EXCLUSIVE - Details on Ubisoft's New Animal Crossing Inspired Game Codenamed 'Alterra'

Ubisoft has a new project in development under the codename Alterra that will be a new social-sim that uses voxel creation. Sources say the gameplay loop will be akin to the likes of Animal Crossing.

Insider Gaming understands that the new project has been in development for approximately 18 months and was born following the cancellation of another project that used voxel creation and was in development for around four years.

Alterra is described to me as an Animal Crossing-inspired social sim that will see players inhabit a home island that will consist of interactable NPCs named Matterlings. Sources said that players will be able to leave their home island and go to other worlds, which consist of different biomes, different types of Matterlings, enemies, materials, and more, where they’ll also be able to interact with other players.

It was said that the game is somewhat similar to Minecraft’s building mechanics, allowing players to build what they want with gathered materials. For example, if a player would like to create something out of snow and ice, they’d have to travel (by means unknown) to an ice world inhabited by snow-ice Matterlings.

Images sent to Insider Gaming show Matterlings somewhat like Funko Pop figures in their design with large heads, and are creatively inspired by both fictional (dragons, swamp monsters, etc.) and real-world animals (birds, polar bears, etc.). Matterlings will also have different variations of the species, which will be reflected by the likes of their clothes, with different variants added throughout the game’s lifecycle.

It’s something like this but more voxel in design.
Image Credit

The game is currently in production at Ubisoft Montreal, with Creative Director Patrick Redding at the reigns (previously Creative Director of Gotham Knights at Warner Bros.). Fabien Lhéraud, who has been at Ubisoft for 24 years, will also be the project’s lead producer.

At the time of writing, the game is likely still a few years away. Interestingly, Lhéraud’s LinkedIn states that the game is a “next-gen project,” but it’s unclear if that information is old or not.

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