Occupy Mars: The Game News

[h2]Dear Martians![/h2]

[h3]Mars Society Cooperation[/h3]



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 MarsVR campaign at IndieGoGo.com – 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...
[h3]Development progress![/h3]

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/

[h3]Hello, Martians![/h3]

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:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

Sincerely,
Occupy Mars Team

[h2]Dear Martians![/h2]

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:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

[h2]Dear Martians![/h2]

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:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

[h3]Coming back to the game:[/h3]

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/