Earth vs Mars News

It’s time to learn more about our heroes – the last remaining hope for Earth. Meet Annabel Corman, an ex-Global Military Alliance (GMA) engineer, now desperately trying to convince Earth’s leaders that she can help fend off the Martian invasion.



Most humans see the tales of UFOs and aliens as harmless nonsense, but there are those that know better. As an extremely talented engineer, Annabel was on the fast track to a senior engineering position at the GMA until she was abducted by aliens. Six months later, she resigned, sick of being ridiculed by her coworkers for speaking up about her abduction. People, the truth is out there!

Now, 11 years later, she lives in her souped-up RV, collecting evidence of UFOs and scavenging alien technology from wreckage she finds in the Nevada desert. Over this time, she has integrated this Martian technology (along with stolen GMA tech) into her RV to replicate the atomic splicing technology she believes the Martians used on her. Her invention, the Splice-O-Tron, may be the secret weapon GMA forces have been searching for. What secrets might she uncover?

While she still must earn the trust of the other members of the team, you can rely on Annabel to heal your units with her unique Commander Ability. As the game progresses, you’ll unlock her ability to drain all special abilities from enemy units. Deciding which powerful Commander Ability to take into battle will be up to you!

That’s it for today! Stay tuned for our next installment. Let us know in the comments which character you’d like to meet next time!

This is your secret weapon in Earth vs Mars – the Splice-O-Tron! Combine human “volunteers” with Earth creatures to create powerful hybrid supersoldiers, with over 160,000 creature combinations. Get an early look at a handful of these hybrids in action:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Earth vs Mars is crashing onto our planet later this year — our love letter to the turn-based strategy genre. Beyond putting a Relic spin on this style of game, we’re introducing a whole new universe; a colorful and fun world built to immerse, surprise, and keep you engaged for hours.

In this series, we’ll explore the inspirations, designs, and ideas that shape the Earth vs Mars experience.

First up: where did this weird, wonderful aesthetic come from? Let’s find out!

[h2]Defining the Style and Look[/h2]

While Earth vs Mars draws a lot of inspiration from other games in the turn-based strategy genre, we wanted to add our own Relic twist. Developing the overall visual direction of the game we wanted to go for something more playful and light-hearted with a sophisticated "Graphic Novel" look. Bright and bold color choices, neutral environments with eye-catching and bombastic VFX to bring forth the spectacle of play. Allowing the artists and players to focus on the clarity of shape, silhouette, and color rather than fine textures and overly detailed scenery.

Pre-Alpha VFX

[h2]Earth vs Mars – Inspiration and Influences[/h2]

The original concepts for Earth vs Mars were heavily influenced by 1950’s nostalgia, looking to capture the vibes of B-movie science fiction films. The team worked highly collaboratively assembling the games characters and units. Each craft area sharing their experience and perspective, this cross-team effort fully realized the cast and made them relatable. While Earth vs Mars is influenced by our world, it does not exist in the same universe, allowing us to tell the story we want and create a visual language that reinforces this in interesting ways.

Early Reference Exploration

A unique challenge was deciding upon an original look for the Martians. We wanted something unique but with so many established visual references we decided on the core inspiration for the Martians to be culturally inspired by 50s-60s era design aesthetics. Mixed with the strong silhouettes of modern urban vinyl toys this combination resulted in a look that feels nostalgic, familiar, and contrasts greatly with the Earth’s military utilitarian aesthetic.

Early Martian Concept Art

That’s a wrap for now! Stay tuned for more and let us know in the comments if you want us to tackle specific aspects of the artistic process behind Earth vs Mars!

In Earth vs Mars, you’re humanity’s last hope against the Martian invasion. Desperate times call for desperate measures: you can use tanks; you can use guns — but you can also use your human “volunteers” to create hybrid super soldiers and take the planet back. Are there still such things as bioethics in times of war? We're sure there's still some humanity in them... somewhere.

Get ready for intense battles in Earth vs Mars, the new Relic Labs turn-based strategy game from Relic Entertainment. A true love letter to the genre, it’s set to launch on Steam later this year. In the meantime, let’s dive into this brand-new universe and its key characters!

Pre-Alpha Screenshot

[h2]Welcome to Earth [/h2]

In an alternate world, Martians have been “visiting” Earth for decades, abducting animals and humans as... raw materials for their hybrid-creature experiments. This has sparked confusion, conspiracy theories, and countless hours of people scrutinizing the skies, hoping a saucer would come and take them. All the while, the Martians voraciously consumed all the Earth media they could get their hands on. For what reason? We may never get an answer...

Now that they’ve revealed themselves and declared war on our planet, only a few brave souls can turn the tide — that means you. You’re one of humanity’s last hopes.

Pre-Alpha Screenshot

It’s time to assemble an unlikely group of Commanders to lead Earth’s forces and repel the dastardly Martian invaders. Across 30 hand-crafted missions, you’ll create powerful human-creature super soldiers in your fight against high-tech saucers, grav-tanks, and elite alien warriors. The planet’s future depends on you!

But fear not — or not entirely. In your quest to protect Earth, you’ll meet various leaders, factions, and mysterious entities. You’ll even experiment with the unique “Splice-o-Tron,” whose many secrets will prove crucial in battle.

So don’t miss our Narrative series, introducing the different characters, factions, and key events you need to know to become an expert in the universe of Earth vs Mars. Learn more next time!

Earth vs Mars is a new RTS in development at Relic, but unlike the studio's big Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, this one is a "smaller indie-style" game being made under its Relic Labs label, which aims to "explore new sub-genres, experiment, get our creative juices going, and release games more frequently."..
Read more.