Occupy Mars: The Game News

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]

Today, we'd like to show you a something special! Pyramid Games CEO, Jacek Wyszyński, was invited to a Convention held by Mars Society on October 17 for an interview dedicated to Occupy Mars: The Game! It took place at 4 AM CEST, so our CEO struggled a bit to stay awake, but fortunately, it all worked out in the end. 😉

We encourage you to watch the interview – it includes some interesting and useful information about the game! 🙂 You can watch it here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]

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

[h3]Greetings, Martians![/h3]

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

[h2]Greetings, Martians![/h2]

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