Time to let you in on our recent development progress.

For the past few weeks, we have been focusing on two certain areas of the game – the Electricity System and Terrain System. We have been polishing these systems in order to further improve them, make them more practical and realistic.

In the case of the Terrain System, we have been trying out various techniques, which would allow generating marks on the ground corresponding to the player’s actions. It’s especially important on Mars’ sandy ground, which is not as sturdy as some other areas and should change under the weight of various objects. You can see our current results below:




Regarding the Electricity System – some of you have suggested implementing a system that would allow you to temporarily cut off certain sections of the base from power if needed.
We think this is a great suggestion, which is why we’re currently reworking the system! Now bases will be divided into sections with circuit breakers, which will control the flow of current. Each input socket will also have a breaker.



We are also adding a “smart meters” feature, which will allow you to remotely control circuit breakers and enable or disable specific breakers remotely, provided the player is within range of built antennas. That said, circuit breakers are not the only objects that you’ll be able to control remotely! As long as you’re in the antenna’s range, you can also control other devices, including outdoor Batteries and Power Splitter. HQ building can enlarge the antenna’s range thanks to its own antenna built in the building.

Remember the drone we mentioned in the last devlog? You’ll be able to use the same handheld remote to control the drone and heavy rover as well!

This devlog might be shorter than previous ones, but rest assured that Occupy Mars will have a lot to offer! In fact, we have prepared a summary of the game’s evolution throughout its various iterations. You can also take a look at what we’re planning for the upcoming Beta version and for the future updates. The second graphic shows all the features that we want to include in the Early Access version.
Just press on the thumbnails below to view graphics in their entirety!



If you’d like to talk to us about the game, join our Discord server! Feel free to reach out to us on Steam forums as well.



As a side note, we’ll be present at this year’s EGX Gaming Show! The event will take place in London from October 7 to October 10. We’ll be showing off some of our games and – of course – Occupy Mars will be among them! If you happen to drop by, this will be a great chance to take a closer look at the game!



Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

First of all, we apologize for taking so long preparing this update. Some of you have been worrying about development slowing down. We’re here to let you know that it’s absolutely not true!

Just as this devlog is being created, our Occupy Mars dev team is working hard on various aspects of the game. 💪 As such, it’s difficult to dedicate this devlog to one certain milestone. Instead, we have decided to give you a detailed overview of what our team members have been up to during this time.

Let’s start with necessities: our Sound Designer has been filling in the gaps of our sound design. Sounds of walking and various other sounds that had been missing from the game are now being steadily added or improved. Sound plays a major role in Occupy Mars, as it not only contributes to Mars’ desolate atmosphere, but also serves as an important feedback to player whenever he’s interacting with the game world. There is also another new feature in the works which has a huge impact on immersion (pictured below), we’ll be able to tell more about it in the future devlogs. 🤞



Another one of our team members has been working on the ground detection system – it’s a task closely related to sound design and makes it possible for the game system to recognize different types of ground and associate it with a specific sound. In other words, with this detection enabled, you’ll be able to hear different sounds while running on sturdy rocky ground or your base’s metallic floor.

Animations have been improved. Various new ones have been added, while existing ones have been polished. We have also managed to fix many bugs on our way. One of the most notable ones would be the kneeling issue. Basically, it was easy for player to get stuck when trying to stand up in a place where standing up shouldn’t be possible. Animation speed and transitions between crouching and standing state have been improved and an obstacle detection system has been added to make sure the character won’t struggle while traversing through these tiny lava tunnels. 😉



Another very helpful, albeit difficult to illustrate addition to the game is a pathfinding system based on machine learning. Basically we teach the artificial neural network how to navigate the martian landscape, which then navigates it like a car or a robot would in real life. We decided to take this step due to the long time it takes to generate standard pathfinding solutions on the procedurally generated terrain. In particular, it’s useful when it comes to this little buddy:



Do you remember this little fellow? 🙂 We’ve been working hard to make him a reliable companion during your adventure on Mars. Many new commands are currently being included to make Spotty as responsive as possible.

Our team members have also been working on expanding the game’s world. New locations have been added. Other than well known rocky landscapes, you’ll be able to explore places filled with snow and ice. There will be various deserted bases scattered across the Red Planet. You will be able to explore them, see remains of what used to be home to astronauts before you and tear those remains apart in other to gather more resources. Even if their mission has ended, they can be a great help to you!



With so many places to explore, will you be able to see it all? It depends on you, but we’re making sure to provide you with all the tools you may need! Another team member is currently working on a flying version of Ingenuity helicopter, which will allow you to peek into places that would normally appear inaccessible. Make sure to charge him first, otherwise he won’t fly far. 😉 Drone’s batteries are charged with solar energy when on standby and can additionally be charged by the player.

The Rover Controller you may know from the Prologue will become a general use Remote Controler for many different vehicles - such us the helicopter.



Speaking of vehicles, our team has also been working on heavy rover’s driving system to make it more intuitive and enjoyable.

And now last, but definitely not least, we’d like to show you a new vehicle that’s being worked on:




Here is a message from our team member who is in charge of this new amazing vehicle and who wanted to tell you a bit about it himself. 😊

Hey, guys! Recently, I've been working on a new vehicle, which – I hope – will close the gap between Heavy Rover and light ATV Quad. At first glance it seems like it’s just Offroad Cybertruck, but don't be fooled! Because this is MarsTruck, an offroad pickup and i have no clue why you would call it otherwise
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Okay, I guess You might guess what served as an inspiration for bodywork ;). It's offroad pickup with AWD and a small amount of regolith carrying ability. It has 2-3 seats and a place for Spotty companion. It also has enough space for inventory or an additional battery extender in the frunk. Offroad suspension (double wishbone at front, and independent on rear) and big wheels will get you to places that are hard to reach on foot or with other vehicles. I hope you’ll have as much fun riding it as I have creating it right now!

That would be it! This devlog turned out to be surprisingly lengthy, but we hope that gave you a good idea regarding our progress on the game. Occupy Mars is a big project and one that will definitely take us a while longer, but it gives us a lot of joy and we can’t wait to show you the end results.

Please bear with us a bit longer and if you have any suggestions for us regarding the game itself or anything else, do let us know on our Discord server, Steam forums or anywhere else! Every new game is a new learning opportunity for us and we’d like to do what we can to make this waiting time more manageable.



Add the game to your Wishlist to make sure you don’t miss any news regarding Occupy Mars!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/

Thank you for all your support so far!

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

We are back with another update from the development front! We spent the last month working on the Technical Backbone of the game. The work included: finalizing the switch to new version of Unity Engine, developing and testing new rocks system, working on performance & optimizations along with improving the new highly-detailed, tessellated terrain & environment.

Thanks to close collaboration with Unity Engineers we were able to pinpoint the most performance-consuming aspects of the game. We've analyzed a big part of Occupy Mars codebase and made performance changes that should have a great positive impact on the framerate.



Another thing we've taken a closer look on is the environment. The new terrain shader is much more detailed and uses tessellation to provide even better look on modern GPUs. This work wasn't trivial as we stumbled upon a lot of issues along the way. We've also found & reported a bug in nVidia graphics drivers which we hope nVidia will solve before the launch of our game.



We've also worked on another part of the environment - the Caves (Lava Tubes) now look far better than ever before. You can see a sneak peek of the new caves on the screenshots below:




Another thing we've been working on is the automatic build system. It was yet another necessary development step which will allow us to make faster game updates after release as we hope to develop and expand this game for a long time after Early Access is launched. This work isn't yet fully completed but once it's done we will be able to quickly provide builds of the game to different digital distribution platforms (not only Steam) including the support for achievements on different platforms.

Stay tuned for the next updates as currently we are focusing on even more interesting aspects of the game. We still have a few big tasks in front of us that require reworking. We are currently working on new UI for the main menu and next we plan to re-work 2 important systems: Robotic Tasks & Technology Tree Balance. This will take some time but it's another necessary step to ensure the game is fun and engaging.

Meanwhile our video team is also working on more Tight Beam from Mars videos. We can't wait to show you the new look of terrain, environment, UI and other aspects of the game so make sure to subscribe our YouTube channel :)

Your always hard working,
Occupy Mars Team

Hello, Martians!

Time flies! We have been hard at work developing Occupy Mars: The Game and before we realized it, it was already June! With that in mind, it’s about time to give you an overview of our development progress.

We have recently completed the switch to new engine version & new terrain system, we are now checking all the game’s systems to see if everything works as it used to in previous engine version.

One of the biggest milestones for this month has been a Big Spaceship model we have shown you back in devlog #34.

This one:

Our team has spent a lot of time working on a new exterior and interior design of the spaceship.
Here is the result:


The Big Spaceship is a very complex construction, which includes 9 floors. Player can move between the floors via a special elevator-like platform.


The first, lowest floor is a Cargo space, which also works as a separator between cold liquid fuel tanks and living quarters.

Progressing further up, we have 5 floors providing astronauts with living quarters.

The 6th floor is a dining room, while the 7th floor serves as an entertainment room.

Last but not least, the top floor includes the armchairs occupied by astronauts during starting and landing, as well as an observation deck.

Here are some shots of the Big Spaceship from the outside, including some very neat details, like the pull-out legs of the rocket you could see in our last social media posts.





With such a cozy Spaceship around, living on Mars seems surprisingly comfortable, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, Mars is as deadly as before – however, you can temporarily forget about harsh conditions outside while enjoying your break inside the living quarters. You’ll have some sightseeing to do once you start your adventure on Mars! Just look how small our astronaut is!


Now that the Spaceship model is mostly done, we’ll spend the upcoming weeks on polishing the freeplay and campaign missions.

By the way - TWO new Tight Beam from Mars Videos are currently in production! We’re aware that there has been a long break since the last episode, which is why we want to show you something extra this time - more in-game footage, we hope you will like it :)

What do you think? Is there something else you’d like to see in the Spaceship? If so, let us know! As always, we welcome everyone to our Discord server and we’re happy to read suggestions on the Steam forum.

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

Some time ago, we were looking for a cool way to show you more content from the game and sneak peeks from the development other than normal DevLogs or streams. Thanks to cooperation with The Mars Society and other Mars Analog Simulated Missions we were able to create TightBeam From Mars miniseries. 🚀

With every episode we’re aiming to give you an “in depth” look into Occupy Mars: The Game and to Mars colonization efforts in general, demonstrating the details of the game and real life simulated Mars missions together with some interviews and internal footage from our office. 🕵️‍♂️

In the last episode "Vehicles" we've shown some sneak peeks from the game, including the new terrain system – don't miss them!


If you haven’t done so yet, check out previous episodes, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mxfOZMYLoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhRl7y4q6P4
For those of you who have yet to catch up, here is the full playlist.



After upgrading the game’s engine, we had to make sure the transition didn’t cause any unexpected problems. Some tweaks and fixes were necessary before we could move onto further development. However, this change created more room for us to improve certain mechanics.

One of them is the new Rocks and Terrain System, which we have been working on for the last 2 weeks. It is now more aesthetically pleasant and travelling through the landscape is much more enjoyable, too! ✨ We also had to integrate the new System with our Save System – that is, to make sure whatever change in the landscape occurred prior to saving the game would be remembered by the system and loaded up along with the save file.

We must admit the new terrain is looking pretty sharp. ❤️ What do you think?



We've also been working on the launchpad building and the interior of the Big Spaceship. Here are some sneak peeks from the progress on those models:







Just look how tiny our player astronaut is next to this huge launchpad building! 🤗

Stay tuned for more news regarding the game development! Taking into account feedback from you, we hope to provide you with another update soon. 🙂

If you’re not a part of our Discord community yet and you’re looking for a place to chat about Occupy Mars: The Game, join now!

And if you’re new here and have only come across this devlog and our game recently, consider adding the game to your Wishlist!

Best regards,
Occupy Mars Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/

We are thrilled to let you know that we have recently started a closer cooperation with The Mars Society - one of the largest Mars colonization advocacy organisations around the world. We have joined forces in the making of episode 4️⃣ of our TightBeam From Mars miniseries. This time, we’re focusing on Mars Society’s MDRS, which stands for Mars Desert Research Station! If you'd like to know how else you can use the Workbench (besides using it to fix the PCBs), why the airlocks work so efficiently and whether growing vegetables is the only way to provide food in the game's Martian base - this episode is for you!

Watch & listen to our interview with James Burk - one of Mars Society's most active members 🧐 While you're at it, you can also meet another person from our team! 😊

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpU64TD3yY
People from Mars Society, passionate about human exploration of Mars, do their best every day to bring us closer to reaching one goal. That goal is to make us the multi-planetary species – and we at Pyramid Games share the same dream.

That’s why we’d also like to remind you about the ongoing https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/marsvr-virtual-reality-for-mars-exploration--3#/ – a non-profit initiative of Mars Society, which aims to bring Mars scenery to schools and museums in the form of VR experience! It’s a wonderful initiative, which, we believe, may ignite a new passion in many students, teachers, as well as museum visitors, children and adults alike. ✨

By unlocking Place Your Name in MarsVR pledge level, you can place your name in MarsVR, as well as inside our Occupy Mars: The Game! 🚀 Nothing makes space enthusiast’s day like his or her name left behind on a Red Planet! It’s almost like they had been to Mars themselves! ⭐

Please check it out and consider supporting their campaign! 😊



But that's not all! We are still continuing the TightBeam from Mars series and this time, in Episode 5️⃣ we are taking you for a tour inside analog base Habitat, while showing you some sneak peeks from the game, as well. 🧐 You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhRl7y4q6P4

And now, let's move onto...

Aside from upgrading Game Engine version, which we are working on to achieve better performance & graphics quality, we are also working on new terrain & rocks system, which should ultimately look much better & be more fun to play. Below you can find a sneak peek of the new terrain:



In the recent TightBeam videos you could also watch some of the newly added mechanics, like the Food Processing Unit:


We've also completely redesigned our Map on the Tablet. The Map now takes the whole space of the Tablet screen. It's easier to browse and supports adding multiple named pins & bookmarks so you can mark on the map all the interesting places you've visited and would like to revisit soon!


Recently, we have shifted our attention back to the Big Spaceship and we're currently redesigning its interior with 8 story living quarters adapted for long duration missions.

Stay tuned for upcoming TightBeam From Mars episodes and news about our game! Don't forget to Join our Discord where you can talk with us everyday about ideas & features to be implemented in this game.

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/

We’re not slowing down! Occupy Mars: The Game is looking better day by day! :)

We’d like to let you know that we have recently decided to switch our engine’s version to a higher number. The change required some adjustments, but we believe it’s worth it! With that, the game’s graphics, as well as performance should greatly improve. ✨

There is something else we’d like to dedicate this devlog to, though. Some of you may have already seen our little sneak peek in our other social media sites and probably have a general idea about what’s coming. If you don’t know – no worries, we’re getting there! 😊

We all know how essential good time management is on Mars. Time is yet another resource that is very limited. Moving by foot can be tiring, not to mention time consuming, and that’s why we’re implementing alternate and more efficient ways to move around the base.

One of them is a Jetpack! 🚀



With required materials, you can build a special kit, which you can then assemble into the proper thing.



With Jetpack, you can soar into the sky! Provided you have enough oxygen and methane to fuel it, of course. You’ll need to prepare a Well with all the necessary extensions including Sabatier upgrade and Methane tank, if you want to use your Jetpack on a daily basis.



Make sure to tune down your excitement during landing, though! You’re risking an injury if you crash. That much remains unchanged, no matter if you’re on Mars or on Earth. 😉



You’ll be able to try it out yourselves in the upcoming Early Access version of the game.

One more thing – today, we are also launching another Tight Beam From Mars episode, in which you will be able to learn more about the HI-SEAS base, the Airlocks & EVAs:



Stay tuned and thank you all for your support so far! ❤️

Sincerely,
Occupy Mars Team

Last week we released the first episode of TightBeam From Mars - our youtube miniseries created to show the reality of life on Mars. The second episode goes live today! and this time we're showing some interesting details and sneak peeks of the Spacesuits!

Watch today's episode to learn more about how the spacesuits in our game compare to real-life analog missions:


In the next episodes we'll showcase how to grow plants, use the airlock and other parallels between the simulated Mars missions and our upcoming game.



If you haven’t done it yet, subscribe to our channel to receive notifications about next episodes and other exciting news regarding our games. Also remember to join our Discord if you haven't already and meet our amazing community. We hope to see you there! :)

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

We would like to announce exciting news related to our previous devlog.



TightBeam from Mars is our youtube miniseries created to show the reality of life on Mars. In the next episodes we'll showcase how to grow plants, use the airlock, the spacesuits and other parallels between the simulated Mars missions and our upcoming game. Together with the Valoria I Mission crew we will tell you about difficulties of life on Mars. It’s a great opportunity to get a glimpse of simulated Mars mission and learn how it relates to our open-world survival.

First episode of TightBeam From Mars will have its premiere this evening on our YouTube channel. We encourage you to check it out here:


If you haven’t done it yet, subscribe to our channel to receive notifications about next episodes and other exciting news regarding our games! :)

We hope to see you there!

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

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


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:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1512110/Rover_Mechanic_Simulator__Perseverance_Rover_DLC/

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 :)

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/