Bohemia Interactive, an award-winning video games developer based in the Czech Republic, today announce their plan to launch the first ever manned mission to Mars. The project, which uses 'Expedition One' as its working title, is part of the studio’s effort to explore the red planet and – ultimately – establish a human colony on Mars. While the first space shuttle is scheduled to depart as early as April this year, Bohemia Interactive is still actively recruiting for people to join its marsonauts training program.
Expedition One, a content update for Bohemia Interactive’s new sim game Take On™ Mars, enables volunteers to explore Mars from the most intimate of perspectives; through their own eyes. Participants will be tasked with performing a multitude of scientific experiments, constructing habitats spanning from shelters to entire installations, and searching for viable sources of oxygen, water, and raw materials. Due to the limited amount of supplies the space shuttle can carry, one of the most significant challenges for the marsonauts will simply be surviving the harsh Martian environment. As such, participants will have to actively manage their oxygen levels, food stocks, grow plants, and operate drilling rigs in the search for new resources. Unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles will be at their disposal to increase their mobility across the vast alien terrain.
"As a studio, we've always been obsessed with games that explore topics of human fascination", said Bohemia Interactive's CEO, Marek Spanel. "One of those is space exploration. Missions to Mars - from the past, present, and also some ambitious projects for the future - sparked our imagination about what it would be like to be the first human on Mars. We soon felt that this should be the endgame for the Take On Mars campaign."
With the arrival of the Expedition One content update, the campaign in Take On Mars will be divided into two chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the exploration of Mars via the Mars Rovers and Stationary Landers, while Chapter 2 is entirely dedicated to human exploration of the red planet. Those who would wish to embark on this exciting adventure right away will be able to skip the first chapter. However, this does mean that they will start out with fewer resources than those who completed part one of Take On Mars' Space Program campaign.
Highlights of the Expedition One mission include:
Take the next giant leap for mankind and leave the first human footprints on the surface of Mars
Drive unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles to explore the new 8x8 km Cydonia terrain
Build your own habitat spanning from shelters to entire installations via a unique construction system
Live off the land by managing and extracting resources to build your base and keep you alive
Establish the foundations of a human colony on the surface of another planet
Expedition One will be made available in the second quarter of 2014. To enroll for the manned mission, people can join Take On Mars’ Early Access program on Steam for the reduced price of 13.99 EUR/ 17.99 USD/ 11.99 GBP.
Take On Mars was officially announced at E3 2013, where it won IGN’s Best New PC Game award. For more information on Take On Mars, please visit http://mars.takeonthegame.com/ and/or follow Take On Mars on Twitter and Facebook.
Bohemia Interactive, an award-winning video games developer based in the Czech Republic, today announce their plan to launch the first ever manned mission to Mars. The project, which uses 'Expedition One' as its working title, is part of the studio’s effort to explore the red planet and – ultimately – establish a human colony on Mars. While the first space shuttle is scheduled to depart as early as April this year, Bohemia Interactive is still actively recruiting for people to join its marsonauts training program.
Expedition One, a content update for Bohemia Interactive’s new sim game Take On™ Mars, enables volunteers to explore Mars from the most intimate of perspectives; through their own eyes. Participants will be tasked with performing a multitude of scientific experiments, constructing habitats spanning from shelters to entire installations, and searching for viable sources of oxygen, water, and raw materials. Due to the limited amount of supplies the space shuttle can carry, one of the most significant challenges for the marsonauts will simply be surviving the harsh Martian environment. As such, participants will have to actively manage their oxygen levels, food stocks, grow plants, and operate drilling rigs in the search for new resources. Unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles will be at their disposal to increase their mobility across the vast alien terrain.
"As a studio, we've always been obsessed with games that explore topics of human fascination", said Bohemia Interactive's CEO, Marek Spanel. "One of those is space exploration. Missions to Mars - from the past, present, and also some ambitious projects for the future - sparked our imagination about what it would be like to be the first human on Mars. We soon felt that this should be the endgame for the Take On Mars campaign."
With the arrival of the Expedition One content update, the campaign in Take On Mars will be divided into two chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the exploration of Mars via the Mars Rovers and Stationary Landers, while Chapter 2 is entirely dedicated to human exploration of the red planet. Those who would wish to embark on this exciting adventure right away will be able to skip the first chapter. However, this does mean that they will start out with fewer resources than those who completed part one of Take On Mars' Space Program campaign.
Highlights of the Expedition One mission include:
Take the next giant leap for mankind and leave the first human footprints on the surface of Mars
Drive unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles to explore the new 8x8 km Cydonia terrain
Build your own habitat spanning from shelters to entire installations via a unique construction system
Live off the land by managing and extracting resources to build your base and keep you alive
Establish the foundations of a human colony on the surface of another planet
Expedition One will be made available in the second quarter of 2014. To enroll for the manned mission, people can join Take On Mars’ Early Access program on Steam for the reduced price of 13.99 EUR/ 17.99 USD/ 11.99 GBP.
Take On Mars was officially announced at E3 2013, where it won IGN’s Best New PC Game award. For more information on Take On Mars, please visit http://mars.takeonthegame.com/ and/or follow Take On Mars on Twitter and Facebook.
<p style='text-align:center'><object width="426" height="240"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.com/v/4s5CQ8YL-sA&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1&rel=1&fs=1&egm=0&border=0&feature=player_embedded"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://youtube.com/v/4s5CQ8YL-sA&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1&rel=1&fs=1&egm=0&border=0&feature=player_embedded" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="426" height="240"></embed></object></p> In support of last week’s <a href="http://www.bistudio.com/mailing/html/take-on-mars-workbench-update.html" target="_blank">Workbench update</a>, Bohemia Interactive today launched a series of mod-making video tutorials for their new sim game Take On™ Mars. Titled ‘Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4)’, the video series aims to help people get started with creating additional or new content for Take On Mars, using the game’s Workbench editing suite. The first chapter - Data Structure & Modifications – kicks off with an explanation of where Take On Mars looks for its data, and how it can be modified. <p> <em>“The fact that Take On Mars itself started as a mod for Carrier Command: Gaea Mission explains a lot about the dedication of this team to modding and user content creation”</em>, said Take On Mars’ Project Lead, Martin Melicharek. <em>“While we’re still adding new content to the game ourselves, with a really cool announcement coming up next week, we’re looking forward to see how other people experiment with the tools used to develop Take On Mars. The Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4) should form an excellent starting point.”</em> </p> <p>More chapters in the ‘Mars Mod-Making Manual’ series will be released over the course of the next few months – starting with the second chapter about addons, mods and total conversions.</p>
In support of last week’s Workbench update, today we launched a series of mod-making video tutorials for Take On™ Mars. Titled ‘Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4)’, the video series aims to help people get started with creating additional or new content for Take On Mars, using the game’s Workbench editing suite. The first chapter - Data Structure & Modifications – kicks off with an explanation of where Take On Mars looks for its data, and how it can be modified.
The fact that Take On Mars itself started as a mod for Carrier Command: Gaea Mission explains a lot about the dedication of this team to modding and user content creation. While we’re still adding new content to the game ourselves, with a really cool announcement coming up next week, we’re looking forward to see how other people experiment with the tools used to develop Take On Mars. The Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4) should form an excellent starting point.
More chapters in the ‘Mars Mod-Making Manual’ series will be released over the course of the next few months – starting with the second chapter about addons, mods and total conversions.
Kind and sincere regards from the Dev team, Martin Melicharek (Project Lead)
In support of last week’s Workbench update, today we launched a series of mod-making video tutorials for Take On™ Mars. Titled ‘Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4)’, the video series aims to help people get started with creating additional or new content for Take On Mars, using the game’s Workbench editing suite. The first chapter - Data Structure & Modifications – kicks off with an explanation of where Take On Mars looks for its data, and how it can be modified.
The fact that Take On Mars itself started as a mod for Carrier Command: Gaea Mission explains a lot about the dedication of this team to modding and user content creation. While we’re still adding new content to the game ourselves, with a really cool announcement coming up next week, we’re looking forward to see how other people experiment with the tools used to develop Take On Mars. The Mars Mod-Maker's Manual (M4) should form an excellent starting point.
More chapters in the ‘Mars Mod-Making Manual’ series will be released over the course of the next few months – starting with the second chapter about addons, mods and total conversions.
Kind and sincere regards from the Dev team, Martin Melicharek (Project Lead)
Hello everyone, today we released an additional update to the Workbench update, addressing several minor issues and more importantly, further improving Workbench for Mod support. You will now notice that for every file loaded it will have an absolute path written nearby, helping you determine which mod you are editing files for.
This friday we will concentrate our efforts at helping modders get started by creating tutorial style videos that will take you step by step through the process of modding the game. This will be an ongoing process and feedback received from you will help us create additional videos tailored to your needs.
Please feel free to ask away regarding modding and the tools we have provided, we will be only too happy to help.
Kind and sincere regards from the Dev team, Martin Melicharek (Project Lead)
Hello everyone, today we released an additional update to the Workbench update, addressing several minor issues and more importantly, further improving Workbench for Mod support. You will now notice that for every file loaded it will have an absolute path written nearby, helping you determine which mod you are editing files for.
This friday we will concentrate our efforts at helping modders get started by creating tutorial style videos that will take you step by step through the process of modding the game. This will be an ongoing process and feedback received from you will help us create additional videos tailored to your needs.
Please feel free to ask away regarding modding and the tools we have provided, we will be only too happy to help.
Kind and sincere regards from the Dev team, Martin Melicharek (Project Lead)
<p>Launching together with a <b><a href="http://mars.takeonthegame.com" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">brand new website</a></b>, Bohemia Interactive’s (early access) sim game <em>Take On™ Mars</em> today received a major update. The update, codenamed ‘Workbench’, adds multiple features for mod makers, and several new crater locations to explore. </p> <p> With the release of the Workbench update, Take On Mars now fully supports Total Conversions and Mods. This means the game now deals with additional content in a modular fashion, which makes it possible to completely replace all content in the game (scripts, functionality, locations, everything) with your own – making Take On Mars the sandbox platform to build upon. </p> <p> Another feature is the special TKOM Loader, which allows people to extract all game data to a directory for mod making, and use the developer executable. Using this launcher provides shortcuts to the FBX to TXO exporter, the in-house Workbench editing suite, 2 bonus games, and importantly, it allows enabling/disabling of addons/mods/total conversion per profile. </p> <p> Furthermore, as is implied by the name of the update, Take On Mars’ Workbench editing suite has been replaced with a newer version. This latest edition of Workbench is tailored specifically for mod makers, and gives them full access to all of the tools used to make Take On Mars, from crater locations to particle effects. </p> <p> Last but certainly not least, explorers will be pleased to hear that the Workbench update comes with several new crater locations, including the North and South polar caps, an improved version of the Lyot Crater, and the work-in-progress Isidis Planitia. </p> <p> More information about Take On Mars is available on <a href="http://mars.takeonthegame.com"target="_blank">mars.takeonthegame.com</a>.
Launching together with a brand new website, Bohemia Interactive’s (early access) sim game Take On™ Mars today received a major update. The update, codenamed ‘Workbench’, adds multiple features for mod makers, and several new crater locations to explore.
With the release of the Workbench update, Take On Mars now fully supports Total Conversions and Mods. This means the game now deals with additional content in a modular fashion, which makes it possible to completely replace all content in the game (scripts, functionality, locations, everything) with your own – making Take On Mars the sandbox platform to build upon.
Another feature is the special TKOM Loader, which allows people to extract all game data to a directory for mod making, and use the developer executable. Using this launcher provides shortcuts to the FBX to TXO exporter, the in-house Workbench editing suite, 2 bonus games, and importantly, it allows enabling/disabling of addons/mods/total conversion per profile.
Furthermore, as is implied by the name of the update, Take On Mars’ Workbench editing suite has been replaced with a newer version. This latest edition of Workbench is tailored specifically for mod makers, and gives them full access to all of the tools used to make Take On Mars, from crater locations to particle effects.
Last but certainly not least, explorers will be pleased to hear that the Workbench update comes with several new crater locations, including the North and South polar caps, an improved version of the Lyot Crater, and the work-in-progress Isidis Planitia.
First off I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the dev team!
I would also like to let you guys know that until the 6th of January, there will be no updates, neither dev nor main, as we will be on holidays. Last Friday we added work-in-progress vehicle programming (allowing you to input a sequence of commands to the rover and watching as it completes them), which will be finalized at the start of next year.
I would also like to thank each and every one of you for giving us feedback throughout the Early Access program, and helping us shape the game. We could not have done it without you! At the start of next year we will announce what is next for the project, and our plans for the rest of the Early Access phase. Rest assured, we will be concentrating on helping modders and addon makers, and will also make many tutorials on how to mod the game.
A lot to look forward to, so again thank you for your support and input, and I look forward to communicating with you all again in 2014!
Kind and sincere regards, Martin Melicharek Project Lead for Take On Mars