# OpenSpiel game methods: new_initial_states [Back to Core API reference](../api_reference.md) \
`new_initial_states()` Returns a list of new initial states. For most games, this returns a single state (identical to calling `new_initial_state()`). For multi-population mean field games, it returns one initial state per population, ordered from population 0 to population N-1 (where N is the number of players/populations). ## Examples: ```python import pyspiel # Standard game: returns a single initial state game = pyspiel.load_game("tic_tac_toe") states = game.new_initial_states() print(len(states)) # Output: 1 # Mean field game: may return multiple initial states game = pyspiel.load_game("mfg_crowd_modelling_2d") states = game.new_initial_states() print(len(states)) # Output: 1 ```