Mars Horizon News

Good news, Mac owners! For a long time we had been chasing down the cause of a bug on some hardware configurations which was making the game not display certain screens correctly.

Although we can't be completely sure this has solved the problem in every single case, his new patch should sort out issues experienced by Mac users where the gameplay screen can go pink, black or red and not properly display the game. The team thank all the mac users for their patience with this issue, please do let us know if it's fixed or if the problem is still persisting for some users.

We're constantly in awe of our community, not to be cheesy but you really are out of this world! Your feedback in the past, from our betas, to our alphas, and all of our surveys in between have helped us make Mars Horizon the game you all know and love today.

So that's why we need to hear from anyone who has played Mars Horizon, as we need your feedback once again! We're running a survey to help us plan the next steps we take with Mars Horizon, see what kind of things you'd like to see from the game going forward. However, please only fill in this survey if you have played Mars Horizon.

Filling in these surveys help us so much, and they only take about five minutes of your time. And to say thank you, we will be gifting £25 worth of Steam vouchers to one lucky entrant of this survey. Entries close 20th August 2021 at 11pm UK Time!
[h3]
Fill in the survey here! [/h3]

Mars Horizon is a finalist in the 2021 James Paul GEE Award in the Informal Learning category. We think games can be a brilliant tool for learning and that is definitely something we focussed on with Mars Horizon.

With Mars Horizon we wanted to create an experience that thrills, informs, and entertains, but more importantly we want to make sure the player has an appreciation for where our species is and how we got here. Even though it's a game about being the first crew to Mars, we've highlighted the cooperation between space agencies, humankind's ingenuity, and spirit of adventure. We worked to bring our collective space exploration history into the game, as we wanted Mars Horizon to be accessible, inspiring, and fun.

The GEE awards also includes the People's Choice awards and we'd love it if you could vote for us!

[h3]Voting is open NOW and you can find out everything you need by following this link here and vote for us here![/h3]

Being nominated for a GEE award is absolutely amazing so we'd absolutely love it if you could two minutes out of your day to vote for Mars Horizon!

[h3]Thank you![/h3]

[h2]Expanded Horizons, our huge new free update for Mars Horizon is available now on all platforms!
[/h2]
Bringing you a new mission, new payloads, a reusable vehicle, vehicle packs, Sandbox Mode, Iron Core Mode, and improvements to gameplay.

To give you a taste of what you’ll be seeing, you’ll see the Perserverance Rover, the Ingenuity Helicopter, a reusable Wyvern Upper, Iron Core Mode which saves after EVERY turn whether you like it or not (soz save scummers), and did we mention SANDBOX MODE?!

This update also comes with the previous two updates, The Distant Observations Vehicle Pack and the Early Observations Vehicle Pack, so console players will have access to all those vehicles now too.

• Check out our last Steam announcement for the full list of what’s included in the update

or jump straight into Mars Horizon to check it out for yourself.

You can also check out our Expanded Horizons FAQ for any questions you may have

[h2]Switch Demo[/h2]
We’re also adding a free demo to the Nintendo Switch on June 28th - if you’ve had your eyes on Mars Horizon for a while but have been unsure, now’s your chance to take it for a test launch! Get the Mars Horizon Free Switch Demo on June 28th.



[h2]Sneak Peek Livestream[/h2]
Catch up with our livestream of the new update here, where you’ll see streamer eirawave, Principal Programmer, Stefan Richings, and Allie, our Community and Marketing Executive.

Eirawave worked on designing our new logo, and is an art and variety streamer. They’re a big space fan and have appeared on our channels in the past, so you might recognise them! Stefan worked on Mars Horizon since before the alpha, some of his biggest work was coding the tooltips system, the tutorial system, the research tree, and the narrative events.

Expanded Horizons is our huge free update for Mars Horizon. It's our biggest one ever and includes:

• New Mission - Bringing you NASA's Perseverance Rover and the Ingenuity Helicopter which landed February 2021
  
• Reusable Vehicles - Requested by you, we've added a reusable Wyvern Upper
  
• Sandbox Mode - Heavily requested by the community the ultimate customisable Mars Horizon experience
  
• Iron Core Mode - Also community requested, the toughest way to play ever
  
• Lots of gameplay improvements - UI improvements, a catch up mechanic and more, suggested by you
  
• New Custom Agency logo - Send our cow to space
  
• The new Vehicle packs you've been enjoying are included for console too

Plus:

• Nintendo Switch Demo - Try running your space agency on the go
  

Read our blog post to get full details about what's included.

[h2]New Mission and Payloads: Mars Perseverance [/h2]
We’ve added a new mission which includes the Perseverance Rover and the Ingenuity Helicopter, y’know, that mission that NASA recently sent to Mars? You can now play that mission yourself in Mars Horizon!

New Spacepedia entries exist for this mission, you’ll be able to find out all about the Rover and helicopter as well as viewing their models at your leisure. Alongside this there are new narrative events where important decisions will have to be made. And finally, There are new cinematics for these payloads meaning you’ll get to see the little helicopter making its way across its new home!



[h2]Reusable Vehicles[/h2]
We’ve also added a reusable Wyvern Upper. This is an awesome addition to the game because we’ve been able to demonstrate some of the new reusable vehicle tech which is moving into the mainstream in real life space exploration. If you do well enough to unlock the Wyvern Upper, you’ll be able to re-use it which will save you both time and money! Keep an eye out for the brand new cinematic for this too, we’re really proud of it.



[h2]New game modes - Sandbox and Iron Core[/h2]
[h3]Sandbox Mode - The ultimate customisable Mars Horizon experience 👩‍🚀[/h3]
HIGHLY requested by the community, we’re now offering a Sandbox Mode for Mars Horizon players! You’ll be able to access Sandbox Mode from ‘Customise Experience’ in the main menu, meaning you really can experience Mars Horizon however you want.

What Sandbox Mode opens up for you:

• Unlocks ALL upgrades
  
• Launches NEVER fail
  
• Unlimited mission gameplay battery
  
• FREE building moving
  
• Removing obstructions is FREE
  
• Starting funds
  
• Starting support tier
  
• A save icon to identify these sandbox saves at a glance

[h3]Iron Core Mode - The toughest way to play Mars Horizon 💪[/h3]
We’ve added a new special game mode where you can’t cheat by save-scumming. Iron Core mode will save after EVERY SINGLE TURN whether you want it to or not. Like with Sandbox Mode, a save icon will identify these Iron Core saves to help differentiate it. This is the toughest way to play Mars Horizon to date, there’s no going back!



[h2]New Custom Agency logo - Our lovely Aurochs! 🐮[/h2]
Recently we redesigned our studio logo, we absolutely love our new Aurochs. Check out our blog post to read about how and why we redesigned. We are so proud of our logo we want you to be able to take it to Mars with you so check it out in the custom agencies screen. Please send us your screenshots if you use it.



[h2]Improvements to gameplay[/h2]
As well as all those lovely new additions we’ve made a lot of improvements to gameplay, take a look at the following list to find out what’s new and what’s changed!

• The menu header highlights now loop, as per community requests, so now you can cycle through headers more easily
  
• In-progress missions are better highlighted in the UI - we’ve added a pulse, a clipboard, and a research icon which are displayed when appropriate, so it’s always clear what missions are underway in your list 
  
• Made the ‘Complete Task’ button in mission gameplay more obvious when it appears - now it’s highlighted and pulses slightly - it will be ghosted when it’s not applicable so it will be much more clear when you can finish a mission early
  
• Catch Up Mechanic - when you fail a mission the previously used parts will become cheaper and also build faster. A game changer! It makes catching up after a failed launch feel more manageable and it can lead to some great last minute changes in your fortune
  
• The agency icon size for the solar system screen is now on a slider for accessibility 
  
• Bonus reward communication now improved, there is now an animated font and more ceremony in the results screen when these are achieved - this makes getting a Mission Bonus more rewarding!
  
• We’ve made your rivals’ failures more obvious - they are now going to pop up red, pulse, and they’ll have a unique icon next to them in the Solar System screen in the News Ticker. Now you can get a feeling of smug satisfaction when you notice a rival experiencing a setback!
  
• Improved the drift icon - in response to community feedback, we’ve made it more clear to know if it will swing to the left or right by the addition of indicator arrows
  
• China’s space shuttle now has an arm-based deployment cinematic, so now you can watch Chinese payloads being plucked from the cargo bay and positioned in space
  

[h2]Vehicle packs coming to console[/h2]
Mars Horizon: Expanded Horizons is coming to PC and consoles and so will also bring our previous vehicle updates to consoles as well.

This includes the Distant Observations Vehicle Pack from April which had:

• Vega Rocket
• Akari Satellite
• Himawari Satellite

And also the Early Observations Vehicle Pack from March, which had:

• SPOT Satellite mission
  
• Rockets Nippon 1 and Nippon 2

[h2]Mars Horizon Free Nintendo Switch Demo![/h2]
If you’re yet to pick up Mars Horizon on Switch and want to give it a test launch - now you can! Alongside the update there’s a free Mars Horizon demo that will be available for everyone on Nintendo Switch!

Switch Up gave Mars Horizon on Switch a score of 84%! Check out their in-depth review here. This is the best way to run your space agency on the go, try it for free right now - Get the Mars Horizon Free Switch Demo.


[h2]Join our stream for a sneak peek👩‍🚀[/h2]
The dream team are back - Eira and Allie will give you an early look at Expanded Horizons showing you sandbox mode on the Mars Horizon Steam Store page. They will be joined by Stefan, one of the devs on the Mars Horizon team. He will be advising and mocking them in equal measure as well as sharing his experiences making the game.

Expanded Horizons Sneak Peek Livestream

• Date: Friday 11th June
  
• Time: 3.00pm UK Time

[h3]Phew, we told you it was our biggest update ever![/h3]
We can’t wait to see what you come up with in your Sandbox and Iron Core saves, and to see people exploring the universe with our Aurochs logo. Please make sure you share with us the chaos or the precision over on our Twitter or in our Discord!