SEED First Impressions: Finally a Global-Scale Game for Sims Fans

Many video games promise to send players to a living, breathing world, one that's truly reactive to their actions. Having had a chance to experience SEED, I felt, for the first time, that I was in a virtual world other than my own, rather than a digital cage of quest markers.

Developed by Klang Games, SEED has often been described as a blend of The Sims and RimWorld, with player-created avatars living in a world populated by countless other digital people. There is a certain degree of validity to this claim, though there's an element of Tamagotchi to it, with the player being able to guide their little human, rather than directly control every aspect of their being.

SEED is still in development, but the latest update has introduced a ton of new features. DualShockers recently had the chance to visit Klang Games and try out the latest iteration of SEED, to see just how much it has grown in such a shorttime.

The Seedlings Are The Future Of Avesta

The preview began with the players starting a fresh colony. All we had was a Kernal, which is the name of the ship that brought us to the world of Avesta, stocked with resources that help our colony grow.

Before that, each player had to create their first Seedling. These are the player characters in SEED, and their aesthetic is very Runescape-coded, with basic yet striking symmetry to their designs. The player is also free to hit the 'Random' button if they don't want to go to the effort of painstakingly crafting their little Seedling.

Once the Seedling's looks are decided, the player gets to determine their starting stats, which is done by selecting their backstory from before they stepped on the Kernal. Initially, these don't seem important, but they will become relevant much later in the game, as the Seedling's ability to craft certain structures and earn specific abilities will be aided by their stats. Beginner players don't need to worry so much about the details, and are free to pick whatever they like.

With a Seedling created, our characters were dropped into the world, where they stood around texting. Specifically, my Seedling started texting me! See, the Seedlings in SEED are powered by AI chatbots, meaning they can talk to the player. It's also possible to issue them commands from this menu, with varying degrees of success.

During the early stages of gameplay, I'd tell my Seedling to go and chop down some wood, to which their response was something like "chopping wood, that sure is a concept that exists," and they'd continue to stand around doing nothing. As I experimented with the chat, I realized it was akin to old text-based adventure games, where sentences and commands had to be phrased a certain way to get a response. Otherwise, they'd just ask my question back at me, in a facsimile of human interaction.

We couldn't stand around chatting all day, as society needed to be created! In SEED, each location has a Society level, and to improve it, the players need to work together to complete quests. For our fledgling society, we needed to gather basic resources such as wood, stone, and water, which we could then use to build tents, a fireplace, and workbenches.

Building Cities Is A Step-By-Step Process In A Game That Never Sleeps

It was time to gather wood. I ordered my Seedling to go chop down a tree. So, they walked over to it, pulled out a hybrid lightsaber/blowtorch, and went to town. I looked around the map some more, and when I came back, the Seedling had gone back to staring at the clouds.

See, in SEED, the player is expected to plan each action the Seedling takes. It's not enough for them to just chop wood — the player has to direct them to pick it up, then deposit it in the Kernal, then go back to chop again — rinse and repeat.

At the bottom of the screen is a 24-hour timeline. Here, the player can set actions for their Seedling to take throughout the day when it's not being commanded. With these menus, the player can organize their Seedling's sleep schedule, tell them when to seek out food and water, and order them to gather resources that will help the colony.

This level of interaction caught me off guard at first. I'm used to games like Warcraft 3, where I can order some peons to gather wood and gold until they're told to stop. Once I'd gotten used to SEED's strange way of doing things, I could see why it was incorporated, because the game doesn't technically switch off when you leave.

In a game like Final Fantasy 14, when a player logs off, their Warrior of Light vanishes until they return. SEED isn't like that. The world keeps going when the player isn't around, which is why setting up a schedule is so vital, and it's also where the Tamagotchi comparison from earlier comes into play. See, Seedlings aren't forever: they can get injured while doing menial tasks or become malnourished due to a lack of food and water, which can cause them to die, forcing the player to make a new one.

One of the new aspects of SEED is a companion mobile app that lets them interact with their Seedlings in a limited way without needing to log in to the game. This lets players check on their digital pet person at any time, ensuring that their basic needs are met.

The player isn't limited to one Seedling, as they can purchase more using in-game currency, allowing them to create a new one from scratch. It's also possible for two characters in a relationship (including Seedlings owned by different players) to have a child that merges both their traits.

Seedlings can be switched with the press of a button, and they're quick to let the player know if they need anything. It bears mentioning that SEED is not a game that holds the player's hand. A lot of information is thrown at the player at once. The developers told me this will be addressed in future updates, since most players won't have people who worked on the game sitting next to them while playing, as I did.

What Kind Of Society Votes For A Dictatorship?

Upon completing the first set of quests, our Society leveled up, and the time had come to introduce politics to the mix. At this point, we had to hold a vote to determine the leader, who could then assign roles to the other characters. If no majority is reached, then the game selects a leader at random.

This was the system in SEED that intrigued me the most, especially after seeing some of the worrying things the SEED community had come up with in the past. In SEED, players can create a dictatorship in which one person holds all the power and rules with an iron fist. It's actually impossible to vote this person out of power, as they determine when elections are held, so they remain in charge until they die. Oh, they can also name a successor, Crusader Kings style.

While our society didn't progress enough to reach this point in our preview, the developers outlined the business management system. It's possible for Seedlings to run businesses, much like in EVE Online, where they can even sell to players in other locations. The fact that rulers can also determine land management means that there is a ton of scope for political maneuvering and buying loyalty.

Unlike EVE Online, where gunboat politics can be used to threaten enemies or destroy resources, SEED doesn't have a combat system. This isn't the kind of MMO where players can show up with a glowing anime sword and beat others into submission. In SEED, societies are built on communication and resource management, not who has the biggest arsenal.

Seedlings aren't defined wholly by their players, as each one has an expansive skill/attribute system, one that isn't apparent at first, and is buried in a few too many menus. Each Seedling has a Final Fantasy-style skill tree, one that unlocks more as the player acts. There will also be books in the game that can unlock abilities.

This was another system I wish I had more time to experiment with in the preview, especially as it would have made me more attached to my Seedling, as I'd have been furious if a character with tons of locks died from gout.

Once Society reached the second level, the building system opened up, allowing players to construct their own homes using block designs. It was here I'd seen a glimpse of the more advanced cities of SEED, ones I had actually visited in the past.

What Do Advanced Seedling Cities Look Like?

The Klang Games preview event wasn't my first interaction with SEED. I had a chance to jump into the previous build, with no direction or indication of where to start. I wanted to jump in blind, and boy, was I lost.

The advanced, late-stage SEED cities are massive affairs, with tons of buildings stacked around and numerous NPCs going about their day. I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and the lack of direction, barely able to find my initial Seedling among the crowd.

(I didn't realize at this point that there's a button to turn off walls, which makes finding individual Seedlings a lot easier. The developers assured me that a cinematic camera that follows the Seedling is a high priority and will appear in a future update.)

After playing through the preview, I had a better sense of what was going on, so I was able to jump back into an advanced city. I found that I wasn't as interested in this flashy, neon place as I was in the little encampment of tents and cooking pots that I'd help build with my own hand, and I suspect that would be true of most players. I was more likely to return to the land I'd built than engage with a new one.

One positive aspect of being in a larger settlement is the wider variety of Seedlings to interact with. I've barely touched on the Sims-style aspects of SEED up to this point, because they really need a bigger selection of players before they come into play. The Seedlings can become friends, fall in love, and even form rivalries with their contemporaries.

Once I'd gotten to grips with the AI chat, I was able to engage with my Seedlings more and better direct their actions. This is the exact perfect game for that kind of system, as it helps make the characters feel alive, even though I'm fully aware I'm talking to a glorified search engine.

SEED Is Building Up To Great Things

The ambition of SEED is off the scale. A game that operates as an always-online virtual life simulator is the kind of thing that developers have promoted for years, and some have gotten pretty close to achieving that dream.

The Seedlings in SEED blend the best aspects of The Sims characters with an MMO protagonist, allowing the player to guide their growth but never fully control it. The fact that they've been plopped into a world filled with countless other Seedlings means that they can't grow in a bubble: they have to interact with others and learn to play nice, or not. After all, SEED is a game with varied types of government, and who doesn't love taking a shot at the top spot?

There are some sticking points: the camera still needs work, there needs to be easier automation options for basic player actions, and, most importantly, the game needs an amazing tutorial to bring everyone up to speed. It's easy to forgive their absence, as SEED has yet to fully enter early access, so the final release is still a ways away.

SEED's scope is something that needs to be experienced to believe. There are countless small interlocking systems at play, all just a click away, creating a game that could make players lose hours of their lives, especially forthose who love social or construction games. There's an entire universe out there, just waiting to be colonized, and it's one that's getting denser with each update.

SEED is launching in early access in Summer 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam today.