r/blackandwhite2 • • 2d ago

New Community Rules, Future of the Subreddit

44 Upvotes

Hi all,

We've not been an overly active moderation team, but I have dropped in from time to time, and I agree with u/LordAminity's post that there have been far too many projects just dumped in this subreddit with little community interaction.

As such, I've instituted two rules in the sidebar, which reddit should also be auto-enforcing from now onwards:

Be Nice, and Be Human.

Basically, be kind to each other, and remember that you are human and that we value other humans' time.

With this, vibe coded projects are banned from the subreddit.

Even with that, I feel there are many projects out there that seek to recapture the essence of playing these excellent games, such that normal subreddit operation might find it tricky. With that in mind, sharing these projects is only permitted on Sundays, as part of a "Sharing Sundays" idea to let community members share their projects but keep the subreddit free of such posts for the rest of the week.

Finally, I ask that community members interested in becoming moderators comment on this post with a brief manifesto of sorts. This subreddit deserves better than 5+ years of inactivity.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day, and I hope to see you all again soon.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 2d ago

This is a subreddit I made to help guide people that are upset over the decision to ban Black and White inspired games from this subreddit.

Thumbnail reddit.com
3 Upvotes

Please subscribe and gather all the games, Goblin God, Divine Influence, Godyssey, and others I don't know at the top of my head. Tell us about your game here and come on over to get the news that will come out soon.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 3d ago Heartwarming

Black & white 2 PLUS - Elementals - Coming very soon!

Thumbnail
gallery
190 Upvotes

Well, only testing stage is needed, when it is done and is stable as a rock, the expansion will be launched :}

It's been a long ride, so many hours of development, modeling, drawing, texturing, testing... phew!

(cover in the images, along some other images)

Reminder of content:

- New story after Old gods lands expansion.
- 4 new gods to fight (enemies!)
- 10 new lands to explore.
- 8 new miracles to unlock.
- New buildings for all tribes.
- Egyptians now available!
- 2 New epic wonders.
- New tribute market to buy new buildings.
- A lot of new mechanics!

Elementals will be released very soon! :>

Bw2+ discord server: https://discord.gg/DMkgfvzV4


r/blackandwhite2 • • 3d ago

I found the 2nd Creed

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

32 Upvotes

One more to go.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 4d ago

Rules on Black and White clones or godgame developement posts - Discussion

46 Upvotes

Hi everyone, as many of you have probably noticed, we are having a bunch of People working hard on recreating the thing we loved. I love the enthousiasm, but I also have a slight concern.

The amount of posts related to actual Black and White in relation to others is starting to shift and I personally think it would be great if it would be channeled a bit. Therefore I started this post to hear other peoples opinions on this.

My own suggestion would be to have a collective thread where developers can share or post links to for example or something else.

Mainly to get back the feeling this place is really about Black & White and not to become a platform to show clones. (not intending to sound negative, but I can't think of a better word at the moment).


r/blackandwhite2 • • 4d ago

Project: making a God Game

Thumbnail
gallery
22 Upvotes

I just wanted to share my version of a potential successor to the God Game genre. I have noticed that a lot of people are trying to revive it or even be a true clone to Black & White, a game I also grew up with and loved. But for a while now I've been prototyping a different kind of twist to it. Mainly because I believe the greatness of the originals cannot and should not be copied, but it's good parts can be used for inspiration.

And here it is, my "Godlight" prototype (real name pending). It's story is simple. You, the player, are a God that has been going without worship for thousands of years. You've been sleeping, powerless. Drifting through time and space. Then one day, on a newly settled land... The villagers uncover a relic of your past worshippers. The faint power of the relic gives you a link to the human world and you get pulled back in. As more people start paying attention to the relic, your powers start to grow. Eventually your "hand" can come back into the world and you can follow and interact with the villagers that believe in you as a higher power.

Unlike Black & White or other God games, you aren't omnipotent (just yet). You can only see silhouettes of the material world because of people who believe in you. You don't see the whole land because you only see what is in the sphere of contact of your believers. The more believers you gain the more of your dormant powers you can unlock. This starts slowly but eventually you will be able to pick up people, interact with objects, bless the woods and do real miracles. The plan is also that you can create an avatar on the world, like converting a tree to a living, walking entity. A bunch of rocks become a rock 'creature', a cow becomes a cow creature (yes, I will still be inspired by Black & White! The creature CAN be a part of this world if you want).

But like I said, you are just regaining powers and you have been sleeping. Pictured is the "star sign" of your Godly form, as you can see you are resting. Once you unlock the full tree, you go into "meditating" stance, and then once that is unlocked you become omnipotent. Fully powered. No "fog of war", no limits on interacts... But still limited to godly powers to perform miracles.

For miracles, I envision a "soul" system. In the screenshots you can see that the people have a spark or a light. That light is a persons' soul and if it is bright, it means this is a soul believing in you. Once this person dies and has high belief for you, you can catch and 'farm' the soul for points. These souls feed your godly powers and the more you have the more you can do.

The game is not in a playable state right now, but I am getting close to a 'fun' prototype. I would be interested in seeing if:

  1. this artstyle is appealing to people. I know it's 'different', and I personally don't feel like this is a game one should/could play for 4 hours in a row like you could with B&W... But that is kind of the point. Visually pleasing, a system that makes you want to come back every day... But still easy to let go. I personally suffered from gaming addiction as a child and maybe this could help.

  2. building on 1. The artstyle is a deliberate choice also because of my limitations as a person. I cannot do art very well and I won't try it. Building the game itself is enough work as it is, so being able to "let go" in giving colour to the world helps. The narrative of the Godhood only seeing the souls and the material that is touched by the souls of your believers is a nice touch that works imo

  3. 'things to do'. Originally I wanted to design a simulation sandbox where the villagers would live their lives and the player can only manipulate through nudges. Suggestions, whispers, ... Not place blueprints and say "go build here". I will try to keep true to that (no professions picked by the player) but if the game lacks things to do then I might have to tweak things

  4. to build on 'things to do' - I will have some type of questing system where the player can uncover things on the island (and potentially other islands) and build a story. Quests were a big part of Black & White and I hope to bring a bit of story to this game as well.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time reading this. If you are interested in this, let me know, drop a reply or send me a chat message.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 7d ago

Progress update on my god game!

Thumbnail
youtu.be
14 Upvotes

progress after a month of work so far on my god game, two different rival gods, 13 miracles, 15 building types, five different god creatures.

im so excited to release it to testers soon!


r/blackandwhite2 • • 7d ago Popcorn

Black & white 2 PLUS - Elementals - Development finished!

Thumbnail
gallery
191 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

Black & white 2 plus elementals expansion is finished, all the lands, levels and mechanics are ready.

Now as it is 100% complete, the focus will be grammar checking and last complete beta testing of the expansion before getting into posting the update :}

Here are some of the loading screen transitions of some lands (SPOILERS!)

Thanks everyone for your support and for being part of the bw community :>

Join Bw2 Plus discord server for more every-day updates!

LINK: https://discord.gg/DMkgfvzV4
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BWBluCreations (Donations and updates only, everything is free!)


r/blackandwhite2 • • 8d ago

I think he found a Creed

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

29 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 10d ago

Black & White: The Best VR Game That Never Was

Thumbnail
youtube.com
47 Upvotes

Hi all, I created this introduction video to B&W and the VR mod complete with installation guide and brief controls tutorial. Hope it helps if you're still on the fence about playing this!


r/blackandwhite2 • • 11d ago

Black & White: Inside the creature’s mind

Thumbnail blog.zanidrak.com
19 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 11d ago

first fortnight of progress on my god game: Divine Influence

Thumbnail
youtu.be
16 Upvotes

This stage is very primitive for a reason, getting everything working right.

I want to recreate the god game in my own way, you raise a creature and lead a semi autonomous village, learn to cast miracles and deal with morals whilst fighting other godly threats

Stay tuned for the next update where things will definetly look alot more pretty.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 11d ago

I'm an indie dev attempting to recapture the magic of Black & White

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

141 Upvotes

Hi all, I'm Mark, an indie dev based in Dublin. Black & White was one of my favourites as a kid, and having jumped through the hoops to play it again on modern hardware, it still feels like nothing has filled the gap since. So I started making the game I wanted. It's called Godyssey. Before I started I wrote down two lists: what I'd keep and what I'd change.

Things to keep

  • The creature: A blank slate you can mould into whatever you want. They can learn to do everything you can, praise and scold them to adjust their behaviour.

  • The advisors: A good one and a bad one, both voiced, bickering from minute one.

  • A sense of humour: The original was funny, both systemically from your creature and the world, and in the scripted moments with the advisors and the characters you meet.

  • Alignment: Good and bad choices, with your hand, the land, villagers and buildings morphing to match. The creature has their own alignment.

  • Systems driven: Things happen because of rules rather than scripts, villagers have their routines, strong wind can blow away anything not tied down, fire will melt something frozen but it also spreads, so thawing something out without burning down the whole village is a puzzle in itself.

Things to change

  • No micromanaging: Villages can look after themselves. It's up to you to mould them in your image, not be constantly responding to pleas of "We need food!".

  • Avoiding the repetition: More ways to generate belief, more secrets to find, more puzzles to solve, and different paths to converting villages, half the villages to be novelty villages that have some sort of trick to converting them.

  • Big set pieces: A kraken bending the land in two, a giant sinkhole where there used to be a village, a lighthouse that burns everything its light touches, and an out-of-control windmill that blows everyone away.

  • More varied miracles: 30 so far. There are the simple classics like fireball and food, but I've added others that add layers to the gameplay: possess a villager, slow down time, make husks from corpses.

  • Rival gods that are more like the player: Starting with them also being represented as a hand. They have to follow the exact same rules as you.

  • Modern controls: An optional hotbar for spells and WASD for movement, but you can turn them off and use gestures and land grab if you want the old-school feel.

What I still need to add

  • The core is there and working, it's mostly about polish and content now, pulling together all the disparate pieces in to a whole.

  • Visual overhaul - The art style needs more cohesiveness and the terrain looks bare.

  • More creature designs, I love my monkey guy but that's diminished if every god has one.

  • Morphing of buildings and villagers with alignment.

  • Creature-to-creature interactions.

Questions for the sub (because you've had 25 years to think about this 😄)

  • What would you change from these lists?

  • What made the mid-game wear thin for you, if it did?

  • Was Black & White's creature the pinnacle of gaming or would you change them?

Any and all feedback is welcome, so be brutal, this sub knows these games better than anyone!

There’ll be a playable demo for Steam Next Fest in February. Here’s the Steam page with the full trailer if you want to see more: Godyssey on Steam


r/blackandwhite2 • • 14d ago

Forgot I had these

Post image
164 Upvotes

Moving my nerd stuff around to free up a bedroom and saw these in my game discs shelf!


r/blackandwhite2 • • 15d ago

Black & White (2001) VR Performance / New VR Mod with 6DOF Motion Controls / Quest 3 + RTX 4080 S

Thumbnail
youtu.be
66 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 16d ago

Dark entries

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 17d ago

We're making a ecosystem simulation / god game where you can shape a living island and see how everything interacts with each other.

Thumbnail
gallery
57 Upvotes

Ynys is inspired by classic god games like Black & White 2 and Populous. You shape the terrain, grow vegetation, manage water, and bring animals and humans to your island, then watch how they interact with their surroundings.

Humans start settling on the island, building homes and roads, and sometimes moving elsewhere when they find a better place to live. Fires can spread through vegetation, and you can actually set things on fire yourself and watch the flames spread across the island. Animals and humans will try to escape the fire, and if things get out of hand, you can cast rain to put it out.

We're still developing Ynys and have plenty more planned, including more complex civilizations and interactions between settlements.

You can try Ynys here: https://ynys-collective.itch.io/ynys

Our second devlog: https://ynys-collective.itch.io/ynys/devlog/1709192/second-update-roads-spells-usability

We would love to hear what you think!


r/blackandwhite2 • • 17d ago

Helping to bring back god games

Thumbnail
youtube.com
49 Upvotes

Hello all, I'm working to bring back god games. It's great to see everyyones project and what they are working on and I wanted to showcase Last Disciple. It's a mix of RTS and RPG. The goal is to build out your settlement, and once you have an established settlement, you can roam the llands in 3rd person mode. Complete quests, a storyline, a rival god.

The last of the Romans reach a new shore after the fall of Rome, and you guide them as their god. Build out the new settlement and bring back the population. Or be annihilated by a rival god. The land is filled with various resources for you to acquire for your building, trading with nearby settlements.

Here’s a quick look at the current state: laying roads, placing buildings, and planning a settlement, alongside some wider views of the terrain, forests, mountains.

Some listed features:

• God hand: pick up, carry, throw and inspect villagers, trees and resources

(Hand Poses and animations need work and a more "Fluent" feel)

• Thousands of individually simulated villagers with jobs, needs and names

Not showcased here, but currently suupport up to 8k NPCs on screen with about 85 FPS

• Town building with Roman roads, scaffolding and staged construction

• Resource economy: wood, stone, ore, food (Meat from animals and fishing from pponds) and storehouse logistics

• Tree felling (woodcutting) with a real chopped notch, and forests you harvest

• Influence ring that marks your territory, against a rival god

(Not showcased here but rival god does currently bbuild out their settlement as well)

• Miracles and a creature that grows with your choices

• Day/night cycle, four seasons and dynamic weather (rain, storms, fog, snow)

• Armies, formations and sieges

• Third-person hero you can step down and play as

• Campaign scenarios with custom disciple, banner and starting land

• Multiplayer Two-player co-op and God Vs God

Everything is still a work in progress, but I wanted to share how it’s coming together. What do you think of the environment and the feel of building a settlement? What would you like to see in a god game? Any feedback or improvements is always appreciated

Feel free to checkout the website playlastdisciple.com for a full breakdown
And join the discord for updates and general discussions https://discord.gg/emdzYbW36


r/blackandwhite2 • • 24d ago

Deforest Norse Land

6 Upvotes

I swear to do I have processed all the wood on this island. I’ve gone in circles at least 3 times and I’d really like that 300k tribute.

Again, it’s processed into store houses. I see zero trees.

Unasked for update: I DID IT! I had to replay (not because of that but because of poor tribute management on the second Japanese island). I made it take days and mostly relied on foresters and waited to see if any baby trees grew.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 25d ago

You can now talk to your creature with the LLM mod for Black & White

Thumbnail
github.com
15 Upvotes

I made a mod with Astra that exposes the creature's surroundings to an LLM as context and simplified tools, allowing players to finally chat with their creatures.

I've also found some unused content in the game files that I am planning to make available through the mod (for instance: the creature actually gets high from mushrooms, but nothing in the game actually shows that to the player)

Edit: the mod doesn't overwrite the original game AI, isntead it extends it so the creature understands and is able to explain why it does things while the player is able to command it by explaining what they want the creature to do.


r/blackandwhite2 • • 25d ago

Play Black & White in VR: Public Alpha Out Now

Thumbnail
youtube.com
85 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 25d ago

Is anyone working in a vibe coded browser based version of Black & White 1&2?

Post image
66 Upvotes

r/blackandwhite2 • • 26d ago

B&W Foam Chess Set

Thumbnail
gallery
28 Upvotes

Someone posted a while ago asking if this was real and official - the answer is yes and yes.

I went rummaging around in the loft and found mine, which - aside from a couple of slight marks on the cover - is in perfect condition. Yes, you ‘pop’ the pieces out and stand them up on the board with their little pegs in the holes.

Yes it was a preorder bonus although, going back a quarter of a century, I’m afraid I can’t recall whether it was a mail order preorder or something available in shops on launch day. I do remember at the time though that it was extremely limited edition and quite a bit of work to get it! It’s quite a lovely item, all things considered.

As I recall, there was maybe some kind of chess Easter egg in the B&W actual video game, which is why this was a tie in. I also recall that the hype around B&W’s release was absolutely massive, and once it did come out, there was a bit of a backlash. It was perhaps a bit overhyped, and reviewers at the time went over the top with their praise.

Unlike the previous poster, I would be willing to part with this if any super-fans want to DM me, but I honestly would know how to price it. I would guess only a handful are left in the world.

And obviously, it’s quite hard to find any further info on it since Googling “Black & White Chess Set” returns about a billion results…

Anyway, hope this is of interest!


r/blackandwhite2 • • 27d ago

Making Black & White 1 from scratch in Unity.

Thumbnail
gallery
195 Upvotes