A large portion of the internet pointed their virtual fingers at Humankind 2’s new trailer and shouted ‘AI slop!’ Developer Amplitude Studios is now denying those claims and has even released a behind-the-scenes clip to prove a whole human crew (plus five chickens) made the Gamescom ONL reveal.

The turn-based strategy game’s reveal trailer “combined live-action filmmaking, practical sets, custom-made props, costumes, visual effects, and CGI to recreate thousands of years of history in just a few seconds,” the studio told Eurogamer over email. “To create the behind-the-scenes trailer, Amplitude Studios once again partnered with BETC, the creative agency behind several previous Humankind trailers.”

A new behind-the-scenes video now shows that process off and, yep, those are real humans alright. “Made by humankind” sort of erases the hard work done by all those chickens, a pig, that snake, three horses and a horde of rats, though.

But there’s no denying some amount of uncanniness to Humankind 2’s reveal – CG that’s maybe too exaggerated or a camera that moves too frantically, perhaps? Fears that Amplitude or BETC might have slapped AI-generated effects over camera-shot footage are also unfounded, it seems, since the CGI was handled the old-fashioned way by LiveFX. (You can see how the CG scenes change during the post-production phase in the studio’s new clip, as well.)

Humankind 2, the actual game, is promising all the historical manipulation and turn-based tinkering you would expect after the first game. This time around, the sequel’s adding in an updated UI, new progression systems and improved visuals. We should hear more about what’s changing soon as Humankind 2 is set to launch in 2027.

Back in 2024, the developer split from Sega during the company’s widespread restructuring.