The struggles and shifting perspectives that birthed Humanity
This interview has been edited for clarity
You are radiant. You are glowing. You are a dog.
To be more specific, you're a golden Shiba Inu that must guide an endless procession of souls towards the light at the very end of the world. It's pretty breezy at first. Just bark a few directional commands at your troupe of strangely obedient followers to steer them around a few rudimentary hurdles and you'll be a shoo-in for Employee of the Month.
Much like its namesake, however, Humanity very quickly becomes a complex beast. Soon you'll be using a fluctuating compendium of absurd commands to overcome increasingly perilous obstacles (think bodies of water suspended in mid-air and hostile mobs) and create living Rube Goldberg machines that will make you believe in the power of omnipotence.
In truth, anybody who's already familiar with the talented teams behind Humanity would expect nothing less. The game is a collaboration between Tha Ltd, an interactive design studio based in Tokyo, and Enhance, the developer that gifted the world transcendental experiences like Tetris Effect, Lumines, and Rez.
The project first sprung into being when Tha founder Yugo Nakamura asked the question "how many digital people can we put on-screen at once?" In reaching for an answer, Nakamura created a tech demo that piqued the interest of Enhance founder and veteran designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who felt inexplicably drawn to the concept and Nakamura's search for something more.
"Yugo-san is highly respected and highly-regarded in his field of work. But he's not just a designer. He's been building experiences too. Knowing his background and the richness of his work, when I saw the demo I just felt there had to be something behind him putting all of those
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