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Haemimont Games have announced that the martian city builder 'Surviving Mars' [Official Site, Steam] will officially launch on March 15th.

They also put up this slick new trailer to celebrate:

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I have to say, my hype level for this one is rather high. I love city builders, but I often find they don't give you enough of a challenge. Not only that, but as a huge space nerd the idea of building a settlement on Mars and dealing with the various issues of doing so sounds exciting!

About the game:

Surviving Mars is a sci-fi city builder all about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. Choose a space agency for resources and financial support before determining a location for your colony. Build domes and infrastructure, research new possibilities and utilize drones to unlock more elaborate ways to shape and expand your settlement. Cultivate your own food, mine minerals or just relax by the bar after a hard day’s work. Most important of all, though, is keeping your colonists alive. Not an easy task on a strange new planet.

There will be challenges to overcome. Execute your strategy and improve your colony’s chances of survival while unlocking the mysteries of this alien world. Are you ready? Mars is waiting for you.

Haemimont Games (Tropico, Victor Vran) and Paradox (Stellaris, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings) have been good to Linux and it's pleasing to see both of them continue to put new games on Linux.

They confirmed to me today, that Linux will see a release at the same time as Windows, so that's even better news. Will you be grabbing a copy?

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17 comments

SadL Feb 1, 2018
I will be keeping an eye on this. Hopefully it will be challenging enough..

I love city builders, but I often find they don't give you enough of a challenge.
..I agree with this 100%
RossBC Feb 1, 2018
Def going to buy love sci-fi/steam punk games.
Been watching the dev game play videos as well seems there is a bit of variety depending on faction you choose and place where you land on mars etc.

Edit: Price will be a factor though, doesn't look like it should be lots of $$ if it is gonna wait a bit.


Last edited by RossBC on 1 February 2018 at 3:00 pm UTC
Cmdr_Iras Feb 1, 2018
This looks very fun I like the cartoony and irreverant style to it. If its not too much I may pick it up on release.
Tiedemann Feb 1, 2018
Oh, it's not EA. Cool :D
HerrLange Feb 1, 2018
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I would preorder if they let me...
Dunc Feb 1, 2018
By sheer coincidence, I've just watched Scott Manley's video on this. Oh, that looks good.

My only reservation would be that Tropico 5 (also Haemimont) left me with the impression that adding a story to a city builder maybe isn't such a great idea as it sounds. Once I'd completed it, I never really felt the urge to play it again. That said, although there's a tech tree and obviously some storyline involving those black cube things, it doesn't seem to be as heavily plot-driven as T5, so maybe they've learned from it.

Looking forward to it, but I'll wait for reviews.
sn0rlax Feb 1, 2018
Dont even need to see the trailer. Will buy on day 1. City builders are the only games that get me to sit at my computer anymore. It's a city builder or a couch game.
UltraAltesBrot Feb 1, 2018
Stellaris: Apocalpyse is set for a February 22nd release date; Surviving Mars is coming out 15th march; Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire will release on 4th April.. so many good games and so little time
Purple Library Guy Feb 1, 2018
I still don't see how those wind thingies on Mars are going to generate noticeable power.
Tiedemann Feb 1, 2018
I still don't see how those wind thingies on Mars are going to generate noticeable power.

SANDstorms beating the shit out of those poor blades?
ElectricPrism Feb 1, 2018
Mars is the perfect context to have a City Building game.

We might actually learn something from the way players layout and build cities inasmuch as we concepted the iPad, Bluetooth, Cellphones, Video Conferencing, etc... from Star Trek.
ison111 Feb 2, 2018
I'm REALLY glad they aren't sticking to realism and it looks like they've thrown in some unique imaginative sci-fi elements too.
Can't wait to play this.
iniudan Feb 2, 2018
I still don't see how those wind thingies on Mars are going to generate noticeable power.

Mars is very windy, it just take a lot of wind (like 70km/h) for the dust to raise from the ground due to low atmospheric density, but once it's off said ground, it stay in the air longer due to the lack of precipitation.
Purple Library Guy Feb 2, 2018
I still don't see how those wind thingies on Mars are going to generate noticeable power.

Mars is very windy, it just take a lot of wind (like 70km/h) for the dust to raise from the ground due to low atmospheric density, but once it's off said ground, it stay in the air longer due to the lack of precipitation.

The dust isn't the issue. Low atmospheric density, as you said. Apparently about 1% of ours. Kinetic energy is like mass times velocity squared, so a Martian wind has the energy of an Earth wind one tenth as fast. A 70 km/h Martian wind isn't going to generate any more force than a 7 km/h wind on Earth. And when there isn't actually a sandstorm on--forget it! The wind pressure will be negligible.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 2 February 2018 at 5:16 am UTC
razing32 Feb 2, 2018
By sheer coincidence, I've just watched Scott Manley's video on this. Oh, that looks good.

My only reservation would be that Tropico 5 (also Haemimont) left me with the impression that adding a story to a city builder maybe isn't such a great idea as it sounds. Once I'd completed it, I never really felt the urge to play it again. That said, although there's a tech tree and obviously some storyline involving those black cube things, it doesn't seem to be as heavily plot-driven as T5, so maybe they've learned from it.

Looking forward to it, but I'll wait for reviews.

Hmm , i did not play Tropico 5 .
Where there no extra missions , free paly or an editor ?

My favourite city building game was Pharaoh+Cleopatra.
You had a campaign increasing in difficulty and explaining game concepts.
About 2 dozen missions ranging from easy to very hard as well as some Open Play maps where you could just go nuts.
On top of that they had a built in editor.
STiAT Feb 3, 2018
Hmh, ye, very likely will grab a copy if it works on amdgpu :-)
Dunc Feb 3, 2018
Hmm , i did not play Tropico 5 .
Where there no extra missions , free paly or an editor ?
Oh yes, there were. But my point is that if there's a story, it becomes the main driver for playing. If it hadn't been there in the first place, the lack of plot-led motivation wouldn't be as apparent in sandbox or fan-made levels.

It's a subtle thing, I'm sure it doesn't bother everyone, and it varies in extent from game to game (Stellaris has a beginning, middle, and end, for example, yet it's well worth replaying), but I found it particularly noticable in T5.
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