Early development · plays in your browser

Worldseed

The real Earth, alive. Watch a few bands of first people wander, settle and grow into peoples, faiths and kingdoms — shaped by the land they find.

▶ PlayWhat is it?Free · no install · best on a desktop browser

A living planet

Not a painted map: the whole Earth is simulated in pixel art — the real coastlines, mountains, rivers and climates, with weather, seasons and life running underneath everything.

Weather & seasons

Rain belts, monsoons, snow and drought come and go across the year. A bad year in the weather is a hungry year for the people living there.

Forests that grow

Plants grow, seed and spread continent by continent. Villages clear the woods around them; when a place is abandoned the forest takes it back.

Wild animals

Over a hundred species on their real continents — lion prides, wolf packs, bison and zebra herds. Hunted too hard, they vanish from a land.

From bands to kingdoms

Nothing is scripted. Each people becomes what its land makes it: the stone, wood, animals and crops around them decide what they learn and how they live.

Settle & grow

Bands look for rivers, coasts, herds and good stone, settle, farm, build and send out colonies. Unhappy groups break away to start anew.

Cultures & faiths

Languages drift, customs spread, towns mix and new peoples are born. Spirits become cults, cults become temples, and prophets found new faiths.

Rulers & rivals

Chiefs with tempers of their own marry, ally, demand tribute, raid and go to war. Realms are split between heirs and united by marriage.

Have a look

Zoom from the whole planet down to a single village and its people at work.

West Africa with the realms of many peoples along the coast
Realms along the West African coast after 150 years.
A savanna village with huts, fields and the chronicle
A savanna town, its fields and the chronicle of its world.
Herds of zebra, buffalo, elephants and giraffes on the savanna
Herds on the East African savanna.
A town card showing its people, work, stores and wild animals
Click anything to read its story: towns, realms, rulers, faiths.

How to play

You watch over the world. Pick a speed, follow the chronicle, and click on any town, band or realm to see what is happening there.

Controls
Drag / arrows
move around the planet
Wheel / + −
zoom from the globe to a village
0
see the whole planet
Click
open a town, band or realm
Space
pause
1 – 7
speed: 1× (about 12 minutes a year) up to Max
F
full screen
U
hide all windows, just the world
H
show or hide the key help
Good to know
  • Everything runs in your own browser — a desktop or laptop with Chrome, Edge or Firefox works best.
  • The first start downloads the Earth (about 45 MB) and builds its climate, so give it a minute.
  • Windows can be dragged by their titles and folded away.
  • Big moments (a first war, a new faith) can slow the game down so you can see them — switch it off in the map window.
  • This is an early development build: things will change, and sometimes break.

Seed a world

▶ Play Worldseed