In the hour-long demo, you must reclaim a single area of the wasteland, greening its cracked, brown soil and filling its empty riverways. Each playthrough feels like a meditative experience, backed with subtle pianos and violins and the blowing of wind (and if you're lucky enough to generate a thunderstorm, settle in with a cup of hot chocolate because it's so damn relaxing). At least from what I've played so far, that much is true for me as well. 'I would find it very difficult, myself, to play the game and finish the level and be angry,' says Marais. A tiny joyful flourish, over the opening credits. The first thing you hear when you load the Terra Nil demo is the twittering of birds. This is how it begins: barren, deserted, grim. But after its reception during LD45, Alfred expanded on the concept. At first, the game required you to green the wasteland, dropping turbines and toxin scrubbers onto the dead earth. At LD45, the idea was 'Start with nothing' - that's where Alfred's idea first germinated. The core idea came about during the game jam Ludum Dare 45, which gives game developers 48 hours to develop a title based on a theme. This is a game about nature, untouched by humans. A region can only be reclaimed once all of the buildings have been recycled, leaving the wilderness untouched. Instead, the idea is to rewild the wasteland by building power stations, machines and climate-altering constructions. 'There are lots of games about building cities for people, this is not a game about people,' Alfred notes. Terra Nil is reminiscent of other city-building games, like SimCity or Cities: Skylines, with one key difference - and this is where the 'reverse' in reverse city-builder comes in. 'I've always been interested in the natural world and learning about the world around me,' he says.

Terra nil mobile