Ubisoft reportedly developing Animal Crossing-style social sim with Minecraft-like building

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla studio Ubisoft Montreal is reportedly working on a new Animal Crossing-inspired social sim featuring Minecraft-like building elements, with former Gotham Knights creative director Patrick Redding said to be at the reins.

That’s according to Insider Gaming, which claims the title – currently codenamed Alterra – has been in the works for around 18 months. Alterra is said to have risen from the ashes of an earlier Ubisoft Montreal project, canceled after four years of development, with the two games supposedly sharing a focus on voxel creation.

Insider Gaming’s source describes Alterra as an “Animal Crossing-inspired social sim” in which players inhabit a home island populated by NPCs known as Matterlings. These Matterlings are “somewhat like Funko Pop figures”, sporting large heads and designs blending fictional and real-world creatures, from polar bears to dragons.

Alterra’s social aspect is reportedly combined with that aforementioned voxel creation element, featuring building mechanics “somewhat similar” to those seen in Minecraft, with players able to fashion items using resources found out in the world beyond their home.

Here, it’s claimed they’ll encounter different biomes containing specific resources and different Matterling types, as well as unique enemies, materials, and more – with one example given being an ice biome, inhabited by snow-ice Matterlings, where players can create objects from snow and ice. It’ll apparently be possible to encounter other players out in the world too.

Insider Gaming adds Ubisoft veteran Fabien Lhéraud is serving as lead producer on Alterra, and that the project’s launch is “likely still a few years away”.

Ubisoft’s release slate is, of course, a bit fuzzy beyond next year’s delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Anno 117: Pax Romana, although the publisher has confirmed a new Rayman project is currently in the “exploration phase”. That’s alongside the very long in the works Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Ubisoft’s troubled Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, with the latter now targeting a 2026 release. In more recent news, Ubisoft has now launched its first-ever blockchain game, featuring NFT figurines costing up to £50k.