Hey all, The new year has rolled around, and that means it is time again at last! “Time? Time for what?” some of you might ask, especially those who joined us over the past few months to talk about or maybe even try out Humankind. The answer is simple: Amplitude’s birthday! Every year in January, we celebrate the founding of Amplitude Studios, the creation of the Endless universe, and our work with the community over the years. While it started small back in the day, the celebration has grown just as much as Amplitude, lasting several days with a fan meeting, streams with special guests from the studio, and new rewards on Games2Gether. This year is particularly special though – 10 years of Amplitude, and Humankind joining the celebration – so we thought it was time for a brand new name: Please, join us for AMPLIFIED 2021! [h3=streams]Streams[/h3] So, if you want to learn more about Amplitude and our games, stick around for the next few days, and stay tuned for some announcements in the next few days. And if you want to listen to our devs talk about our history, ask them about our games, or just hang out with other Amplitude fans in chat, join us for any of the streams below: Guest streamers include Marbozir with Dungeon of the Endless, and BearlyTactical and Gamerzakh with Endless Legend. Keep your eyes on our channel for anybody we might host! [h3=contest]Cosplay Contest[/h3] We are extremely excited for Humankind to join our portfolio soon, but we still love the Endless™ Universe, and we know so do many of you, so to celebrate 10 years of the Endless Universe, we want to invite you to participate in a low-budget cosplay competition. Grab whatever you have on hand and throw together a quick costume of any character from the Endless universe. (By our last count, there’s about 300 of them, so there’s plenty of choice!) I know creating a cosplay may sound daunting at first, but remember this is not about creating a detailed costume, but about being clever with what you have on hand to show who you are cosplaying, and (most importantly) having fun! Just check out these two brilliant in-house examples. Can you tell which characters these are? So now that you got a cosplay costume, how do you participate in the contest, and what can you win? Just three simple steps, only one of which takes any work on your part! [olist]

Post a photo of your cosplay to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #AmplifiedCosplay before Friday, 22nd of January, 9:00 CET. By submitting your contest entry, you agree that we may retweet, repost, or otherwise share the picture to promote the contest and pick a winner.[/*][*]Once submissions are closed, Amplitude will pick their top ten favorites to enter the finale.[/*][*]During our stream on Friday, we will present our top ten and let the viewers cast their votes for the grand winner.[/*][/olist]

The top ten entries will all receive one Endless game or DLC of their choice, while the top three will receive additional prizes:

• Third place: A Humankind Steam key[/*]
• Second Place: Their choice of one Endless game and associated DLCs, plus a Humankind key[/*]
• First Place: All Endless games and associated DLCs, plus a Humankind key[/*]

[h3=rewards]New Rewards[/h3] As always for our anniversary, we’re adding more rewards to Games2Gether as well, available to be claimed on your rewards page on G2G:

• Virtua Fighter 2 (Mega Drive/Genesis version), courtesy of our friends at Sega. Available to be claimed only during Amplified, until January from January 20th at 11:00 CET to January 25th at 17:00 CET[/*]
• TGA Teaser Art Wallpapers, the Endless Humankind crossover nobody expected, available starting Wednesday, January 20th, 17:00 CET[/*]
• Endless Space 2 Artbook, long in the making, it will be available for download starting Thursday, January 21st, 17:00 CET[/*]
• Humankind Wallpaper Pack, including 6 pieces of art from the first OpenDev in convenient wallpaper and banner formats, available Friday, January 22nd, 17:00 CET[/*]
• An Amplified player icon for Humankind for anybody who logs into G2G during Amplified. (No need to claim this by hand.)[/*]

So, go ahead and claim your digital swag! We hope you'll have fun these next few days, and here's to several more great years! - The Amplitude Team