Occupy Mars – a highly technical, open-world sandbox game about Mars colonization is now available on GOG in its early access! This awesome title is a must-have for every fan of sci-fi simulation games that provide immense amounts of fun.We’re super happy to have it in our catalog and to celebrate that, we’ve prepared something special for you. We’ve had the absolute pleasure of talking to the game’s creators from Pyramid Games and asked them about the development process of
Occupy Mars, what makes it special, why early access launch and more!
Hope you’ll enjoy the read!
Building, managing resources, exploring, fixing what we’ve previously built, surviving – and all of it on Mars! Idea behind Occupy Mars sounds incredibly fun and will surely scratch that sci-fi, space adventure itch that seems to be affecting more and more people. Could you shed more light on how you came up with making this title?The idea behind Occupy Mars came from our fascination with space exploration and our desire to experience life on the red planet firsthand. As developers, we wanted to create a game that would immerse players in the challenges and thrills of building and managing a Martian base, exploring new regions, and surviving in an extreme environment.Our team drew inspiration from our college days, where we dreamt of building rockets for SpaceX until we discovered certain US laws prevented international applicants from applying for rocket-related roles. However, this setback didn't diminish our passion for space exploration, and we turned to building rockets in video games instead.In developing Occupy Mars, we consulted with the Mars Society and researched NASA resources to ensure the game's basic elements accurately reflect what you would find on Mars. Although the game takes place about 50 years in the future, we strived to include technologies that are more advanced than what we currently have, such as supercharged 3D printing, while still maintaining the basic requirements for a working Martian base, such as water, power, oxygen, heating, pressure regulation, and radiation shields. Ultimately, our goal was to create a fun and engaging game that combines sci-fi adventure with realistic survival mechanics, allowing players to explore and conquer the red planet.
We think it’s safe to say that Occupy Mars is the biggest project of Pyramid Games yet. Was working on it any different than other games? If yes, how so?Undoubtedly, Occupy Mars has been the most demanding and ambitious project that Pyramid Games has undertaken to date. It also required the longest development time. Although our teams have released several other games since 2017, none has been as intricate and complex as this one. Creating an open-world sandbox survival game presents a unique set of challenges. We had to develop non-standard solutions for procedural terrain generation, saving, and calculating an infinite number of objects. The game is a realistic simulation of life on another planet, and throughout the development process, we collaborated with The Mars Society and other institutions working towards the goal of Mars Colonization. We aimed to strike a balance between a realistic approach and fun, engaging gameplay.
You’ve decided to launch Occupy Mars in its early access. This approach seems to be very popular nowadays and can prove extremely beneficial for the ultimate outcome of the title. What do you specifically want to achieve by itWe believe that the Early Access approach can be tremendously advantageous for the overall outcome of Occupy Mars. However, our Early Access will be unique compared to many others. After all, we have spent over five years developing this game, with a small but highly dedicated team, to ensure a thought-out experience that players can enjoy for hundreds of hours. Despite our efforts, there are still plenty of additional features we would like to include in the final version. By releasing the game in Early Access, we aim to give our fans a chance to play the game before we finish implementing all the additional content we have envisioned. This additional time will also allow us to put more effort into developing new mechanics and adding online co-op mode and modding features that we believe will enhance the player experience. Our goal is to collaborate with the community and work towards developing a game that can continue to thrive and evolve long after its initial release.
It seems that there is a lot to do in Occupy Mars. From building and exploring, through finding and mining resources, all the way to electricity management and growing our own food. But let’s say we’ve launched the game for the first title, what can we expect after that first click of the “play” button?Players can expect a variety of options upon starting Occupy Mars. Our Early Access release will feature a single-player Campaign mode that introduces players to the game's story, as well as a customizable FreePlay Sandbox mode where players can select their preferred difficulty level, starting location, equipment, weather conditions intensity, and other parameters. In addition, multiple tutorial scenes will introduce players to various mechanics. We plan to add the continuation of the Campaign mode and an Online Co-Op mode later through updates. As for an average "day" in Occupy Mars, players can expect to experience the challenges of living on a hostile planet, including maintaining their basic needs, exploring the environment, and conducting research and experiments to further their mission.
Anything you’d like to tell our community before they’ll start occupying Mars themselves?Before players begin their journey to occupy Mars, we would like to remind them that Occupy Mars is currently in its Early Access phase. As such, the game is still in active development and may contain bugs, performance issues, and missing features. However, we encourage players to share their feedback with us by pressing F4 during gameplay to send us a bug report directly from the game or by joining our Discord server to chat directly with our developers and active community members. Additionally, we have added a comprehensive Knowledge Base to the game's tablet, which should provide helpful information on how to survive and thrive on Mars. We hope that players will enjoy the Early Access experience and look forward to working with our community to continue developing the game.
And there you have it! We’d like to thank Pyramid Games very much for the opportunity to talk about Occupy Mars and for having their game in our catalog. Now, we have to excuse ourselves because the interview just made us hungry for playing the game even more. See you all on Mars! 