PREVIEW
HUMANITY
This human behaviour simulator is crushing it
Debuting in last month’s State Of Play,
this game introduced itself with a vision
of teeming masses navigating a strange
obstacle course, hurling themselves
through the air in order to make it to their
platform, and fighting one another for territory.
And we thought our daily commute was bad...Joking aside, the crowd management title has been
in development for the last three years. Tha Ltd is
primarily a design studio that has worked with big
names like Japanese musician Cornelius and brands
such as Uniqlo and Muji. This isn’t its first game
(nor its first title focused on crowds collaborating)
but it is its first foray onto PlayStation. Tetris Effect
publisher Enhance is collaborating with the studio
on Humanity’s development, meaning that alongside
bringing the title to PlayStation, Enhance is giving
the studio input on game mechanics and level design.
The game was initially inspired by the patterns of
flocking birds. Tha Ltd’s founder, Yugo Nakamura
explained to the PlayStation Blog that he’s long
wondered, “How do birds perform these mysterious
group behaviours?”
Humanity is inspired by human attempts to
interpret distinctly bird-brained behaviour, and howin turn a ‘transcendental being’ (think
along the lines of Great Old Ones or
super-powered AIs) might attempt
to make sense of human behaviour.
Nakamura says, “The point is I wanted
to explore how we humans and our
society would look to an outside form
of intelligence, and how they would
simulate human group behaviour.”
Naturally, the Tokyo-based creator
didn’t lack crowds to observe.
Developing the idea has not been easy,
he explains: “If you think creating a
human group simulation (that’s fun
to play), as designed by something
or someone not human, sounds
like a crazy idea – I agree! I’m no
transcendental being; I’m just another
guy drowning in human society [...].”
The hope is that not only will
Humanity be fun for actual humans
to play but, as Nakamura later adds,
“If these other-worldly beings were
ever to see it, they’d think ‘Yep, you
nailed it,’ or, ‘Ah yes, so this is what
human beings are like.’”FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB ENHANCE / DEV THA LTDAbove Now we can
experience the crush of
Bath railway station on a
Friday night in the comfort
of our own homes.Humanity is shaping
up to be a wonderfully
weird God’s-eye view of
human behaviour.“EXPLORE HOW
WE HUMANS
WOULD LOOK TO
AN OUTSIDE FORM
OF INTELLIGENCE.”