'Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey' Gameplay Unveiled

Today during The Game Awards 2018, developer Panache Digital Games and publisher Private Division revealed the first meaningful look at the former's third-person open-world survival game, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.

For those that don't know: Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey was revealed all the way back in 2015 during E3. However, since its announcement, Panache Digital Games has largely gone quiet, only to release a second teaser trailer in 2017, and then a new batch of pre-alpha screenshots earlier this year.

Despite being revealed back in 2015, details on the project have been quite scarce. According to Panache Digital Games, the core pillars of the game are: explore, expand, and evolve. In the game you will advance your clan to the next generation in the harsh, ruthless, and beautiful land of Africa, 10 million years ago.

Pitched as "a new twist to the survival genre," Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is the debut effort of the Montreal-based studio that was founded in 2014 by Patrice Desilets, the creator of Assassin's Creed.

As a studio, Panache Digital Games refers to itself as "triple I," which is to say, independent, but making AAA level games. However, "triple I" usually implies that projects won't have quite the production quality and resources infused as a straight up AAA game from, say, Electronic Arts or Rockstar Games.

In addition to boasting Desilets, the studio is comprised of multiple industry veterans who have worked on IP as big as Star Wars and Splinter Cell.

Meanwhile, Private Division is a brand-new publishing label that was formed in 2017 as part of the Take-Two Interactive family. Take-Two's third publishing label -- following 2K and Rockstar Games -- Private Division is concerned with publishing independent games made by small to mid-sized studios.

A game has yet to release under the Private Division label, but it did take over the already released Kerbal Space Program, and has games coming from V1 Interactive, The Outsiders, Obsidian Entertainment, and of course Panache Digital Games.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is poised to release sometime next year via consoles and PC. An exact release date wasn't divulged, but expect to hear about one soon.

Below, you can read more about the game:

"Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a third-person open world survival game where you Explore, Expand, and Evolve to advance your clan to the next generation in this exhilarating new adventure from the creator of Assassin's Creed.

"Embark on the most incredible odyssey known to humankind: human evolution. Spanning from 10 million to 2 million years ago, begin your journey, "Before Us," in Neogene period Africa. Explore a beautiful yet ruthless world, from swinging through tree branches in the jungle to stalking prey across the golden savannah grasslands. Decide what attributes to learn and hone in order to pass down knowledge to future generations, from crafting tools to enhancing evasive tactics against predators. Just like real life, make sure to eat, drink, and sleep to stay alive and have the energy to face any danger that may come your way.

"Grow your clan and find strength in numbers as you progress through critical evolutionary stages of human evolution. Your choices will write your clan's story and determine if you can survive your evolution."