7 Grand Steps: What Ancients Begat
What Ancients Begat is a complete (~15 hour) game of family generations surviving the rise of western civilization. Survival is the ultimate goal. The sub-goals, you choose, build their story.
Experience an abstract telling of the lives of our earliest recorded ancestors. Part board game, part machine, part nod to computer games of yore, it begins with a simple mechanic. Spend tokens to traverse the wheel of life. Earn tokens by tempting the jaws of death. Then, like layers upon a pearl, game play expands, introducing fresh tactics and strategies which, turn by turn, drive a sophisticated, emergent narrative. How you play defines the lives of one family’s generations through the changing ages.
An enormous tableau of ancient western culture awaits your exploration:
- Core Mechanic – Back and forth tactics, across four social boundaries, to win legend points.
- Family Strategy – Romance. Raise children. Rite of Passage.
- Family Drama – Tales in the life. Sibling rivalry. Failed branches. Graveyard of ancestry.
- Grand Legends – Earned over generations, they strengthen your family: Discoveries and Invention. Social Advancement. Heroics.
- Ruling Games – City Administration. Warring Kingdoms. Imperial Senate.
- The Challenges of an Age – Special for each social level. Survive and overcome, to enter a new age.
Game Discussion
Steam User 0
Fantastic board game with a unique premise. The mechanics make for interesting decisions. The story generation got me invested in the people and the lives they lead.
Steam User 0
Quiet, casual and nostalgic feel. Easy to learn and play, hard to master. You can really lose yourself in "one more game"
Steam User 0
Truly one of the most unique experiences. It sits on the border between game and art, as a powerful representation of life. Love it.
Steam User 1
This is basically a board game
Every cycle you want to do the following:
_ Generate tokens which are your means of moving along the board (lest you end up in the tummy of an alligator), but the act of doing so makes you go back on your tracks
_ Move along the board to capture beads before NPCs, which unlock boons when a threshold is reached (such as upwards mobility to a higher caste)
_ Feed tokens to your child to improve their odds of generating tokens after switching to the new generation (when you reach the end of a cycle)
Once in a while you get a scripted event too
There's not much like it on Steam and it's pretty flavourful
Steam User 0
Ah, what the hell! This game is not the best game, it is heavily dependent on RNG, but at least it tries something unique. I haven't played a game similar to it before. I recommend it but keep your expectations low.
I think the worst part is the RNG because you can easily fall behind because of it and when you have fallen, it takes time to get back on track. Otherwise how it presented its story through a board game was really interesting.
Steam User 1
This game is definitely not for everyone, but I found it to be interesting and fun... until I hit a late game bug that derailed my progress significantly. I'm going to play more, but it was quite frustrating to spend hours building up the economy only to have it bug out and fail. @Devs, let me know if you want my save game or a screen shot.
Bug detail: I have a screenshot shared illustrating it, but basically after spendings dozens of turns buying new fields, growing population, expanding grain production, and etc, something bugged out and reported my grain output as 0. Specifically, I had 998 planted fields that yielded 0 grain. I was deposed for spending more grain than was grown. No explanation of famine or other issue - the game just bugged. (or, if this is intended, it really sucks without an explanation as to how that occurred.)
EDIT: DO NOT PAY $20 for this game. Get it on sale for $0.99.
Steam User 1
When I played this game for 2 hours a decade ago, I remember liking it.