Key events
12th March 2014
16th October 2013
4th October 2013
Molyneux's broken promise to Curiosity winner honoured by Devolver
Bryan Henderson is now a god in Not a Hero.
Earlier this week we detailed the story of Bryan Henderson, the 20-year-old man who won Peter Molyneux's iOS app, Curiosity, upon which he was promised to be the god of the studio's next game, Godus, and receive a portion of its revenue. Instead, all he got was a stupid T-shirt.
Fewer clicks don't mean more fun in the 2.0 version of Molyneux's god game.
Godus isn't ready for a re-review yet, but with version 2.0 promising to bring "vast changes", we sent Chris Donlan back in to get the new lay of the land. He's spent 30 hours playing version 2.0.4 (a new update allows access to developer builds). So is 22Cans' "regenesis of the god game" starting to make sense?
Godus 2.0 launches with "virtually no clicking"
"We went back to the drawing board on the foundation stones of our features."
22Cans has relaunched Godus with a new 2.0 version - and designer Peter Molyneux has insisted it's completely revamped the game.
Godus 2.0 launches with new features, a new land type and a redesigned method for interacting with the world. It's been overhauled to the point where there is "virtually no clicking", Molyneux said. The game had been labelled a "click-fest" after it launched on Steam Early Access last year.
"We collated all your feedback and we realised we needed to make these vast changes to the game," Molyneux said.
Flatland.
Eurogamer's alpha and beta reviews are reviews of games that are still in development but are already being offered for sale or funded by micro-transactions. They offer a preliminary verdict but have no score attached. For more information, read our editor's blog.
You've never seen a wolf like the wolves in Godus. Down from the hills they come, arms and legs fixed firmly in position, terrorising villagers as they glide, unanimated, like furry Roombas.
The lack of articulation actually makes them surprisingly creepy, but there's something else that's interesting about them too. These wolves serve as a vivid reminder that, for all Godus' surface polish, it's still early on in its development. The game is a marketing-friendly 41 per cent complete if the text on the opening screen is to be believed, and that's a statistic that's worth returning to as you play - particularly since the 41 per cent in question is crash-happy, conflicted and tedious. Godus is often pretty and occasionally charming, but its current incarnation has no respect for its players' time. 22Cans is making a busy game, but at the moment it's a busy game in which little of true consequence happens.
Godus beta update 1.3 released
Should mean there's "much less meaningless clicking".
The Godus beta update 1.3, which designer Peter Molyneux has said significantly improves the game, has been released.
The update adds the Bronze Age, which includes the era of agriculture, and improves flow, that is, the shaping of the land, so there is "much less meaningless clicking", Guildford-based developer 22cans said. Check out the patch notes in full on the 22cans website.
According to 22cans Godus is around 40 per cent complete. The Steam Early Access version went on sale last month for £15.
"There is no shop." Super clicking, F2P and Godus with Peter Molyneux
As Update 1.3 goes live, Molyneux's verdict on controversial micro-transactions.
"There is no shop."
How Godus aims to reinvent the genre Molyneux created
A single shared world and another social experiment.
Peter Molyneux's got a problem, and that problem is Molyneux himself. Discussing his games becomes impossible without discussing the man himself, a public figure who is, depending on your own view, a dreamer, an innovator, a liar or just a plain fraud. It's something of a pity that Molyneux the man, fantastic spinner of soundbites that he is, has often eclipsed the games he's played a part in making. It's even more of a shame when the game that he's now working on looks to be the most interesting thing Molyneux's put his name to in years.
Molyneux teases mystery appearance at Microsoft's next Xbox reveal event
"I'm sworn to secrecy here..."
Peter Molyneux looks set to appear at Microsoft's next Xbox reveal event later this month.
50 layers left. The race begins.
Peter Molyneux has signalled the end of the Curiosity experiment - and we could find out what's inside the cube on the day Microsoft announces the next Xbox.
Last night Peter Molyneux got a good night's sleep for the first time since the Project Godus Kickstarter began a month ago.
Peter Molyneux demonstrates Project Godus multiplayer on video
UPDATE: Fully funded! Ouya support stretch goal at £550K.
Update: Godus has just crept over the finish line with a current tally of £450,677 pledged of its £450,000 goal. It's got 44 more hours to go before the 5:50 p.m. GMT deadline on Friday.
Molyneux's 22cans reveals Project Godus prototype video
It's not Black & White.
A video of Project Godus in action has been revealed. It took 22cans two weeks to knock together the prototype you see.
Are the rich old men ruining Kickstarter?
The true nature of crowd-funding is being obscured by big names and nostalgia.
At the time of writing, Peter Molyneux's Project Godus, a new god game, has raised £247,044 towards its £450,000 goal on Kickstarter. There are 10 days left to go. Meanwhile, over in Cambridge, Peter's buddy David Braben has raised £699,729 out of £1.25m to make Elite: Dangerous with 24 days left to go. Neither project is guaranteed to be fully funded, but the point is that these grand old men of the British games industry have attracted almost £1 million of support from random people on the internet by promising to return to their roots.
Molyneux's Project Godus Kickstarter inches over halfway mark with just 11 days to go
UPDATE: Mac version announced.
Update: Godus is being developed for Mac as well, 22cans announced today on its latest Kickstarter update.
Molyneux backtracks on claim he will only make "one more game"
And explains why he needs Kickstarter users' money.
Curiosity developer Peter Molyneux has clarified his earlier comments that he would only develop "one more game".
Peter Molyneux launches Kickstarter for Project Godus, a “reinvention” of the god game genre
"I don't want to promise anything. I just want to deliver the glory of the old days in the new format of today's world."
Peter Molyneux and his studio 22cans have launched a Kickstarter for a game he hopes will “recreate the entire god game genre”.
Molyneux, who created Populous in 1989 while at Bullfrog, announced Project Godus tonight with a Kickstarter that asks for £450,000. The game is due out on PC and mobile devices in September 2013.
The news comes as Molyneux's cube-tapping app Curiosity hits the two million downloads mark.
