Amplitude Studios, developers of the recently released strategy game Humankind, have just announced an official map creation contest. The contest tasks players to create their own custom maps for the turn-based strategy game and submit them to Humankind’s official mod page on Mod.io. From now until September 6th, the development team shared that they would select their top 10 favorite maps and reveal the contest winners on their official Twitch channel on September 16th.
The developers also shared that the winners would receive prizes, including a custom-built PC themed after the Humankind game by Intel and Logitech gaming gear and more. Additionally, the developers shared resources with the players, including a guide to Humankind’s map editor and the game’s community/
Embracing the Modding Community
While many major game developers and publishers highly discourage the modding of their games, it’s great to see Amplitude Studios strongly embrace their game’s modding community. We rarely see developers celebrate modding, to the point of making it into a contest with prizes, but this only seems to be a win-win either way you look at it.
We’d love to see more game developers celebrate their game’s mods like this, as game modding helps create more content for gamers and encourages creativity, and can even help aspiring game developers learn a bit about game and level design. Video game modding has been around for decades, but in recent years it has slowly become more and more accepted by game developers. Programs like Steam Workshop have made it easier than ever to mod games, and big game publishers and developers have begun taking notice of talented modders, with some even hiring modders onto their teams (SEGA with Sonic Mania’s developers, for example).
Humankind and Amplitude Studios
Released for both PC and Google Stadia in August 2021, Humankind is a historical turn-based strategy game where the player has control over the entire history of the human race. The player is able to essentially control all of human civilization in the same vein as the Civilization series but on an even grander scale.
Published by SEGA, Humankind is developed by Amplitude Studios, whose prior work includes Endless Legend, Dungeon of the Endless, and Love Thyself. Out of all of the developers’ work, Humankind is by far the most ambitious and unique game yet and rivals big-name strategy games like Civilization.
For those interested in submitting mods to Humankind, you can do so by visiting this link here. You have until September 6th to submit your custom map for a chance at winning one of Amplitude Studios’ cool prizes.
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