Weltgeist Alpha 0.1

Weltgeist is a 2D god simulator about an island that lives on without you.

You are not the director moving every figure. You are a god whose power grows from faith. Fifteen peoples live on a procedural island of 384×384 tiles. They found towns, forge alliances, fight wars, invent machines and argue about what is just. You can watch – or intervene.

THE WORLD BREATHES

Mountains fold into real ranges. Volcanoes sleep under snow and ash, rumble, and eventually erupt. Lava takes the lowest path downhill, burns forests and reaches settlements. Once it cools, lava rock becomes unusually fertile soil, and the town remembers the day the mountain spat fire.

Between the mountains live peoples with their own languages, laws and building styles. They elect rulers, form dynasties, let realms fall apart, merge cultures, send expeditions into unknown land and carry their inventions across generations. Up to 35 peoples can exist.

THE PEOPLE

Every resident has a trade, a daily routine, a life goal and a wish. Some seek wealth, others family, fame, knowledge or simply rest. Families grow across generations, children learn from their parents, and those who live through war, famine or loss carry a wound that takes years to heal.

Towns build themselves: housing districts, workshops, trade roads, schools and libraries emerge from population and need. Houses decay without upkeep. Ruins remain standing and later tell who destroyed them.

YOUR POWER

Fifteen divine powers are yours – from rain, blessing and oracle to lightning, plague, storm, earthquake and prophet. Mana grows only from the faith of the people. Harsh acts create fear, and fear can create faith too.

Your peoples ask you visibly for help: for rain, a good harvest, healing, children or a sign. Answer them and shrines rise that carry mana for you. With a commandment you give every realm the same direction at once – peace, war, knowledge, fertility or toil.

THE CHRONICLE

Everything that happens goes into a world chronicle: foundings, wars, catastrophes, heroic deeds, intrigues and downfalls. Read it as a book of chapters, page back up to 500 years and save it as a text file.

In the workshop you analyse your world, search for people and events, follow causes back to the decision that set everything in motion, or test futures in the lab without touching the world. Custom if-then rules change growth, knowledge, faith and ecology.

MUSIC AND SOUND

A calm music loop runs underneath the world. Powers and events have their own sounds: rain, lightning, earthquake, plague, war, collapse and a bell for every new year. Music and effects can be adjusted separately.

CONTROLS

WASD or arrow keys: move the map. Mouse wheel: zoom. Drag with the right or middle mouse button: move. Click a settlement: details. Click a resident: their life. Pick a power at the bottom, then click the map. Esc cancels the power. Pause and speeds 1×, 2× and 4× sit in the bottom bar.

Language: German or English, switchable in the start menu and in game.