Last update

We have got "green light" to release Prehistory (once the alpha version is finished) in the biggest platform of digital download of video game in the world (Steam)! And just in nine days!

Thank yoy very much!

Description

What would happen if a historian designs a video game?

And if we add the fact that he has been playing video games since he was very little?

This is the result. A video game that is the union of two different kinds of games. In one hand, it is a Serious Game of Edutainment style (Educational Entertainment) with amazing realistic mechanics based on an accurate archaeological and historical information. On the other hand, it can be classify under the MMORPG genre (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) in third person and with its mechanics focused on entertaining.

Everything will be located in the Prehistory, specifically in the Palaeolithic period.

The story will take place in a 3D virtual persistent world, which will have ecosystems composed of every tiny detail from the Upper Palaeolithic.

One of the main aims of the project is learning through entertainment, thanks to the great well-made realism.

• PREHISTORY is the historic and survival video game in third person most realistic that anyone has ever made.

• Genre: First union between MMORPG and Serious Game (Edutainment).

• Development Phase: Pre-Alpha.

• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS.

• El Confidencial (Teknautas). "These young people are going to do History". Link

• Zehngames. "A serious and crucial bet for the union of two genres, video game and History".Link

• Fase Extra Magazine. Link

• Professional Archaeology Digital Magazine "La Linde". *"We think it's a quite

interesting idea to bring closer historical knowledge using the concept of video games"*. Link

• GTM. "It's a breath of fresh air among the serious games genre, offering a funny and educative video game". Link

• VadeJuegos. "One of the most interesting Spanish initiative in Serious gaming". Link

Radio

• “Ciencia al Cubo” Radio 5 programme of RNE (Spanish National Radio). October 2nd, 2014. Link

• "Ágora Historia" programme (Capital radio). January 31st, 2015. Link

• "Esto me suena" RNE programme (Ciudadano García). April 17th, 2015. Link

Television

• ATB News programme (3rd edition).Bolivia national private channel. April 14th, 2015. Link

• Youtube channel Puro Games. Link

• Total Realism:: Ecosystems, flora, fauna, survival abilities, etc.

• Meticulous Crafting (more than 500 objects with which you can interact).

• Learning through entertainment (Edutainment)

• To become a testing field for researches related to “virtual experimental Archaeology".

A "little" sample of the objects from the video game.

• You could play the Closed Beta. Only people invited by the team could have access(specialised media, competitions, friends, etc.).

• You would have access to exclusive content of the video game, which cannot be got in any other way (3D figure, Digital Art book, Original Soundtrack, The" Making of" video).

• You would play a Neanderthal from the very beginning while the rest of the players would play a Homo Sapiens.

• You could take part in the development of the video game in the following ways:

  • Designing a Boss.
  • Customising a character, with your face and a name you can choose.
  • Designing a new weapon (without forgetting the historic accuracy).
  • Choosing a Palaeolithic culture about which you want us to create an expansion.

• Guided visit to Atapuerca and Burgos (Spain), accompanied by members of our team.

Concept art from the scene of the Steppe.

TOTAL REALITY:

• Scenes (6 different ecosystems from the Palaeolithic).

• Fauna (45 animal species from those ecosystems).

• Flora (60 different species).

• Crafting and Resources (more than 500 objects).

• Sociability (possibility to make contact with members of other clans).

• Death (your character can die, but maybe your "lineage" not).

As the player progresses during the game, by making objects or interacting with the environment in a relevant way , notifications will appear in his interface (educative field).

These notifications will show there is complementary information related to his last action and they can provide important information to continue the game as well as to learn more things about Palaeolithic.

Besides, these notifications will be scalable:

• A first information, after pressing over the notification, will contribute to the progress of the player's character.

• In that same window, there will be an icon where you could have access to complementary information and in more detail.

• There will be also an external link to a webpage where the player could go deeper in any information given (These links can be saved so the player do not have to stop playing).

There will be three different kinds of windows:

• Texts with 2D pictures.

• Texts with 3D objects.

• Informative videos.

(Video del bifaz 3D)

• And we have planned many more. That if all goes well, we will show in the updates of the campaign.

• Depending on the pledge, the sponsor will have the honourable title of a kind of hominid besides the related reward.

It will be a "distinguishing sign" during the game as we want to create a virtual sign to be differentiated from other players that wouldn't have contributed to the campaign.

• One year after we get the funding, we want to release the Alpha version of the video game. It will be release via Steam Early Access so people can play from the very beginning.

In future updates, we will be adding windows of the other sponsors.

• The "Tour to Atapuerca" will be when each person taking part in it can coincide in time and space. That's why we ask to the interested parties (members of the team included) as much flexibility as possible.

• Now, we will explain in detail the best rewards of the campaign. We assure you some of these are rewards you have never seen before in a crowdfunding campaign. They are unique!

• All the "deliveries of physical rewards" are fixed to the prices in Spain (Peninsula and Baleares), so the rewards delivered to any other different destination will have a supplement to pay. This supplement will be the existent difference between the shipping to Spain and to any other destination.

• Survival and Crafting (making of objects). Players will have to provide their community with everything they need to the clan’s survival. So they will need to learn the different production abilities: how to make tools using stone, wood and bone; how to tan leather and make clothes; to gather wild fruits and plants, which will be useful to cook food as well as to heal illnesses. Player could also hunt animals by following a trail. In turn, animals will have very unpredictable and sophisticated IA.

Mammu, the little mamut will show us the educative content.

• Innovate educative mechanics. As the player performs an action or makes objects that are important to the progress of the game or related to the educative field, notices will appear in his interface. They will be to notify them there is an “Educative Window” related to his last action and it can provide him valuable information to go on playing as well as to learn more about Palaeolithic.

You are just a hunter-gatherer . In front of you, a huge territory.

You must explore it to "gather" any product Mother Nature gives you.

Hunt any animal that helps to the survival of your community, being very careful and avoiding the dangerous predators that live in these wild lands.

So you should use the knowledge gained during the game. Also you will be able to “create any kinds of objects” using a variety of raw material.

You must spend most of your time “providing to your community” with all that is necessary to survive. You could also make symbolic “artwork” (magical ones) as well as physical ones though.

You are “a social person” and so you need to be in contact with people. It is one of the secrets of your magnificent evolution as a human being.

Classes

The player will have a character that can change his role depending on the situation; you will have to adapt to each situation’s needs, which gives a great flexibility to the development of the game.

Even so, there will be four different classes:

• Hunter-gatherer

• Shaman

• Healer

• Artisan

Generally, you will have the hunter-gatherer role as you have to confront a lot of animals and vermin.

Hunter

It is the main class of the game and it is complementary with the other roles to get a group of players gathered in a balanced clan.

This is the strongest class in Prehistory. Strength: hunting and hand to hand combat.

The six clans that can be chosen in the same server.

Shaman

This class is based on magic developed through the communication with the spirits. They make powerful concoctions and spell. They are not skillful at weapons, but they can use one if it is necessary.

Healer

As the shaman, this class is based on magic but through the knowledge of nature and Mother Earth. They also make powerful concoctions and heal other players.

Artisan

They are skilled in making objects using the production abilities of Prehistory. They have a special gift to win the favour of kind spirits during the making of these objects (positive energy) to provide them with resistance, usefulness and power.

Species

You can choose characters of the following species:

• Homo sapiens

• Homo neanderthalensis

• Homo erectus presapiens

• Homo floresiensis

The player will start in the Upper Palaeolithic, in the technological-cultural period called Solutrean, in the year 19.000 BP (before the present).

The weather marked by the so called “Laugerie” interstadial, being rainy and mild; it is a different climate break inside the long cold period called “Late Glacial”. The period is characteristic because of the progress and colonization of the “Homo Sapiens” gender of the major part of the northern areas after the North Pole’s ice mass warmed because of the rising temperatures.

The world is beginning to be controlled by men, who now have a “ well-advanced lithic technology”. This has allowed them to get a better hunting activity, more productive and effective. And the result, more free time to get in contact with other human beings and to make “art”. So the “social relationships” increase and its importance to the detriment of survival activities.

The player will be in a dangerous world, full of wild beasts and astronomical, atmospheric and geological phenomena that exceed his understanding, showing his extreme vulnerability.

This world is a huge territory to hunt, where the player needs to hunt and avoid to be hunted by predators.

That is why players have to pay attention when exploring different areas of the world, trying to avoid the beasts stronger than them or exploring in group.

A long-term objective is to improve the virtual world created, so it could be used by the “experimental virtual Archaeology” researches as a testing field. That is, to recreate mechanisms and processes made by man in the past, as well as the verification of hypothesis related to the hunters-gatherers lives (Social relationships, the study of available resources, climate changes, etc.)

It could be possible to recreate the situations needed to the research at minimum cost and without going to any physical place, saving money and time.

• Coordinator (Design): Juan García.

• 2D Art: Jesús Romero, Javier García.

• 3D Art: Rayco González, Fran Retamero, J.R. Casals.

• Programming: Roberto Lozano, Elena Blanes, J. Felipe Molina.

• Sound: Manuel Pérez.

• Translation: Gloria R. García.

If you want to know more about our team, please visit the next link.

List collaborating entities

• ArqueoEduca Link

• Anaconda-Lobo 7 Link

• Groma 2.0 Link

• Paleorama Link

• Paleoscenic Link

List of people who have collaborated

Link

• Página web: www.prehistorygame.com

• Twitter: @PrehistoryGame) (Spanish version @Prehistory_ )

• Facebook: Prehistory

• Youtube Channel “PrehistoryGame”

• Instagram: PrehistoryGame

• Twitch: Channel

• Google+: [Videojuego sobre la Prehistoria]

• Uberchar: Prehistory

Expected calendar

A year after we get fundings, we want to release the “Alpha version” of the video game, which will be via “Steam Early Access” so it can be played from the very beginning. We will also offer it free to educative institutions.

The reason why we use “Steam” is to get a secondary way of funding to go on with the development of the game until the “Beta phase”.

Most of the rewards will be digital, so they will be almost immediate. The physical rewards will be ready in about three months after the campaign.

Risks and Challenges

• For part of our tea, this is their first experience creating a professional video game, so we have faced with problems we didn’t foresee.

• We will have to hire two expert developers to face those possible difficulties with certain guarantee.

• It is not 100% sure Steam will accept our project, but if we take a look to the level of several projects that are given the green light, it is perfectly possible.

Hypothetically, If we could not have access to the platform we would release it in any of the other digital platforms offering similar systems. These are less famous than Steam, though.

• The Alpha will not be a final version, that is why it can have some errors; it is also possible the way of playing is not what you would expect or the appearance of some limitations.

Afterwards, we will release the Beta version where lots of these problems will be solved, but not all of them.

When we think we have solved all the errors the player faced with, we will release the final version of the video game. Never, before one year and a half after the end of the crowdfunding campaign.

• If in these breaks we get complementary funding, we could be able to speed the deadlines up.

Additional Information

We have show our project in the following academic institutions and conferences:

• McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge, UK). May 2014. Link

• 4º International Conference of Experimental Archaeology (Burgos, Spain). May, 2014. Link

• 5º Market of Animation and 3D WIRE video games (Segovia, Spain). October, 2013. Link

• Zinc Shower 2015 (Madrid, Spain). May, 2015. As one of the 80 best enterprising projects in an international level. With the start-up Games 2 Learn. Link

There are several podcast programmes about video games that want to interview us and we are waiting to fix a date (Gameffect, VaDeJuego, Como se hace un videojuego, etc.).

We also have pending a social gathering via streaming in the scientific website Naukas (scientific dissemination), together with the expert journalist in science Luis Quevedo.

Clarifications

• We remind you that if we don’t get the amount of money we ask for, the pledges won't be charged.