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 that welcome the players to join in the creation are loved more, played more, and live more, they said. What's the point of partnering with a well-respected experienced publisher if you don't heed what they say?
The bad news was that over the previous several games, the data loading process of our engine had been optimized in the opposite direction, to be as monolithic and economical as possible, to allow for minimal loading times. This had to be reversed, and many types of data can now be loaded in pieces, or late after the game has started, to allow for asset authoring and tested.
The good and much more important news was that our games are written in a mixture of two programming languages: C++ to handle the low-level stuff like graphics, audio and talking to the underlying hardware; Lua. Which allowed us to implement virtually everything you think of as "game", from the simulation logic of the colonists on Mars to the user interface that allows the player to control them. And Lua is not only much easier for modders to learn - it's also easy to be loaded from different places, even when the game is running. We knew that we needed to give modders this ultimate power, to modify and add new Lua code to the game.
The overarching goal of the mod support is, in the words of Alan Kay, simple things should be simple, and complex things should be possible. For the simple part, we identified a handful of small but impactful changes to the game that can be implemented by anyone who's not afraid of their computer. Mission Logos, for example, let you leave your imprint on every building of your colony. You only need to supply a simple, transparent PNG file
You can read the full dev diary here
Surviving Mars
Haemimont Games
Paradox Interactive
2018-03-15
Strategy Singleplayer
GameBillet
6.63 /
€
Game News Posts 112
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Very Positive
(15388 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920 
The Game includes VR Support
Linux [144.85 M]Picard (1498760) Depot [157.66 M]
Surviving Mars: Space Race
Surviving Mars: Mysteries Resupply Pack
Surviving Mars: Deluxe Edition Upgrade Pack
Surviving Mars: Green Planet
Surviving Mars: Marsvision Song Contest
Surviving Mars: Colony Design Set
Surviving Mars: Project Laika
Surviving Mars: In-Dome Buildings Pack
Surviving Mars: Below and Beyond
Surviving Mars: Mars Lifestyle Radio
Surviving Mars: Revelation Radio Pack
Surviving Mars: Future Contemporary Cosmetic Pack
Surviving Mars: Martian Express
Colonize Mars and discover her secrets, with minimal casualties.
Welcome Home! The time has come to stake your claim on the Red Planet and build the first functioning human colonies on Mars! All you need are supplies, oxygen, decades of training, experience with sandstorms, and a can-do attitude to discover the purpose of those weird black cubes that appeared out of nowhere. With a bit of sprucing up, this place is going to be awesome!
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.
Main Features:
Building a sustainable colony in space:
Building on a planet not fit for human life challenges you to build a smart, functional colony. Bad planning isn’t about traffic jams, it’s about survival of your colonists. You really don’t want rolling blackouts in a city constructed in a place without oxygen.Individually simulated colonists:
Each colonist is a unique individual with problems and strengths that influence the needs and behavior of the other colonists. Things can get really interesting if your chief scientists develops alcoholism after one too many long nights in the lab.Futuristic Space Dome construction:
Retro-futuristic super structures housing colonists, factories and commercial buildings with their own “neighborhood personality.” Create colonies that value science over everything else, while tired workers drink their pay away at a local bar, or attempt a utopia among the stars.Exploration of Mars’ secrets:
Inspired by the classic sci-fi of Asimov and Clarke, Surviving Mars holds many secrets. During each playthrough players may encounter one of Mars’ individually crafted mysteries. Uncovering these secrets might bring your colony great fortune, or terrible ruin. What is that sphere that manifested itself outside colony HUB B, and is it friendly?Randomized research tree:
Combine static and random research through experimentation, which allows for a different experience for each journey through the game. Attain new scientific breakthroughs by exploring the uncharted terrain of Mars's surface.Unique retro-futuristic aesthetic:
A sleek, modern take on the bright futurism of the 1960s. A time of exploration and adventure.Expansive mod support:
Craft your own fantastic buildings, parks or even a mystery to share through Surviving Mars’s extensive and convenient modding tools. Share your finest creations with the community to build the perfect society.- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 x64 or newer
- Processor: 4th Generation Intel i3 CPU or equivalentMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 4.5 (GeForce 600/AMD Radeon 7700 or higher) with 1GB of video RAM
- Storage: 6 GB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 x64 or newer
- Processor: Fast quad-core CPUsMemory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce 970-level GPU with 4GB of video RAM
- Storage: 6 GB available space
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