14 DAY TRIAL // What we know: Project Godus is the new video game from legendary developer Peter Molyneux and his indie 22Cans studio, designed to take the ideas of the old Populous series and remake them in order to appeal to modern gamers.
Project Godus will target both old fans of God games, a genre that has pretty much disappeared since then, while also giving younger players plenty of options to affect the game world and to influence their followers.
The game will cast the player as a supernatural entity that can create volcanos and raise the fertility of land and who needs to care for followers in order to maintain its own power while battling similar god-like creatures.
Project Godus will also borrow mechanics from the Black & White series and from Dungeon Keeper.
Peter Molyneux has promised to release a gameplay prototype before the end of the Kickstarter process, but has failed to do so.
Project Godus will probably not be launched officially during 2013, but 22Cans will have to deliver an open beta to backers or a multiplayer version of the game in order to show the fan base what it is working on and how the various concepts are implemented.
Why it matters: This is the year when Maxis and EA are rebooting SimCity and that means there’s space in the gaming world for a God game that uses the same core idea of Populous.
It will be interesting to see whether 22Cans has the resources and the ideas to make it a success with the public.
Project Godus is also interesting because, despite the presence of Peter Molyneux, the game took quite some time to reach its Kickstarter funding, which might be an indication that big name developers do not benefit from the same trust from the community as smaller indie teams.
The full Incoming 2013 series of articles can be read on Softpedia right here.