Hello, my name is Lyubo Iliev from Haemimont Games and I am the lead designer for Surviving Mars: Relaunched. Surviving Mars, is a colony-building game that we released in 2018. 7 years later we are releasing a new version of the game that hides many surprises to both new and old players alike - we packed in all released DLC and made a lot of improvements to the mechanics and visuals of the game.

In these dev diaries we'll try to introduce new players to the game while at the same time spice things up by highlighting the new changes we made for experienced players.

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Surviving Mars: Relaunched works on the latest version of the Sol engine which we updated greatly since the game originally released. This means that it will have better visuals and run better even on the same hardware that you played on before.

What is Surviving Mars about?

Earth is beautiful but fragile. Why not improve our odds of survival by colonizing Mars? Sounds good, but this is a new planet with its own challenges that no one else has had to encounter before. The harsh conditions make it almost certain that the mission will fail, but with skill and ingenuity, you can create a big successful colony on Mars.

What will we need on the mission?

What do we need first assuming that the technology is already in place? Money and a lot of it. Thus we need a mission sponsor. There are 13 sponsors in Surviving Mars which all have different agendas and different strengths when trying to reach Mars.

For example, Blue Sun will be interested in the business side of colonizing the planet and exporting rare metals as well as establishing a corporate structure on Mars and offering in return technologies to discover deposits deep into Mars' crust as well as some other business opportunities. On the other side, we have the Terraforming Initiative, who's sole purpose is making the red planet green. And they bring to the table means of making that easier.

The different challenges presented by the sponsors are not only better suited for different playstyles but also have different difficulty rating. The difficulty of the sponsor and of other mission choices is reflected so you can gradually challenge yourself further.

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There will be an additional sponsor for some of you. Expect news on that soon.

Who are you as the player anyway?

You are the mission head but you also have a past - were you a rocket scientist or a hydro engineer? Were you a politician or a Doctor? Your background will give the mission unique benefits and increase its chances of success.

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An intermission for the experienced players.

I feel a lot of the experienced players might be losing their patience at about this part so here is a quick and not at all comprehensive list of the bigger changes:

• Trains (completely reworked - expect more info in the next dev diary)

• The underground - a lot more space to build and greatly improved visuals

• Passenger rocket UI - totally rebuilt and much more clear

• The Build Menu is totally redone with a lot more space for buildings in the future

• New DLC that will come free with the game and affects almost every aspect of the game

• A ton of UX improvements (able to see the progress of rovers scanning anomalies on their pins, as well as how full transport rovers are; a ton of improvements to specific building info panels)

• Changes that will make the sponsors look more distinct

• GREATLY reduced spam from notifications (I am really proud of that one)

• As well as a ton of bug fixes (including typos that were all over the texts)

• Better explanation of some of the more obscure mechanics like deposit grades

We have changed (and added) a lot to the game. Expect more surprises with each successive dev diary.

What is a successful mission?

Surviving Mars: Relaunched is a sandbox game so success has different meaning than simply completing a story. The end-goal of the game is very much up to you, but there are certain late-game goals like reaching a high population, completing the goals set by your sponsor, terraforming Mars and others that will be a good measuring stick of success.

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There is a brand new end-goal that is to make the colony independent from Earth and your original sponsor. That's right - you can have your own version of Brexit (Marsexit? Mexit?) from Earth and your sponsor and potentially reaching a state where you are totally independent from them.

What other things can I do to spice things up?

There are additional options you can choose from in order to customize your experience on Mars. Rival missions are trying the same thing you are. And lets not forget the notorious mysteries of Mars (which will get their own dedicated dev diary).

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Some of the more experienced players may have noticed a "Founding Faction" option that was not there before. There will be more information in future dev diaries about this mysterious option and what it does (though there are some hints that will make it pretty clear in the screenshot).

In addition to that, there are game rules that allow you to further customize your playthroughs and challenges for those who really want to be pushed.

What more do I need for the mission?

Resources and prefabs are needed for you to start production of everything you need to house colonists. An example is concrete, which is too heavy to transport from Earth, and fuel which will be needed to return the rocket to Earth and get said colonists.

Each sponsor comes with their own loadout to help you set up quickly. Also note that some sponsors have unique rovers and buildings you can pick as prefabs here.

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As you see there are vast differences in the rocket loadout screen. This is not the only UI change in the game - we have revamped the HUD, and individual screens to ensure a better experience. Hopefully, you will like the changes we’ve made, and if you didn't - I assure you that they were needed in order to bring the game back to life and hopefully expand and improve it further as time goes on.

Where are we going anyway?

Mars is a planet. Planets are very, very big. Your colony, no matter its success will not span the whole planet but a small portion of it. This means that landing in the right spot is very important.

The different landing locations have different resources (like metals and water) as well as different environmental challenges. Nearing the poles of Mars will increase the chance of cold waves, while flat plains increase the chance of dust storms that will damage your equipment.

Picking your landing spot is essential for the survival of the colony and may also be used to challenge yourself to a higher difficulty rating.

You can remember the coordinates for the location you played last and either play there again or share them with your friends.

Now that I sent my rocket to Mars, what comes next?

Congratulations! You are now a Mars explorer. You will be given a map of the location you selected and be left to select where to land (more info on this in the next dev diary) and then start building your colony.

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More experienced players will notice that most of the UI is... different. There are far less notifications on the screen, the resource bar is brand new, the terraforming parameters, calendar and game speed are looking all new and are placed in a different place. There is also something new in the upper left corner that was not there before.

Like I said, we changed A LOT while keeping the crucial things the same. While the new UI can feel very different, the game underneath is still what you love.

I hope that this dev diary was enough to hook you into trying out this relaunched dream of colonizing Mars and you will be interested enough to read the rest of our dev diaries and even purchasing the game.

Remember - keep dreaming, keep building.

Until next time,

Lyubo