Novus Inceptio
Early access since Oct 2015
A calm survival sandbox set in the distant future of Earth. A vast wilderness where you build and craft everything yourself, your character improves by doing and ages from generation to generation. The game is in Early Access and still in development.
50% positive · 1,309 reviews
Not yet
In early access, still in active development
High confidence
Active Development
Not yet
In early access, still in active development
High confidence
Active Development
Where to buy
Steam $19.99
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Evaluation
Novus Inceptio has been in Early Access since October 5, 2015 and remains there today. The previous assessment flagged serious concern about a prolonged development silence stretching from March 2023 — that concern has now been resolved.
On October 5, 2026, the developer published a major update (0.60.008) and a detailed accompanying post explaining what happened and where the game stands. After years of failed attempts to return to development, the developer spent the second half of 2025 working on the game in their free time, and since February 2026 has been working on it "almost all the time." The update itself is substantial: the game has been migrated from Unity 5 through to Unity 2022, the original 64 km² open world from 2014/2015 has been restored as the primary world, new character models and controls have been implemented (including a third-person camera, ranged combat with a bow, dodging, and sneaking), and the game's economy, combat calculations, weather, saving system, crafting, and trading have all been rebuilt from scratch.
The developer is candid about what didn't make it into this update: co-op multiplayer (described as "real" and "in testing"), terraforming (also in testing and functional), horses (implemented but lacking game logic), first-person view, and active shield blocking are all items the developer intends to add in future updates. The developer explicitly frames this update as a return to an original vision, not a conclusion — describing ongoing seasonal events (Halloween starting October 18, Christmas following), noting that a hotfix will "definitely come," and expressing a clear intent to keep expanding the in-game help system and adding hairstyles and character customization options.
This is a solo developer project with a well-documented history of extended hiatuses, but the October 5, 2026 update is a concrete, large-scale delivery that demonstrates active development is real and ongoing.
Evidence
Developer shipped major update 0.60.008 on October 5, 2026, migrating the game to Unity 2022, restoring the original 2014 world, rebuilding character models and controls, overhauling combat, economy, weather, and saving systems. Developer confirms they have been working on the game almost full-time since February 2026.
Developer explicitly states that co-op multiplayer, terraforming, horses, first-person view, and additional character customization are planned for future updates — they did not ship in 0.60.008 but are described as real, tested, or in development.
Content
1 of 1 released · no outstanding content
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
McMagic Productions
Achievements
58
Platform
Windows
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Not rated
Players
Single-player
About this game
Novus Inceptio is a survival RPG set in the distant future of our planet. But the Earth is no longer the one we know today. The game blends sci-fi and fantasy with a touch of post-apocalypse, and one of its main themes is uncovering the truth about those who have stood behind everything since ancient times...
Even though it is a survival game, it is not a typical survival challenge. Survival stays more in the background, and the focus is on crafting, building and slowly making your own place in the world. It is a calm way of playing, closer to strategy and relaxing than to a fight for your life.
THE WORLD IS A WILDERNESS
The main world is a vast wilderness. The only fixed places in it are the Towers of the Creators, which you use to travel, and the place where you start. Everything else you build yourself, or find in anomalies. You can build anywhere. The world players know from earlier versions stays in the game as the Old World, and one character can play in both.
THE WORLD IS NOT JUST A DEAD BACKGROUND
You can interact with almost everything, from the ground itself to bushes, trees and your own buildings. No plant is just decoration. Want to pick a mushroom and eat it? Nothing stops you. Even an ordinary tree is not only a source of wood, it also gives you bark, leaves, branches or resin.
A LIVING ENVIRONMENT
Time flows naturally, day turns into night and the weather follows the biome. A sandstorm comes in the desert, a snowstorm in the mountains, and the forecast shows what is coming. If you stop for a moment and listen to the sounds of nature, you can tell which way a wolf is hunting, feel the wind picking up, or just let yourself drift with the music and the rustling of leaves.
CRAFTING AND MATERIAL BONUSES
Crafting is built on a complex inner logic, almost every part of the final item has to be made separately. The reward is unique items with material bonuses, because it really matters whether you craft from oak or from pine. Materials pass their properties on. If you don't want to dive into tables, a simpler mode fills in the materials for you. If you do, switch to the advanced mode and choose materials by their bonuses.
YOUR CHARACTER LEARNS BY DOING
The attributes and skills you actually use are the ones that improve. You don't pick a race or a class, you shape your own specialization by doing what you enjoy. Your character can be a man or a woman, with new controls and a third person camera.
AGEING AND GENERATIONS
Yes, your character gets older while you play and can die of old age. Then it moves one generation further. Ageing is our way of levelling up: age is experience and a generation is a level. There's no need to fear it, it's a natural progression that brings bonuses and better attributes.
COMBAT
Damage depends on your skill with the weapon in your hand, so specializing pays off. Creatures have a fixed strength by level, the same as equipment, and the stronger ones wait further out in the world and in anomalies. You can fight up close, with a bow, or without a weapon. A dodge gets you out of reach, and crouching lets you sneak past until they spot you.
BUILDING
Thanks to the modular system, the only limit when building your home is your creativity. If you're not sure, you can use ready-made houses. First you plan everything calmly, and only then the hunt for materials and the building itself begins.
FARMING
Around your house you can start a farm and grow crops for good meals, plant your own forest or bring a bit of exotic nature from other biomes.
ANOMALIES
The world is full of portals to other dimensions and times. In the chests inside you find rare rewards and above all recipes, without which you won't get further in crafting. But watch out for the dangers hidden there.
EVENTS
The game includes seasonal events, such as Halloween or Christmas.
At the start you find yourself in the middle of wild nature. Your equipment? A knife and basic tools. Luckily, you're not alone. You have a small personal robot, A2-A, which helps you and carries your things, but it won't do the work for you. Nature gives nothing for free, so you need to find food and warmth and prepare for the dangers hiding in the deep forests. Disease, injury or death are part of everyday life. Over time you learn the laws of this world and get ready for the next journey.
Home is the foundation of survival and of everything you build up. You build a house, a farm, and focus on one of many crafts. The building system uses modular parts: you plan everything first and only then gather materials for the build, which won't be easy. The only limits are the recipes for building parts, your creativity, materials and skills. Recipes for more parts are found in chests around the world and in anomalies.
Do you like making things? Then you'll like Novus Inceptio. Crafting anything is a complex process where both your skill and the material you use matter. The system doesn't tell you exactly what to make something from, only what type of material is needed. Stone makes a stone axe, iron makes an iron one, and each part can be made from a different material. Even the type and hardness of the wood counts. The quality of your items grows together with your character.
It's not only about settling the world and surviving. A world full of life, danger and mystery is waiting for you. Dense forests, grasslands, dry deserts, tropical jungles, snow, swamps and the underwater world. You can set out on a long journey for rare materials, or for the truth about the real purpose of the restored planet.
The dawn of gods
The Galaxy is a cold and hostile place, and the Creators know it. They have spent eons searching for intelligent life. They have not been unsuccessful. They protect several planets with advanced organisms by all means available. Life must not die out, they say. At the same time they understand the risks awaiting every civilization. Through discreet manipulation of foreign DNA and by adding information, they try to make sure no destructive genocide happens.
Rebellious believers
The Creators stood beside the human race from the dawn of its civilization. As gods, they quietly influenced its physical and technological evolution and the maturing of its mind. But nobody is perfect, not even gods. Instead of worshipping peace, humans turned to war and forgot about their gods. And the Creators? They realized their experiment had failed. They could not stop the fratricidal madness of humans. When their last messenger fell, they returned through a portal to where they came from. To another planet? Or to another reality? Nobody knows. What we do know is that they never stopped collecting information through the portal.
The end of the world
The human civilization went on for almost 2,000 more years. During this era nuclear fission was discovered and the whole planet was covered with the mushrooms of atomic blasts. The war was frightfully quick and effective. Those who did not hide in underground bunkers were hit by radiation and died. Of tens of billions, barely a few hundred thousand people remained. Without people knowing, the Creators received the news of the end of their world too. Outraged that anyone could be so irresponsible, they returned and wiped out the human race for good.
Human 2.0
The dead planet kept turning in space. Over millennia it slowly got rid of the deadly radiation. The Creators decided to start a new experiment. With samples of human DNA and the help of an endless database of information, they gave life back to nature. They also created new humans, Homo Novus. They released them onto the restored planet, but they no longer wanted to repeat their old mistakes. That is why every clone is accompanied by its own personal robot, A2-A.
Discover worlds!
A2-A is a guardian angel. It helps people, protects them and gradually passes on more complex knowledge. At the same time it watches the behaviour of its charge, so that the aggression that destroyed the previous civilization does not rise again. Even so, the system is not perfect. The Creators counted on that. They seeded the new planet with anomalies that let the clones travel back in time and learn from the mistakes of their ancient ancestors. And who knows, maybe the anomalies will take them to other dimensions too. Maybe then the new humans will spend their time discovering and learning instead of killing and destroying.
And the Creators? They are not leaving. They are analyzing data from tens of thousands of A2-As and waiting for the right moment to introduce themselves to their children in person.
Novus Inceptio is developed by one person, McMagic Productions.
Even though it is a survival game, it is not a typical survival challenge. Survival stays more in the background, and the focus is on crafting, building and slowly making your own place in the world. It is a calm way of playing, closer to strategy and relaxing than to a fight for your life.
MAIN FEATURES
THE WORLD IS A WILDERNESS
The main world is a vast wilderness. The only fixed places in it are the Towers of the Creators, which you use to travel, and the place where you start. Everything else you build yourself, or find in anomalies. You can build anywhere. The world players know from earlier versions stays in the game as the Old World, and one character can play in both.
THE WORLD IS NOT JUST A DEAD BACKGROUND
You can interact with almost everything, from the ground itself to bushes, trees and your own buildings. No plant is just decoration. Want to pick a mushroom and eat it? Nothing stops you. Even an ordinary tree is not only a source of wood, it also gives you bark, leaves, branches or resin.
A LIVING ENVIRONMENT
Time flows naturally, day turns into night and the weather follows the biome. A sandstorm comes in the desert, a snowstorm in the mountains, and the forecast shows what is coming. If you stop for a moment and listen to the sounds of nature, you can tell which way a wolf is hunting, feel the wind picking up, or just let yourself drift with the music and the rustling of leaves.
CRAFTING AND MATERIAL BONUSES
Crafting is built on a complex inner logic, almost every part of the final item has to be made separately. The reward is unique items with material bonuses, because it really matters whether you craft from oak or from pine. Materials pass their properties on. If you don't want to dive into tables, a simpler mode fills in the materials for you. If you do, switch to the advanced mode and choose materials by their bonuses.
YOUR CHARACTER LEARNS BY DOING
The attributes and skills you actually use are the ones that improve. You don't pick a race or a class, you shape your own specialization by doing what you enjoy. Your character can be a man or a woman, with new controls and a third person camera.
AGEING AND GENERATIONS
Yes, your character gets older while you play and can die of old age. Then it moves one generation further. Ageing is our way of levelling up: age is experience and a generation is a level. There's no need to fear it, it's a natural progression that brings bonuses and better attributes.
COMBAT
Damage depends on your skill with the weapon in your hand, so specializing pays off. Creatures have a fixed strength by level, the same as equipment, and the stronger ones wait further out in the world and in anomalies. You can fight up close, with a bow, or without a weapon. A dodge gets you out of reach, and crouching lets you sneak past until they spot you.
BUILDING
Thanks to the modular system, the only limit when building your home is your creativity. If you're not sure, you can use ready-made houses. First you plan everything calmly, and only then the hunt for materials and the building itself begins.
FARMING
Around your house you can start a farm and grow crops for good meals, plant your own forest or bring a bit of exotic nature from other biomes.
ANOMALIES
The world is full of portals to other dimensions and times. In the chests inside you find rare rewards and above all recipes, without which you won't get further in crafting. But watch out for the dangers hidden there.
EVENTS
The game includes seasonal events, such as Halloween or Christmas.
SURVIVE!
At the start you find yourself in the middle of wild nature. Your equipment? A knife and basic tools. Luckily, you're not alone. You have a small personal robot, A2-A, which helps you and carries your things, but it won't do the work for you. Nature gives nothing for free, so you need to find food and warmth and prepare for the dangers hiding in the deep forests. Disease, injury or death are part of everyday life. Over time you learn the laws of this world and get ready for the next journey.
BUILD!
Home is the foundation of survival and of everything you build up. You build a house, a farm, and focus on one of many crafts. The building system uses modular parts: you plan everything first and only then gather materials for the build, which won't be easy. The only limits are the recipes for building parts, your creativity, materials and skills. Recipes for more parts are found in chests around the world and in anomalies.
CRAFT!
Do you like making things? Then you'll like Novus Inceptio. Crafting anything is a complex process where both your skill and the material you use matter. The system doesn't tell you exactly what to make something from, only what type of material is needed. Stone makes a stone axe, iron makes an iron one, and each part can be made from a different material. Even the type and hardness of the wood counts. The quality of your items grows together with your character.
EXPLORE!
It's not only about settling the world and surviving. A world full of life, danger and mystery is waiting for you. Dense forests, grasslands, dry deserts, tropical jungles, snow, swamps and the underwater world. You can set out on a long journey for rare materials, or for the truth about the real purpose of the restored planet.
BACKGROUND STORY
The dawn of gods
The Galaxy is a cold and hostile place, and the Creators know it. They have spent eons searching for intelligent life. They have not been unsuccessful. They protect several planets with advanced organisms by all means available. Life must not die out, they say. At the same time they understand the risks awaiting every civilization. Through discreet manipulation of foreign DNA and by adding information, they try to make sure no destructive genocide happens.
Rebellious believers
The Creators stood beside the human race from the dawn of its civilization. As gods, they quietly influenced its physical and technological evolution and the maturing of its mind. But nobody is perfect, not even gods. Instead of worshipping peace, humans turned to war and forgot about their gods. And the Creators? They realized their experiment had failed. They could not stop the fratricidal madness of humans. When their last messenger fell, they returned through a portal to where they came from. To another planet? Or to another reality? Nobody knows. What we do know is that they never stopped collecting information through the portal.
The end of the world
The human civilization went on for almost 2,000 more years. During this era nuclear fission was discovered and the whole planet was covered with the mushrooms of atomic blasts. The war was frightfully quick and effective. Those who did not hide in underground bunkers were hit by radiation and died. Of tens of billions, barely a few hundred thousand people remained. Without people knowing, the Creators received the news of the end of their world too. Outraged that anyone could be so irresponsible, they returned and wiped out the human race for good.
Human 2.0
The dead planet kept turning in space. Over millennia it slowly got rid of the deadly radiation. The Creators decided to start a new experiment. With samples of human DNA and the help of an endless database of information, they gave life back to nature. They also created new humans, Homo Novus. They released them onto the restored planet, but they no longer wanted to repeat their old mistakes. That is why every clone is accompanied by its own personal robot, A2-A.
Discover worlds!
A2-A is a guardian angel. It helps people, protects them and gradually passes on more complex knowledge. At the same time it watches the behaviour of its charge, so that the aggression that destroyed the previous civilization does not rise again. Even so, the system is not perfect. The Creators counted on that. They seeded the new planet with anomalies that let the clones travel back in time and learn from the mistakes of their ancient ancestors. And who knows, maybe the anomalies will take them to other dimensions too. Maybe then the new humans will spend their time discovering and learning instead of killing and destroying.
And the Creators? They are not leaving. They are analyzing data from tens of thousands of A2-As and waiting for the right moment to introduce themselves to their children in person.
ABOUT DEVELOPMENT
Novus Inceptio is developed by one person, McMagic Productions.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Oct 5, 2026
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