Seed is one of those games that has the potential to either dominate the world, or collapse spectacularly under the weight of its own lofty ambitions.
The scale of it is incredible. The aim is to simulate society across an entire planet – Avesta – where each inhabitant, or Seedling, is designed by a player, given tasks, and then left to semi-autonomously find its way in the world. That means tens of thousands of Seedlings have to be persistently maintained on servers, going about their daily business and interacting with other Seedlings, whether the player responsible for them is logged in or not.
Everything in the game is shaped by the players, who will develop the relationships between Seedlings, set up businesses, create jobs, shape the economy, and enact laws that affect whole populations.
If that kind of grand-scale simulation sounds a little like Eve Online, it’s no coincidence. Two of the co-founders of Klang Games, the Berlin-based company behind Seed, previously worked at Eve maker CCP Games (now Fenris Creations) – CTO Oddur Snær Magnússon and CCO Ívar Emilsson.
The third co-founder, CEO Mundi Vondi – the only one from a non-video-games background – was the one who came up with the “everything simulator” concept. “I was a bit in the arts, and making films, and so forth,” he tells GamesIndustry.biz in an interview at Klang’s offices in Berlin. “And then I run into my best friend and co-founder Ívar.
“He was then working on Eve, which of course was very exciting to me, and we started talking. And then I brought to him this document that I had worked on, which was this everything game idea, and he’s just like, ‘Oh, here we go’. But he kind of entertained it, and we started to talk about all the problems: what would it take if you [wanted to] make Eve more accessible, and all of a sudden you have a million players in there?”
The key thing the Klang founders wanted was to have a fully populated game world at all times – as Vondi notes, in any online game, only a small fraction of users are logged on simultaneously, even at peak hours, meaning many MMO towns are deserted for much of the time. “This is something that we were really eager to reverse, and make the content, the building of the house, be a sort of game in itself.”
Those initial conversations happened over ten years ago, but the technical hurdles were considerable, and investors baulked at the idea of running tens of thousands of AI characters in the cloud. “At the start they were just like, ‘That’s insane. That’s not possible’,” recalls Vondi.
But over the course of a few years, Klang managed to overcome the difficulties of scale, and was able to start preproduction in 2018. “We had some breakthroughs, and got some crazy investors to believe in us, and got a little funding, and we proved it out more and more,” says Vondi. “And slowly, slowly this dream became a reality.”
The metaverse hype at the time helped when it came to attracting funding. “That was right when Mark Zuckerberg had taken a big love for the metaverse and was putting in billions and billions and billions,” recalls Vondi. “And there we were, having worked on something along those lines for way longer than anyone else.”
Steep learning curve
The main aim of Seed is to enable an emergent society that evolves in unexpected ways. “We believe in the future that more than 90% of the game is going to be built by the players,” says Vondi, “and it’s going to be way better than whatever any studio could ever build, because they’re not just building it, they’re also a part of it.”
Klang envisages the players forming into three broad groups. Governors will essentially run the societies, enacting laws and planning the economy, much like the heads of corporations in Eve Online. Entrepreneurs, meanwhile, will set up businesses producing goods and services, and providing jobs. Finally, caretakers will make up the majority of the population, with their main goal being simply to look after their Seedling and find work for them. And they do need looking after – neglecting your Seedling’s needs, which include requirements for shelter, hygiene, and so on, will eventually result in them dying.
Vondi says it’s not hard to attract governors and entrepreneurs, people who are happy to sink countless hours into crafting a society. But attracting the more casual players has been trickier.
Starting from scratch in Seed is a formidable prospect. Creating a settlement is essentially a survival game that requires several players to work together to gather resources, build shelter, and slowly work up through a tech tree towards proper houses.
The online multiplayer requirement means there’s no option to fast forward building or gathering, and Seedlings need to sleep for at least a portion of the day – which basically means watching them do nothing for perhaps 15 minutes. In a demo at Klang’s offices, after nearly two hours, our group of three had only managed to build a couple of tents and a crude wooden shower and toilet.
Tamagotchi society
But the game isn’t really meant to be played in this way by the vast majority of users. The idea is that most people will simply plug their Seedlings into fully functioning societies that have already been built by other players.
Instead of closely monitoring and controlling your Seedling’s every action, the focus is on using a calendar to plan their activities, such as work or crafting, only intervening occasionally to adjust their schedule. This approach is similar to managing a society of Tamagotchis. The companion mobile app complements the PC game, allowing players to check on their Seedling and make adjustments. Notifications inform players of their Seedling’s activities, including unfortunate events like death.
Vondi highlights the significance of the mobile app in attracting casual players who enjoy the immersive experience on Avesta. He mentions the challenge of catering to caretakers who compare the game to The Sims, which offers a more personalized and polished single-player experience.
Although Seed shares similarities with The Sims in remotely managing autonomous Seedlings, competing with EA’s intricate world is a daunting task. Vondi envisions Seed as a combination of Eve and The Sims, leveraging generative AI to enhance simulation depth on a large scale.
Players can interact with their Seedlings via text messages, directing tasks and fostering relationships. The generative AI enables Seedlings to autonomously engage with each other, akin to Krafton’s experiments in Inzoi. While appealing to casual players, implementing generative AI presented challenges, such as managing conversations and reactions when players are offline.
The scope of Seed’s simulation is vast, requiring technical prowess to ensure persistent world interactions. Despite the complexities, the team navigated AI challenges like hallucinations to enhance gameplay features. The persistent world in Seed necessitates advanced technical solutions to maintain character autonomy and interactions.
While the technical demands are substantial, running a cloud-based simulation with generative AI incurs significant costs. To sustain the game’s operations, Klang plans to adopt a premium model, allowing players to purchase and play the game indefinitely. Vondi acknowledges the evolving landscape of server costs and emphasizes the importance of adapting to technological advancements in game development.
Prices have dropped to a level where running a game like this is now feasible, which is incredibly fortunate for us as we had placed our bets on this outcome, and it has proven to be true.”
The monetization strategy is designed to be scalable. Each player will start with one Seedling, which will be replaced for free if it dies. However, players also have the option to purchase additional Seedling slots or subscribe to a plan. Additionally, cosmetic items will be available for purchase, according to Vondi.
Players still have the option to grind for more Seedlings, with the possibility of receiving baby pills as rewards, as explained by Vondi. These pills essentially act as a reverse contraceptive, allowing players to increase their fertility.
Seed introduces some unconventional concepts. It’s challenging to envision a project of this magnitude and experimental nature receiving approval in today’s post-COVID world, where major game publishers are opting for safer bets and sequels due to rising development costs, cautious investors, and the end of easy financing. Seed arguably belongs to a bygone era of gaming optimism from a decade ago when possibilities seemed endless and industry figures were on the rise.
Seed will launch in early access this summer at https://seed.game, with a Steam release scheduled for later in the year. Given its design, the game will require a substantial player base encompassing both hardcore and casual gamers to thrive. It will be intriguing to observe how events unfold, whether Seed will emerge as a dominant force or face a spectacular collapse under the weight of its ambitious goals.
Klang Games sponsored the author’s travel and accommodation for their visit to the Berlin studio.