Blog

Dev Diary 10: Curiosity

It is time for a new dev diary exploring the new features added to Surviving mars. New Domes Curiosity introduces five new Dome types to the game. These are not skins or variants of the old Domes, but entirely new models with new shapes, functionality and costs. With one exception, they do not require new techs to be researched. Each of them is unlocked together with one of the old Domes, potentially by an existing tech. This means that many...
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Making the score for Surviving Mars

  A “making of” video of the process behind writing the orchestral score for Haemimont Games’ / Paradox Interactive’s’ “Surviving Mars”, composed and conducted by George Strezov. The soundtrack features the fantastic musicians of the Sofia Session Orchestra with solos by Tsvetelina Beleva (alto flute) and Petyo Kolev (flute). The sonic style is a colourful mix between vintage synthesizers and minimalistic, airy orchestral timbres. Video shot by Milen Mladenov, video editing by Bohos Topakbashian.   Via Georgi Strezov

Dev Diary 9: Opportunity

Surviving Mars was always planned as a game that we will keep improving and supporting post-release. The upcoming Opportunity patch is our first… well – opportunity, to add significant features to the game and evolve it in response to your feedback. In this dev diary, I will provide a brief overview with the shiny stuff in the upcoming patch and our reasoning for adding them to the game. All the features I am going to talk about are free and...
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Dev Diary 8: Modding!

The new frontier… The perils of the unknown… The great difficulties and the great hope for the next generation? No, I’m not talking about colonizing Mars. I’m talking about the greatest technical risk we took on with Surviving Mars: building the game for modding support. Haemimont Games has shipped a cool 15 games on various platforms, but not one of them has had official modding support. And modding was something Paradox wanted from the very beginning of the project. Games...
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Dev Diary 7: For Science!

Boyan Ivanov is one of the lead designer of Surviving Mars and in this article he tells more about the research in Surviving Mars and how it allows us to make every playthrough feel and play differently. The BasicsSome of you have already seen our research screen in previews and let’s plays. There are 5 tech fields – Biotech, Engineering, Robotics, Physics and Social as well as a secret field that contains the most awesome techs in the game, but more...
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Video Dev Diary 2 – Step onto the Surface of Mars

In Surviving Mars, players will lead a colonization effort on the surface of Mars, from the very first rovers and supply drops to the construction of suitable habitats for brave settlers from Earth. Every colonist will be vital to the mission as the colony struggles to gain a foothold where the environment is hostile and resources are scarce. With each success, however, players will gain the ability to expand further, and even establish a thriving society – and lead a...
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Dev Diary 6 – The Seven Wonders of Mars

Let’s talk about the Wonders in Surviving Mars. But first, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane, back to 1999 when, in the words of Douglas Adams, games were real games, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. I adore sci-fi games of all kinds, but my single favorite of all times is Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. I remember fondly so many things about this game, but in the context of...
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Dev Diary 5 – It’s a Mystery!

In this Dev Diary we talk about the mysteries – our way to inject a little bit of story within the sandbox game, to introduce additional challenges for your developed colony and to make each playthrough different!Our mysteries are long epic scripted sequences of events that tell an interactive and often fantastic story. Only one of the several available mysteries can be active during each game. You will be prompted to choose which one at the start and you can...
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