After years of development, The Universim is entering Beta. This announcement comes alongside an update that has improved tons of details to the game’s planets. The Universim is an ambitious crowdfunded god game that seeks to have civilization-building from the neolithic period to a galactic civilization scale.
The update improves several important aspects of the game. Planets are now larger; mountains are fancier, the game boots faster, and things look sharper. All of these updates prepare the game for the advancement of the Space Age. The update also improved other minor details like AI Pathfinding, eliminating bugs and things of that level.
Prometheus is the in-game simulation engine that runs the entire game. It is responsible for planet generation, managing life, controlling events, pathfinding, resource distribution, and everything else. The engine was unveiled during the Kickstarter and helped drive the game into the final stages of funding.
Since its announcement, several updates have impacted the engine. One of the biggest is that the game’s graphics have simplified moving from realism and into a more enjoyable experience. This decreases load time and makes the creation of a planet dramatically faster then previous. As of now, the game only takes one minute to generate and load a new planet instead of the initial two that the developer was dealing with. Not only is the time shorter, but the size, complexity, and density have all been increased for the planet.
A new feature that has been implemented is an update to the enhanced planet generation system. Now the game can form physical mountains that are an inherent part of the planet’s surface. Previously the mountains were simple objects, decorations for players to look at. Now the mountains are a part of the world, allowing players to build on them and send Nuggets over to them on epic journeys.
The quantity of objects has almost tripled. This means that so many more things can appear on each planet without affecting the rendering. Back when this project started, the developers were struggling to render out a simple planet, but now they can have not only a full planet but the population and much more.
The biggest update is the removal of the “Standing Nuggets” bug. Issues with the pathfinding system result in the Nuggets not moving and simply standing in one spot. So the developers threw out the old system and started working on something better. The new pathfinding system prevents the previous bugs and overall is a stronger guide for the Nuggets.
There is so much more being added to this massive game, and it is only in Beta. As the game continues to grow, it gets closer to its true potential. It is still too early to know if this game will be a success, but it is for sure ambitious. This is a PC exclusive and is available from the main website and steam for $29.99.
