Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries
Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Surviving Mars 1625 Bug Reports 2602 Suggestions & Feedback 915 Modding & Resources 288 Console Edition 134
Previous dev diary Next dev diary
Show only dev responses

Dev Diary #1: Vision by Boian Spasov from Haemimont Games

Hi everyone!

My name is Boian Spasov, and I've been working as a designer at Haemimont Games for more than ten years now. I have been a long time avid reader of the Paradox dev diaries, so I feel very excited to write the first dev diary for Surviving Mars. We've been teamed up with Paradox on this project for a while, but it was very hush-hush until a few months ago, so it feels really good to finally be able to talk openly about our baby.

_6nmeyoZFJlp3vccCUeI8k7SyhSIxn0rDpeeLxrMpzJudSJy2FzRvVe6vN1liGYCg9pqb58QzOca5df9dW3aI5GHSL-m0v48FDlB1nZVQPJhqd42ItLX94AXj6RH-Q_WxV_htOzpqKGUVmr9YQ

The survival city builder in space​

Coming from the Tropico series we wanted to create something really different both in terms of theme and gameplay and I can confidently say that Surviving Mars ended up unique. Your task in Surviving Mars is to create a beautiful and functional colony on the surface of the red planet. The game is undoubtedly a city builder, but not your average city builder. It is an intimate experience focused on creating interconnected systems and testing them against the threats of the harsh environment.

index.php

Abundant dangers​

Elon Musk famously said that he'd like to 'die on Mars, just not on impact.' We took this statement to heart and turned it into a game.

Colonizing the red planet is and should be a tall order, and many things can go wrong, and there are plenty of ways for your colonists to perish. Just not on impact.

You will test your budding colony against the real problems and dangers that a potential Mars colonization mission will face - environmental hazards, scarcity of materials, failing systems and lack of vital resources. More details will be coming in a future dev diary!


The red sandbox​

While all our previous city-builders created here at Haemimont are campaign-oriented, offering more of a "rollercoaster ride" kind of experience, we really wanted to focus on the sandbox potential of the genre this time. We strived to make Surviving Mars a game that inspires you to replay, experiment, try crazy stuff, fool around, set your own goals and come back to it for many months and years ahead!

WAKmvqBnGpglMR20Co4fZFZaJgQfJFSiz69sEdP3acLgrCaL65ufxJlvfFxHs5C64cmBUULMMZ6ixM-oe2m21hLqfItibpzwVVJG5VqT5hVcvEq3rL5-Igiomf12ufnrPVSfpJy5qgH1AiDgHg

Science vs. fiction​

Surviving Mars was inspired by the old, idealistic sci-fi stories. You know the ones - from the time when the Galaxy was full of mystery and wonder, and humanity was striving to build a better future among the stars, instead of fighting its own inner demons. This lighthearted and somewhat nostalgic source of inspiration shines both in the game aesthetics and narrative.

We wanted to keep the science in the game plausible without diving into minutiae. Barring some purely fantastic elements that are best saved for a future dev diary, the scientific aspect in Surviving Mars is realistic, but the game is not thematically centered on science. It is about the dream of the first human settlement on another planet.

It is time to wrap this up. In this diary I talked about the high-level vision of the game, teasing some details here and there without going into specifics, but fear not - the juicy features will be disclosed in detail in future dev diaries. What would you like to hear about next?

As my parting gift, here is a video in which some of our key team members explore Mars... from Earth:

P.S. You can also read a juicy interview with Gabi and find out more about the game here.
 
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
candyalien said:
They should be coming out monthly :)
Click to expand...

Cool. For those of us that are interested in a harder scifi setting, the earlier you can do a DD on moddability, the better.
 
Might I suggest that This game, streams and posts the Diaries on Monday?
Martian Monday should be a worthy successor of medival Monday
 
Darksaber501st said:
This looks like the kind of game I've been waiting for for a long time, so I will be eagerly following its development.



While I do want the game to have a sandbox mode and feel, I sincerely hope that you do have a campaign of some sort. I think there's just as many opportunities here for excellent gameplay in a detailed campaign as there are for sandbox. Actual settlement of Mars and the development of what could be called "self-sufficiency" would probably require multiple colonies, with each quite possibly being very different. Not every colony can be located on ground with water, mineral resources, or sufficient space, and I think modeling the development of actual, fully-functioning civilization on Mars would be a great subject for a campaign.
Click to expand...
i agree, every game, even a sandbox one, should have at least some ''story mode'' element, maybe not a campaign with mission scenarios, but a stoy thats goes on as long you play and discovery something new about mars.

stellaris uses this sytem, and works fines, the old civilization events, end game crysis.
 
racionador said:
i agree, every game, even a sandbox one, should have at least some ''story mode'' element, maybe not a campaign with mission scenarios, but a stoy thats goes on as long you play and discovery something new about mars.

stellaris uses this sytem, and works fines, the old civilization events, end game crysis.
Click to expand...

Exactly! We don't have a classical campaign in Surviving Mars but we have a certain "story feature" that scratches this itch. I can't wait to write the dev diary for it but I will keep it a mystery for now!

PS: In case anyone is confused, I am Boian from Haemimont, candyalien is our community manager.
 
Last edited:
Hibernian said:
Sorry, but wind power on Mars is not realistic. The planet has only 100th the atmospheric density of Earth, nowhere near enough to drive large wind turbines.
Click to expand...

This is what I previously thought as well, but in the recent years NASA has been seriously considering wind energy as an alternative for Mars, especially useful during prolonged dust storms.

Here is the link to a NASA statement on the subject:
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2013/ee_5.html

And a research paper that I found interesting, explaining the science of it all (basically atmospheric density does not matter as much as wind speed):
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/reports/CB-979/houston.pdf

Of course, nothing is certain about Mars colonization, but we tried hard to avoid totally unrealistic elements in the game. Wind power seems at least plausible at this stage, even though it will likely not be the dominant power source.
 
I am cautiously optimistic for this game as I am a fan of Tropico.

My 2 cents early-bird feedback; Sometimes the visuals for this title look wonderful, the terrain in particular looks and feels like the right blend of authentic vs gameplay graphics. For me this is kinda jarring when compared to really cartoonish graphics in places. Is this a case of pre-polish textures are is this an intended art direction?

Not necessarily a criticism as it's way too early to judge, I'm just curious.
 
Hi Viktor,

We definitely do not want to make in-game graphics that look like a cartoon (not that there is something wrong with this, it is just not what we are going for). Internally we call our visual style with the somewhat oxymoronic combination of words "modern retro" (bear with me here please, it is only our internal term). This may be a subject for a dev diary by itself, but if I have to sum it in one short sentence, I would go with "sleek, clean and idealized looks in a soft color palette".

On to the specific question - we are still doing polish here and there, but the loading screen and the two screenshots shown in this dev diary should be fairly representative. Are you basing your observations on them or on something else (like the drone close-up or older screenshots)?
 
Last edited:
Blizzard_Haemimont said:
On to the specific question - we are still doing polish here and there, but the loading screen and the two screenshots shown in this dev diary should be fairly representative. Are you basing your observations on them or on something else (like the drone close-up or older screenshots)?
Click to expand...

Thank you for the response!

If pushed, I would say that currently the city biome and it's content are just too impossibly white and green in some of your footage/screenshots. It's kind of like how you know an estate showhome is not real, as it's never been lived in. Or maybe it's the dome being white-lit up / hazy from within?

Either way, in the image below Mars itself looks gorgeous, and I really like the minor weathering occurring on the shuttle and external installations. The contrast on the main hive tower between shielded and exposed is a neat addition too.

jHVxsy7AAxETE3XXqj9hpf-650-80.jpg
 
Only just saw this as it was pinned!

Looking forward to more dd in the future.

Could the devs get the same treatment as pdx staff with the black text background and a thread symbol to show they have posted?
 
You've got me very excited. You guys have mentioned early sci-fi, eg. Asimov, but please, tell me you're also across Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy as well. From what I see, you must be already, but I'm just making absolutely sure.
 
Thank you for the email notifying me of this new game. I will be watching and more than likely buying the game.

I know that this sort of thing is annoying, and I may get my wrist slapped for this, but if I could ask a favor, please avoid using the term "colony" or its derivatives.

There are clear and obvious reasons why this is not a word that represents the spirit of what real space exploration is about. And lets face it: unless the game has a political nation of 'Martians' that are actively being replaced by a Human political force from Earth, then these can't be colonies (except in the biological sense).

I assume we will be building Human settlements with no relevant connection to Earth-side political entities.

It might seem like I'm asking for something that bears no relation to the actual game, but if you take some time to consider the importance of working together on a GLOBAL scale to successfully manage a permanent settlement on Mars, I think you will realize how important it is for Humanity to put our colonial impulses behind us.

Willfully attuning our perspectives to constructive endeavors while also training our awareness of creeping destructive habits is the true path to progress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back