DevLog #30: Perseverance landing, analog mission cooperation & progress!
Dear Martians!
We know that we’ve been relatively silent lately (sorry for that), but it was due to being laser-focused on the development of this game. There was a lot going on “behind the scenes” and it’s time to tell you a little bit about it :)
Recently we've started a cooperation with the Valoria I crew from the HI-SEAS Project (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation) - Mars Simulated research station.
Together with the Valoria I Mission crew, our goal is to prepare a youtube miniseries showing the struggle of life on Mars, how to grow plants, use the airlock, and the parallels between the simulated Mars missions and our upcoming game. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel where we’ll now regularly post videos from the game development in preparation for the release.
You can read more about the Valoria I mission in the space.com reports below:
Report 1: Mission Introduction: https://www.space.com/hi-seas-valoria-1-mars-analog-mission-commander-report-1 Report 2: EVA activities and VR: https://www.space.com/hi-seas-valoria-1-mars-analog-mission-commander-report-2 Report 3: Surviving the night: https://www.space.com/hi-seas-valoria-1-mars-analog-mission-commander-report-3 Report 4: Mission summary: https://www.space.com/hi-seas-valoria-1-mars-analog-mission-commander-report-4
Coming back to the game:
In January, we released the Translation Update for the Prologue. The language update took us slightly longer than expected. Still, it was worth it because we were simultaneously translating the game to 10 languages - not only the Prologue but also a big chunk of the main game.
We are also reading all the feedback which you post on the Prologue forums and trying to include as much of your suggestions as we can into the main game.
As for the main game we’re currently focusing on balancing the Sandbox gameplay mode, we’ve also added more real-life Mars locations into our procedural terrain generation system.
Perseverance Rover is landing on Mars today, so we couldn’t forget about it as well. We hope the landing will be successful. In Occupy Mars it’s already sitting safe & sound inside the Jezero Crater.
Meanwhile, our second team has also added this rover to our previous game: Rover Mechanic Simulator in the form of a DLC. If you want to learn about Perseverance’s construction and the scientific instruments it has on board - it’s a great way to do it:
We are a small team, but we are getting closer to the Early Access release of Occupy Mars each day. We also plan on launching a closed beta, first for our most active discord members.
We’ll announce the exact dates once we are sure that the game is ready. We know that a good Early Access launch is the most important, so we want to make sure that we'll make it right.
Thank you all for the amazing support so far! and for your patience while we prepare the game for release. There’s so much more we’d like to talk about, but we need to leave some information for the upcoming video-devlogs.
Stay tuned! Mars can’t wait for you to be Occupied :)
Since there is Christmas, we would like to show you our winter wonderland in Occupy Mars! Our Starman visited the winter location and took a few screenshots for you - let’s take a look at them below:
Winter location will be available to explore in the full game. There you will find a frozen lake and remnants from the previous Mars mission. It is one of the most beautiful and relaxing locations in Occupy Mars.
As you can see, the sunsets are blue in Occupy Mars as they are on real Mars. Fine dust allows blue light to push through the atmosphere more efficiently, and that’s why sunsets are blue.
🎄 Merry Christmas 🎄
We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas with lots of love! Remember to take care of yourself during this festive season.
For the past few months, we’ve been working extremely hard on improving the Prologue and the upcoming Early Access release. We have focused on the development of Occupy Mars because we really want to deliver a great survival experience on Mars.
Releasing a demo version and then the prologue, helped us gather tons of valuable feedback which allows us to introduce changes that make the upcoming Early Access better in terms of gameplay, core mechanics, features, quests and storyline. And that’s all thanks to our amazing Community!
Early Access Development Progress
We know that we haven’t been so active here on Steam lately, but now we’re back with the current development status. Recently, we've added all the Prologue changes and improvements into the upcoming Early Access version. Other additional changes also have been introduced.
One of the many things we've reworked is the player's inventory. We also keep working on gamepad control support for all the inventory screens.
Inventory Changes:
The information window now appears when you hover your mouse, you don't have to click on it.
Added auxiliary buttons to quickly move all items between inventories and a button to quickly divide. items.
New appearance of the window with the selection options. Previously it was on the information window, now it is separated.
Below you can take a look at gifs showcasing improved inventory. Keep in mind this is a test footage of the new inventory system which we currently work on and doesn't represent the final look of the game:
We are also working on a Free Play Mode which will be available in the Early Access. As part of working on this mode, we’ve been working on the starting conditions menu, as well as Tech Tree and Hangar. We’ve added protection from the damage caused by atmospheric events to the Hangar. We’ve also redesigned the UI of changing the trailers. Unfortunately, we can't reveal too much information about the Free Play Mode as we're still redesigning it. However, we will tell you more details in future devlogs! :)
Below you can take a look at some of the new development screenshots:
This is just a hint as there's a lot more exciting stuff we'd like to show you, stay tuned for more updates after the Holidays! ːsteamhappyː
Upcoming Prologue Update
Now let’s move on to the Prologue. We’re still working on the next Update, which will add support for multiple languages. But the good news is that the update is almost ready and will be released soon! We will provide you with more details regarding the Localization Update soon on the Prologue page. We appreciate your understanding.
Thank You!
We would like to thank our Community for constant support and amazing feedback. We receive tons of motivation which keep us working hard on the game. Thanks to you, we’re making our game better, and we know that we’re on the right track.
Vote for Occupy Mars: Prologue in the Steam Awards!
Dear Martians!
The next edition of the Steam Game Awards is here! If Occupy Mars: Prologue is the toughest game you've ever enjoyed, we would like to encourage you to vote for Occupy Mars: Prologue in the category The Best Game You Suck At.
Remember that you can only nominate the prologue in a single category, so if our game isn't your best game you suck at, then we would be very grateful if you'd vote for our game in other categories!
We would greatly appreciate your vote! ːsteamhappyː
As you know we are working hard on preparing Occupy Mars for launch, meanwhile our previous game (made by a different team) Rover Mechanic Simulator just got a big update and is now officially out of Early Access. See the new trailer below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lywJdc8vgP0 To celebrate the full release, our publisher prepared a special offer! The game releases with the special 15% launch discount and thanks to PlayWay you can also receive an additional 20% loyalty discount if you own at least one of the games below:
- Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 - Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 - Drug Dealer Simulator - Cooking Simulator - House Flipper - UBOAT - Barn Finders - Thief Simulator - Tank Mechanic Simulator - Ultimate Fishing Simulator - 911 Operator - 112 Operator - Train Station Renovation - Plane Mechanic Simulator
This offer will be valid only for 7 days, this message will disappear on November 19th. Purchasing Rover Mechanic Simulator is the best way to support the development of Occupy Mars.
Thank you all for your continuous support. If you have any questions regarding our games, feel free to ask them on our Discord Server! We're available to talk almost everyday!
Yesterday we've made a Developer Stream as part of Gamescom Indie Arena Booth. During the stream we've talked about Occupy Mars and shown the recent features and updates as well as some hidden features available in the game.
The stream went live yesterday (28.08) at 17:00 PM CEST (8 AM PDT) and was about 3 hours long. For those of you who missed it - you can still watch it on one of our channels below. We will also keep re-streaming it here on Steam at least until the end of Gamescom. Be sure to watch it if you haven't already:
Thank you so much for playing and for the amazing feedback which helps us with the development of this game. Occupy Mars wouldn't be possible without such amazing community. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask: here on the comments, on the forums or on our Discord server. If you are interested in the details of the recent updates to the game you can read the full changelog here.
Survive the Prologue and help us prepare for the full Early Access release!
After the Demo version presented during the Steam Games Festival we've prepared a survey for you. Below you can find the answers from that survey. We've tried our best to implement as many of Your requests as possible in the Prologue.
We've also asked you about features most expected in the Prologue version. After reading your answers -we've managed to add most of those requested (and more - you can find the changelog here) (except translations) which are almost done but will be added in the next updates.
You can now play with saves, change key bindings, automatically load rocks on trailer, invert mouse, fix PCB and survive many shorter sandstorms!
While playing the Prologue remember to Press F4 during the game to send feedback to us. Thanks to your invaluable feedback we will keep updating the game to prepare the best possible Early Access launch of the full game.
Play Prologue and have fun! Occupy Mars Team
Prologue Progress
Dear Martians!
The Prologue is in the final stages of testing before the release. Thanks to your amazing feedback and suggestions, we've added lots of improvements that require additional tests and fixes. Due to this, we have to postpone the release date of the prologue slightly. The prologue will be released in August.
New features added since the Steam Festival Demo version:
new semi-automated grabber & simplified rocks loading mechanic for Heavy Rover
possibility to change key bindings
possibility to plug in oxygen to the Rover / buildings
enabled save system
possibility to produce water bottles from the well
enabled well expansion
implemented workbench for fixing PCBs
new missions after the storm
new night sky
new interface including HUD
new item icons
improved rocks physics
dust storm ends quicker
new printing animation
new animation of unloading rocks
prologue intro cinematic
new animated tutorials
player’s AI sounds in the spacesuit
hundreds of bugfixes and optimizations
and much more!
All those changes were implemented thanks to your feedback and they bring us much closer to the release of the full game in Early Access later this year.
Today we would like to talk about vegetable cultivation inside your Mars Base, which will be a crucial part of your mission. As a colonist, one of your main tasks will be to establish a reliable food source on Mars.
Inside the Main HQ, you can grow potatoes and beetroots, but before you start cultivating plants, you need to build devices, which will allow you to do it, e.g. hydroponic shelves and optionally plant incubator. At your disposal you’ll have a seed tool used for planting seeds. Besides, you have to make sure that your base has power and water connection because your plants need light and water.🌱
The next important step is planting seeds, but you have to choose if you want to plant seeds directly on hydroponic shelves or plant them in plant incubator first, which will speed up germination. The choice is yours!
If you would like to plant seeds in an incubator first, remember that once the crops have germinated, you have to replant them into hydroponic shelves. Growing potatoes and beetroots on hydroponic trays from the beginning won’t require replanting them later but it will take longer. In the full game there will also be additional steps where you can replant your crops into fields and greenhouses.
While cultivating, you have to monitor the parameters (like: temperature and water level) on an ongoing basis and manage resources wisely if you want to grow food successfully. 🥔
The prologue is close to launch. Stay tuned for upcoming updates. If you have any questions or just want to talk with devs and other future colonists, feel free to join our Discord server!
First of all, we would like to thank you for playing Occupy Mars Demo during the summer festival! We've gathered tons of valuable feedback and suggestions that we couldn't have collected in any other way.
For us, the demo was a great success: over 50k people downloaded it in 10 days, and our wishlist numbers almost doubled! Moreover, our developers' stream had almost 4k concurrent viewers! We didn't expect so much interest in our game. It motivated us to work even harder on improvements.
To make sure we didn't miss any important feedback, we've prepared a special survey for you. Click on the image below to fill the short feedback form:
To sum up - thank you! To all of you who played, who shared their feedback with us, who sent bug reports. Thanks to your help - we will make Occupy Mars great!
Don't worry about the dust storm!
The Prologue is now in the final testing stage to be released this month. This free to play version will give you more playtime, more features and a way to verify if we are going in the right direction with implementing your suggestions.
We have more good news coming up in the next weeks, as we are working on our Development Roadmap. Make sure to Follow our community so you won't miss any update. Stay tuned!
