Crest

Crest is a god sim in which you guide a people by issuing commandments written in an evolving pictographic language. Your followers interpret and remember those commands in their own ways, shaped by their experiences of the environment. Their beliefs can change over time, and their free will means they may act differently from what you intended. You must account for the changing environment, your people’s beliefs and their feelings about you as you try to keep them alive.

The world and its people

Crest reimagines humanity’s origins in the cradle of humankind on the African continent. Its historical setting depicts an advanced Iron Age civilization that could have existed a few thousand years ago, with flora, fauna and biomes based on Africa. Rainfall shifts the balance between desert, savanna and jungle, while weather, vegetation, mineral deposits, drought and animal behavior bring changes to each world.

Your people may love, respect or fear you. Their religion develops through your commands and their experiences, and the consequences of your decisions—including unintended ones—shape their lives and beliefs.

Commandments and stories

You unlock new words as you play, allowing you to write increasingly complex commandments. Through trial and error, you shape your people’s history; at the end of each vigil, the in-game storybuilder presents a chronicle of what happened.

Survival and replayability

There is no victory condition: you survive for as long as your people remain alive and experience the journey that unfolds. Each new world is unique and creates its own stories. If all your followers die, that world is lost forever, though you can still view its legacy. While your people live, you can continue shaping their history with more complex commandments.

You can customize the difficulty of each game by adjusting the amounts of resources, animals and islands, as well as overall island quality. The game also has built-in Twitch support: while you stream, viewers can join your cities and vote on commandments to help or disrupt your plans.