped to ctrl+9 instead of just '9' to avoid accidentally triggering it
- Fixes issues with nomad tribes and migrating mob groups spawning when you are surrounded by water
- Fixes issue where bones were not dropped after eating raw meat
- Fixes issues with mammoth animations when attacking

The Herbal Medicine update introduces viruses, burns, food poisoning, and new injuries. To deal with these new challenges, your sapiens will need to find a number of new plants that can be researched and combined into medicines. This update also brings improvements to the graphics, AI, and user interface, and provides a whole lot of smaller fixes and improvements too.

[h2]Herbal Medicine[/h2]

Viruses are a new threat, which can be introduced by some visiting sapiens, especially if you recruit them. You can help stop the spread by isolating infected sapiens, but this will become a lot easier to manage once you have researched medicine.

You can now allow sapiens to eat raw meat, however there is a high risk of food poisoning, which they can get in other ways too. They can also get burned around fires, so you might want to find some aloe and keep some burn medicine stored.

To create medicine, you'll want to investigate one of the seven new plants. They can be hard to find, so you might need to explore further out.

[h2]AI improvements[/h2]

Sapiens are now more social, with better head movements and conversation flow. They will now run for urgent tasks, like providing medicine, or hunting, and they are better at choosing which task to complete first.

They also now move and behave more naturally, and there are optimizations to help improve performance with large tribes too.

[h2]Graphics, Performance and More![/h2]

This update features new models, animations, shaders, and textures, so the world feels more vibrant and alive. Despite this, you should see a higher frame rate, with a number of renderer optimizations, and some new options to increase performance further. And there are a bunch of bug fixes and quality of life improvements too.

[h2]Full Release Notes:[/h2]

[h3]Herbal Medicine[/h3]

This is the first major content update, and it introduces some new challenges.

Viruses are a new threat, which can be introduced by some visiting sapiens, especially if you recruit them. You can help stop the spread by isolating infected sapiens, but this will become a lot easier to manage once you have researched medicine.

You can now allow sapiens to eat raw meat, however there is a high risk of food poisoning, which they can get in other ways too. They can also get burned around fires, so you might want to find some aloe and keep some burn medicine stored.

To create medicine, you'll want to investigate the new plants. They can be hard to find, so you might need to explore further out.

There are also many other significant improvements to the AI, graphics, performance, and a bunch of other new features and fixes too.

The update will go out next week, but if you don't mind helping to find any remaining bugs, you can try it out now on the public-beta-unstable branch. Please keep the feedback and bug reports coming, thank you!

- Dave

[h2]Full Release Notes:[/h2]

Herbal Medicine

Beta 20 contains a number of tweaks, bug fixes and new features. I'm still catching up with launch issues, so there is no major new content just yet. But you can expect to see more updates with more content within the next few weeks.

Features/Changes:
- Adds ability to assign sapiens to beds, by clicking a sapien, selecting move, and then clicking on a bed
- Adds a difficulty guide when selecting your tribe
- When knapping a large rock into small rocks, you can now also use another large rock as the tool
- Sapiens can now sit on split logs
- Move & Wait has been removed from the radial menu, as it was a trap for new players. This functionality will likely be added again soon using a modifier key instead
- Reduces frequency and volume of bird sounds
- Bamboo now only drops 2 when gathering, saving 2 for when it is chopped down
- Adds option to invert the mouse wheel zoom direction
- Adds a total time played in game days to the world load menu
- More fonts and characters added for localization mods, especially Japanese and Turkish
- You can now add, remove, and update world mods for existing worlds
- Mod lists are now scrolling views, to allow more installed mods
- Exposes more variables for mods
- Adds buttons to open the world save directory, and mod directories

Bug Fixes:
- Fixes issues where they would get stuck far away, and not return home in time to get to sleep
- Fixes crashing bugs
- Fixes an issue where you could get stuck unable to build a kiln due to a research order on stored mudbricks
- Fixes pathfinding issue that could cause them to run very slowly over long distances
- Fixes AI issues relating to choosing where to store items
- Fixes AI issues where two sapiens would attempt to sit on the same seat, or seats became unusable
- Fixes issue where it displayed the incorrect craft count for split logs, small rocks
- Fixes issue where digging discovery was assignable before you had discovered rock knapping
- Now warns if Steam overlay is not enabled, if you do something that requires it

In this video I look back at the entire creation process. From right at the beginning with early sketches and ideas, to creating the custom engine and huge world of Sapiens, the refinement of the design, content, and game-play, and then finally pushing that green button and sending it out to the world.

It's been a long, and at times difficult process, filled with many obstacles to overcome. The development of Sapiens has changed my life. I've learned so much, and grown both as a developer and a person.

But there is still a lot of work to do, and I'm looking forward to leading Sapiens to its full potential, through Early Access and beyond.

[previewyoutube=66SKA06jouw;full][/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Beta 19 is a small update which mostly focuses on bugs and contains the following fixes:

• Fixes various crashing bugs.
  
• Fixes issue allowing both research and fill orders to be queued on the same hex
  
• Automatic pausing when the app window loses focus is now optional in the settings, and turned off by default
  
• Fixes AI issue that caused them to occasionally wander away near the end of the day for no apparent reason
  
• If a wait order has been issued, it is now removed automatically when you issue a standard move order
  
• Fixes issue where they couldn't build 4x4 floors from adjacent floors, and needed closer access
  
• When starting a new world, burning large pine cones as fuel is now disabled by default
  
• There is now a chance of receiving a small rock when digging soil
  
• Adds Cyrillic and Korean fonts for better localization mod support. More fonts to come soon.
  
• Fixes crash when using international fonts at low resolutions
  

Hi everyone, thanks again for all of the feedback and bug reports.

Beta 18 is a small hotfix update which fixes 3 bugs:

• Fixes bugs where they would get stuck in loops trying to eat flax seeds. They also now won't attempt to eat flax seeds unless you enable it in the resources panel.
  
• Fixes issue selecting storage areas when you are standing very close to them
  
• Fixes issues with the queuing up of research orders
  

Hi everyone, thank you very much for all of the feedback and bug reports.

It's been a very busy couple of days since launch, but I'm now able to start coding again, so I've started by just fixing a couple of crashing bugs. I've had a few reports where worlds have failed to load, so if that's happened to you, this will hopefully fix it.

If you do hit any crashes, especially if your world won't load, please use the button in the settings menu to send a bug report, and be sure to include the world save. Then I will be able to fix the issue quickly. Any bugs causing worlds to fail to load will always be my top priority.

More fixes and updates to come soon!

Hi everyone, majicDave here.

Im thrilled to launch Sapiens into Steam Early Access. Its time to lead your tribe!

[h2]Early Access Roadmap[/h2]


This Early Access release is only the beginning. The above shows you some ideas of whats next in terms of content and features. As I will be taking on board community feedback and suggestions, the roadmap isnt set in stone and the order may change, but it should give you a good general idea of Sapiens moving forward.

[h2]Feedback & Community[/h2]

Im excited for you all to play what Ive been hard at work on and hear your feedback. I really do want to hear your ideas and hear about your triumphs and struggles in Sapiens.

Feel free to post here in the Steam forums, or better yet, drop by the official Discord to join our community, where I regularly post progress updates. Im just one man making a big game, so I expect the days ahead to be crazy busy, yet Ill be hard at work to make my way through all your feedback, reports, and suggestions.

Thank you so much for your interest and support. I hope you enjoy my game! If you do, it would mean the world to me if you left a review or comment. More news and updates from me coming soon.

Cheers,
Dave

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Hi everyone, majicDave here.

For weeks now, since the Next Fest, Ive been getting ready for Sapiens to launch into Steam Early Access. After 7 years of solo development, there's now only 1 day left until release!

Thanks to everyone who has played private test versions as well as those who tried the public demo of Sapiens. Your feedback and suggestions have been greatly appreciated.

[h2]Launch Info[/h2]

As a reminder, the base price is $24.99 and there will be a 10% launch discount. The OST is already available, with all the proceeds going to the wonderful John Konsolakis for his tireless work on the music for the game.

The game will go live on Steam tomorrow, July 26 at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT / 9pm CEST / 7am NZST.

Im excited to see what tomorrow brings and to have your help to make Sapiens the best game it can be.

Cheers,
majicDave

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

After several years in development Sapiens will be launching in Early Access on July 26! It will be available right here on Steam for $24.99, with a 10% launch discount. And if you didnt already know, the soundtrack is available for purchase right now.

So far the release process has gone better than I could have imagined. I can't wait to share the full experience of the first early access build with you all, and I'm looking forward to working on future updates with more new content and features.

In case you havent seen it, heres the latest devlog recapping the demo release:

[previewyoutube=j5i6iWr-3xU;full]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5i6iWr-3xU&t=1s[/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Will Sapiens support multiplayer? How far into the future will it go? How many sapiens can you have? Dave will be answering all of these questions and more in this second Next Fest livestream.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Hey everyone,

The Steam Next Fest starts today! You can already download the demo for Sapiens, which allows players to explore and build throughout 2 in-game days. This gives you a good idea of the game's core mechanics and how you can start off your tribe.

Ill also be livestreaming today, June 13, at 9:00pm EST / 6:00pm PST.

For new players, heres a few of my best tips:

• Build many storage areas! They take no time or resources, but it will slow down your advancement if you dont have a free one available for a new type of resource.
  
• It will be easier to advance quicker if you find a larger tribe to start with, and its a good idea to find a spot with lots of trees nearby.
  
• Dont queue up too many orders. Sapiens will pick the closest task to them that matches their needs and roles. The easiest way for you to direct them where you want is to limit their options.
  
• Flax is a key resource, required to bind advanced tools together. If you want to get far in the demo with tool building, you will need to find and investigate flax early.
  

Ahead of the official start of Steam Next Fest on June 13, the Sapiens demo is now live! After 7 years of development its so exciting to see people enjoying the game already, and I look forward to seeing more reactions within the next few weeks.

Check out the dev vlog below to get a behind the scenes look at the release process, including the creation of the trailer, reactions to influencer videos, and a look at the demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5i6iWr-3xU

Look forward to more updates during Steam Next Fest, including a livestream playthrough on Monday, June 13 at 9pm EST!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Sapiens has been in a private alpha for a while now. During that time, the testers have been busy making many large and detailed builds.



This castle has been built by generations of sapiens over many in-game years.



It's built with mud bricks that have been dug out from the surrounding hills, and mixed with hay and sand and left to dry. The wood is mostly split logs, from birch tree plantations, with some apple wood too for color.



This next village was founded where two rivers meet.



The are no boats in Sapiens yet, but the docks are ready and waiting!



There are some nice green spaces for the sapiens to enjoy within the town walls. This village is in a tropical biome, so it is filled with coconut trees, bamboo, and banana plants.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

In this preview of Sapiens, watch the developer play through the start of the game, and then take a look at some amazing late-game builds created by players.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens

After 7 long years of development, Sapiens will finally be in your hands very shortly! A time-limited demo will be released when Sapiens participates in the Steam Next Fest, June 13-20, 2022, with the full early access release coming soon after.

Check out the Steam page for a brand new trailer, and don't forget to add Sapiens to your wishlist!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060230/Sapiens/

Hi everyone, I'm majicDave, and this is Sapiens!

Sapiens will be launching into Early Access soon, and you can expect a release date announcement within the next few weeks. With the launch fast approaching, it's time to share more about where the game is at and how development is going.

If you want to get a good overview, the latest devlog video is a great place to start:
[previewyoutube=CQt5R0pd9WI;full][/previewyoutube]

Since recording the video, I've added new musical instruments to accompany the flute, a balafon and log drum. It's great when the sapiens get together and play.



Music talent is a personality trait, some sapiens will pick it up faster than others, and some sapiens will actually get sad if they haven't played or heard music lately. But if you assign a few sapiens from your tribe to the music role, then whenever they start to feel the need, they'll go and pick up a musical instrument, find a place by a campfire, and start playing. Then all of the near by sapiens will get a mood boost too.

A new trailer is in the works, which will be published soon, and I've added new weather effects for rain and snow too, which adds a huge amount to the ambience.



I'll be posting more frequent updates from now on, so see you again soon!

[previewyoutube=Amr5otowkNw;full][/previewyoutube]
Work on Sapiens is progressing nicely, and it's now far enough along that I can show off a full play through of the game as it currently stands.

The focus lately has been on the early-game gameplay and the major underlying systems, but there is still a lot of work to go, loads of content to work on, and improvements to be made.

But hopefully this should help you to see the potential, and understand what playing Sapiens is all about. The game is really starting to come together!