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Race to Mars screenshot
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Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Race to Mars

RTM 0.5.1040 Update
Small update:

[+] zoom on building - on/off in game options
[+] credits
[+] version number in menu

[fixed] reports bug
[fixed] bank bug
[fixed] autosave is working now
[fixed] resolution bug
[fixed] events bug

Apollo Update is here!
Today, after many months of work, we finally present to you the Apollo Update.

We know that we tried your patience very hard and understand how some of you are very angry at us. We would like to present how we feel about the last few months and hope you will find time to read it.

I allow myself these thoughts because we definitely see the finish line of what we want to achieve in Race To Mars 1.0. I speak about the 1.0 version, because we want to update for a few months after the premiere, adding new elements we invented during development, but were unable to fit due to time constraints.

The main problem with developing Race To Mars was, as is often the case, it's success. Very good Early Access sales directed us on a path a little too difficult for a team with our experience - we decided to create a bigger, better game with better visuals, a new GUI (which you can see in this build). That unfortunately led to situations where we were forced to create a lot of things from scratch, only realizing that this form of work makes it very difficult to regularly update the game as part of Early Access - too much was happening in the code and not enough in working mechanics to have it reasonably updated. It can be seen in many EA projects.

The other reason for the delays were huge changes in the team - two of the programmers who were working on Race To Mars from the beginning decided to focus on personal development and started their PhDs in computer development in a different country. The new team, handling different projects at that time, needed some time to get to know the project and take over its development. It was not without personal problems too, when our main technical designer was struggling with a serious illness and couldn't focus as much on the project. He is now a few days after a kidney transplant and we are all hoping for his swift return to health. His design work is 90% done, so it shouldn't be a source of further delays. Of course, there were also errors in team leadership, which let us learn a lot and help deliver you an even better project.

The third reason for the last delays were problems with Mission Control. It required us to reconsider a few project points and, due to other obligations, work on it had to be handled by a different programmer, who, unfortunately, was not able to finish yet. During that time we added a lot of different things, but we decided we really can't afford to wait anymore to finish this one building.

We are, all of us, gamers on the team and we have always wanted to make games from our love to them, with faith that we'd treat our fans the way we would like to be treated ourselves. We understand we have failed many of you, but we will keep trying even harder to prove to you that it was worth the wait. We will also make sure to make amends also in other ways, but that will have to wait for another time.

Now I invite you to try out the update and write your opinions. The next update should be available in the upcoming weeks and contain things like Mission Control and the Astronaut Complex, with bugfixes and minor improvements included.

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FULL FEATURUES
- Administration
- Research+Development
- Assembly Building
- University
- Inbox
- Time Line Bar
- Save / Load
- National Space and Air Office (old gui)
- End Turn Raport

WORK IN PROGRESS - PRIORITIES
- Mission Control
- Astronaut Complex
- Launch Facilities
- National Space and Air Office

TO DO
- Museum
- Programs
- Tracking Station
- Tutorial

Satellites.
We increased the number of satellites in the game from 16 up to 47. Up until now, for every construction tech in R+D there was one basic satellite, currently we decided to split them into different types, so with the same number of research you will be able to create a lot more types.

Satellites are the most varied group of equipment since they can take part in missions of basically any kind and they are present in all kinds of contracts - science, military and commercial.

Orbital Spaceplanes!
Does X-20 Dyna Solar or Venture Star mean anything to you? Two of these kinds of vehicles will be available in Race To Mars. These are multi-use vehicles built double delta or fuselage style.

They require rockets to launch into space, different from suborbital planes.

They are mainly used in transporting passengers.

Inbox.
Today's new feature is the Inbox. From today's update, all messages will be in the Inbox and you will be able to read them whenever you want. They will be split into categories concerning different topics like research, production, assembly or finances. Not all of them are currently implemented, but their numbers will grow.

It will be also there where you will find things that require a decision, also random events (that we are still working on).

screenshot: http://j.mp/rtm-inbox

Suborbital Space Planes.
Another element that was successfully added to the newest update are suborbital space planes.

There are four kinds in the game, of which 2 are self-launching and 2 need a Subsonic Carrier. These are manned crafts, so will require hiring and training an astronaut.

It is based in the Space Tourism Program.

Please follow our facebook - http://facebook.com/RaceToMars

The Equipedia
We ask for just a little more patience!

We are currently finishing up so many things that have taken up our last few months that it would really be a shame not to share them with you in this update.

We will try to inform you practically every day as to what will be present in the update that we haven't talked about before.

First up: The Equipedia. It's a tool that will let you better plan your research and check which research can be used for a particular piece of equipment. In other words, it's a new form of presenting research - not as a tree, but with regards to use in equipment.

New gameplay video! Check out the new game mechanics.
We would like to present you a new video made by Michał, which presents further new game mechanics in Race To Mars, which inevitably draws us closer to the Apollo Update.

We hope you like it and await your comments.

The video is available with subtitles in English and Polish.

http://youtu.be/lxbS9Im9yak

We're still here and we know you have every right to hate us now.
It's hard writing these words, but we're starting to think there is some sort of curse upon us and the game.

In any case, we're still moving forward, even though there is no progress visible. Currently we're finishing up the assembly building and after working out the kinks in Mission Control, R+D and Assembly, we will be very close to releasing the update.

Unfortunately, after adding so many systems it turned out that some of the things already made didn't play well enough together, requiring changes. As with the design, some things turned out to be too detailed and confusing, so we decided to unify some things together.

It all takes time unfortunately, and we once again say we're sorry for that.

There's some good news too however, any day now our Race To Mars team will be expanded by Hubert, an experienced programmer with years of work under his belt, who will help us finish the missing game mechanics.

We hope this will be the end of difficulties for our project and that you will soon be able to see and evaluate the progress.

Race To Mars: Apollo Update presentation
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