The Holocene Project
Anywhen · a game from The Holocene Project
Live any life, in any age, on the real Earth.
A simulation of the whole planet that starts 11,700 years ago, as the ice leaves Norway, and runs to today. Hunt, farm, trade, grow a camp into a realm, or live as an animal, among the real species of each place and age. It is a long build, and the animal library comes first.
- Starts
- 11,700 years ago
- World
- The whole Earth
- Scale
- One camp to a realm
- Lives
- Any, in any age
- First animals
- Fox, raven, moose
The aim
A copy of the living world, accurate enough to step into, and open to anyone who wants to check how it was made.
Every animal
Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. A rough draft of about 47,700 species already exists, from open trait data, including ones that are gone.
Every plant
Every vascular plant on Kew's World Checklist is already in our tables, with traits from open plant databases.
Every age since the ice
The world starts as the ice leaves Norway and runs to today, on the real terrain of the whole planet. Climate, coasts and forests change with the ages.
Lived from the inside
A reindeer hunter, a smith, a farmer, a secretary, or a fox on the shore. Ordinary lives, in any age, each a full life to play.
The bigger idea
A whole living world that runs whether you are there or not.
Not a level or a map, but the planet, simulated: the land, its weather, everything that lives on it, and every people in every age. Where you start is just where you step in.
Real ground, everywhere
Real elevation, climate, rivers, coasts and land cover for the whole Earth, down to the ground under your feet.
Nothing comes from nowhere
Climate shapes plants, plants feed animals, animals and soil shape how people live. Game that is hunted out does not just reappear.
A camp, a town, a realm
Start as one person. Gather, build, take in followers, found a settlement, and grow it through towns and cities to a realm with governors, diplomacy and armies.
The world goes on without you
About 3,000 bands with their own cultures move, settle, trade, believe and fight across the map, with named people and families.
Found the way it really was
Skills are learned by doing and ideas spread from person to person, through twelve eras of technology from stone tools to today.
Yours to choose
A reindeer hunter, a smith, a farmer or a secretary, each a full life with its own days. Or play as an animal. And with mods, build a world with rules of your own.
Why it matters
Any life, in any age, in the real world.
Anywhen means stepping into a life that is not your own: another person, another age, another animal's eyes. That only works if the world you step into is the real one.
- I
To see the past from inside it
Most of the human story happened long before photographs, among animals and plants most of us have never seen. We want people to stand in that world, with the species and weather that were really there, and see how ours grew out of it.
- II
For the animals that are gone, or going
The drafts already include animals no one alive has seen: Mammuthus primigenius, Pinguinus impennis, Thylacinus cynocephalus. Built from bones, skins and records, they could be met again, and the living ones can be known before they go the same way.
- III
Because pictures teach
Most people learn what a wolf looks like, or how a fox moves, from a screen. A model built by eye can only be judged by eye. One built from measurements can be checked, cited and used in a classroom, a museum or a film without teaching the wrong animal.
- IV
Sources that stay public
Every number, picture and scan in every model is named with its source and licence on the sources page. The work of the people who measured, photographed and catalogued these animals is credited every time it is used.
And it has to pay its way. The same animals are sold to studios and museums through our Animal Library, and the world will be a base for mods. That is what lets the work continue and grow.
A few of the species drafted so far. † extinct.
Where the game stands
Early, with every step on record.
The world simulation runs in our own browser build today: 13 of 14 steps to its first playable version have passed. Its look is moving to Unreal Engine 5, starting with the first animals. There is no release date or price yet.
Leave your details for early word: when there is something to play, and when the mod tools open.
We never pass your contact details to anyone else.