Hostile Mars Release Date

01 Sep 2026Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Playtest Begins Friday, September 4!

We’re excited to announce that the Hostile Mars playtest will begin this Friday! Access will be granted gradually, starting with a small group of players. This will help us monitor stability, identify any critical issues, and respond to early feedback. If everything is running sm

01 Jul 2026Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog: Combat, Automation, and Base Repair

Over the last few months, we’ve moved Hostile Mars into a bi-weekly build sprint format, with a new playable build every two weeks for the team to test and give feedback on. This has helped us tighten the development cycle, implement features more quickly, and put more focus on t

Over the last few months, we’ve moved Hostile Mars into a bi-weekly build sprint format, with a new playable build every two weeks for the team to test and give feedback on. This has helped us tighten the development cycle, implement features more quickly, and put more focus on tuning, progression, and the overall player experience. Much of that work has been aimed at making the game feel sharper, more reactive, and more dangerous by strengthening the connection between combat, automation, base-building, and progression, so that every system feels like it is pushing or pulling on the others. Bots are becoming more threatening, machines are becoming more important, building and repairing your base has more weight, and the world itself is starting to take clearer shape.

Player Threats

We have implemented several new systems that create more immediate threats to the player during waves. One example is the Hauler payload system. Haulers can carry dangerous payloads that activate when the Hauler dies, unless the player disables them first by shooting off the latches.

One payload example is a player-seeking rocket. If the payload is not disabled, the rocket launches after the Hauler is destroyed and can damage both the player and nearby structures. This gives players a more active combat decision: destroy the enemy quickly, or take the time to disable the payload before finishing it off.

Bot Processor

The Bot Processor is a system we have been experimenting with for a while. The core idea is to turn enemies into part of the crafting chain.

Instead of using only traditional item inputs, the Bot Processor uses live bots as crafting ingredients. More specifically, it checks which status effects are currently active on a bot. For example, a recipe may require a live bot that is both Electrified and Acidic. This creates a direct connection between combat, status effects, and production.

Death Spectacle

We've added death sequences to several bot types, where before they would just explode in a little smoke puff; they now crash while losing flaming parts and explode into even more parts.

Killing bots has never been this juicy!

Destructive Behavior

Bots attack structures in two scenarios: when they cannot reach the core from where they are, or when there is a bottleneck due to too many bots struggling to move.

There used to be several inconsistencies and ways to exploit that behavior, but we've been addressing them to make the bots feel more like threatening, murderous machines than mildly aggressive cattle.

Bots self-destruct to destroy buildings while trying to follow the last valid path from a spawner; if your maze is too small to handle a large wave, you'll find out it'll be wrecked!

Conveyors

Speaking of conveyors, they received a lot of improvements, from their visuals being much clearer, being selectable, properly checking for placement collisions along their length, and placement rules being more intuitive.

Region 2 Design Blockout

We've been experimenting with level design to see how we could push the various mechanics and how different environments affect the play style.

This is a quick teaser of various gray-boxed areas; maybe you can guess the theme of this region :)

Build Mode: Gizmos and Sounds

Placing stuff has become easier with the addition of overlays while building. Machine ports show lines to make alignment with other machines easier, conveyors display a sub-grid over panels and altitude lines so you know where your stuff's at.

We've also added a lot of tactile sounds to the snapping, selection, and deletion of buildings to make the experience feel a lot more polished.

Building Health and Repair

We have updated and implemented the health system for player structures. Buildings can now take damage during waves, and damaged structures can be repaired through a dedicated repair panel.

The repair UI allows players to view building damage across an entire region and repair individual structures as needed. This makes base damage more visible, easier to manage, and more directly tied into the player’s resource economy.

Codex

Yep, it's a codex.

Death Reactions

Status effects can now create special outcomes when enemies die. For example, if a bot has the Acidic status effect and is killed with a laser beam, it can trigger an acid explosion.

This explosion can spread Acidic to nearby bots, making it powerful against groups. However, it also destroys nearby pickups, creating a tradeoff between crowd control and resource collection. This helps make status effects feel more meaningful and gives players more tactical choices during combat.

Art

Concept and Models

Closing

There is still a lot to tune, test, break, rebuild, and probably break again, but this stretch of development has pushed Hostile Mars much closer to the game we want it to become: a factory-building survival game where combat is not just something happening beside the automation, but something directly feeding into it, disrupting it, and forcing the player to make better decisions under pressure. More updates are coming soon as we continue building out the systems, regions, enemies, and tools that bring Mars to life.

-HM Team

Original post

03 Apr 2026Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog: Status Effects, VFX, and Region Expansion

We’ve made some exciting progress over the last month, and a few pieces of the game are starting to come together in a way that feels really promising . We wanted to give a quick overview of why the status effect system feels like such a big step forward, some of the VFX work we’

We’ve made some exciting progress over the last month, and a few pieces of the game are starting to come together in a way that feels really promising. We wanted to give a quick overview of why the status effect system feels like such a big step forward, some of the VFX work we’ve started adding, and a bit of the progress we’ve made on progression out in the world.

Destruction Matters

We briefly touched on status effects last month. We’ve been leaning further into the status effect system, and it’s quickly becoming one of the most interesting core mechanics in the game.

Since the beginning, a big part of Hostile Mars has been destroying bots and harvesting their scraps to expand your base. What we like about the status system is that it ties directly into that loop in a way that feels natural and rewarding. The way a bot is taken down can now affect what you get back from it.

For example, if a bot is hit with an electrical charge, it becomes Electrified. While active, that status increases the bot’s speed, making it more dangerous, but it also increases the resources it yields when destroyed. That tradeoff is exactly the kind of decision-making we want more of.

What gets even more interesting is when multiple effects start interacting. Layering statuses can create organic combinations that are genuinely fun to experiment with. What happens if a bot is coated in explosive fluid before being shocked? Some status effects will help maximize your yield, while others introduce risks that may not always be worth taking.

It’s one of those systems that connects with a lot of other parts of the game at once: combat, defense planning, resource gain, and how players choose to approach each encounter. We’re still keeping some of the details under wraps for now, but this is one of the features that has us especially excited. Even in a rough, unpolished state, it has already led to the kind of testing sessions where we look up and realize we’ve been playing for hours. After working on the same game for years, that’s a pretty good sign.

Bringing Combat to Life

For a long time, many of the new traps we were testing were basically functional black boxes. They worked, but they gave very little feedback about what state they were in or why they were behaving a certain way, which made scenes harder to read even for us.

That’s started to change. As part of a broader pass on traps and enemies, we’ve been adding placeholder VFX and building the code hooks needed to support animations, state feedback, and other effects in-game. A big part of this was also technical, since ECS doesn’t support many of Unity’s usual VFX workflows out of the box.

Even in this early state, it’s already made a big difference. Having clearer visual feedback makes it much easier to understand what is happening in the middle of combat, and now that the groundwork is in place, we’ll keep expanding it across more of the game.

Keep Exploring

There’s also been progress around region progression and wave structure. The idea of defending and expanding through Mars is being reinforced with mechanics like the Core Deployment Vehicle. Instead of simply unlocking a new area through menus or invisible progression, the player builds and escorts a vulnerable core to the next region under pressure. That helps progression feel physical and earned rather than abstract.

ART!

Some concept sketches, blockouts, and new models.

Closing

A lot of this work is still in progress, but it is already changing how the game feels. Combat is becoming more expressive, the battlefield is becoming easier to read, and progression is feeling more grounded in the world itself. We’re looking forward to showing more as these systems continue to take shape.

-HM Team

Original post

02 Mar 2026Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog: Status Stacks, Critical Shots, and Elite Enemies

February was a big production month for Hostile Mars, with a lot of progress focused on making combat and defense planning deeper, clearer, and more rewarding. We have a mix of new gameplay-facing additions, major under-the-hood upgrades, and a batch of fresh concept and model wo

February was a big production month for Hostile Mars, with a lot of progress focused on making combat and defense planning deeper, clearer, and more rewarding. We have a mix of new gameplay-facing additions, major under-the-hood upgrades, and a batch of fresh concept and model work from the team. Here’s what we’ve been building.

Critical shots

To reward good combat play, we expanded our damage modifier system to support critical damage events that apply a multiplier. We also added a shape filter to modifiers, which lets us define specific areas on bots where damage changes.

That means we can create real weak spots (or armored zones): hit the right part for crits, hit the wrong part for reduced damage, or make a bot vulnerable to a damage type only on a specific component (like a wheel). It’s already making enemies more interesting to fight, and yes, it might encourage getting a little closer to danger. pew pew in your face :)

(some exploration of the critical shot head and dot-matrix face for the transport bot)

Stacks of status effects

We’ve had status effects for a while, but they were all implemented differently (durations, extra parameters, inconsistent tuning), which made them hard to expand and also confusing for players. Worse, bots could only have one instance of a status, so repeated applications (like multiple slow traps) would just override the existing effect.

Now status effects are stack-based: anything that applies a status also applies a number of stacks, similar to roguelikes and deck-builders. This makes effects consistent and scalable (ex: slowness is always 10% top speed reduction per stack, so 5 stacks is 50% no matter where it came from), and it unlocks cleaner tools like stacks decaying over time or even negative stacks as an anti-effect. Status effects are going to be a core part of defense strategy, and this system is the foundation for that.

Elite Enemies

We added Elite enemies, which spawn alongside existing enemies and bring powerful support behaviors that change the shape of fights.

Elites can do things like:

Heal nearby bots
Protect nearby bots from incoming damage

This also changes how enemies move: bots will flock to elites and travel in packs to take advantage of these benefits. It creates natural “priority targets,” and it gives your defense layout and target selection much more weight.

Trap polish pass

This month, we pushed our existing defenses closer to “almost finished,” focusing on clarity and feel. The goal here is simple: even before final audio/VFX/animation assets are in, the trap functionality should be obvious and readable in moment-to-moment play.

This polish pass includes placeholders for:

Sound
VFX
Animations
State changes (so it is always clear what a trap is doing and what state it is in)

Traps included in this pass:

Shock Trap
Stun Trap
Acid Sprayer Trap
Slow Trap
Bot Gate Trap
Spring Trap
Laser Wall Trap

Some of these are also featured in the Art section below.

Wave bot tooltips

We added tooltips for wave bots so the player can see more detailed information about the enemies that the next wave is going to include. This gives you clearer scouting and planning: you can understand what is coming before you commit to starting the wave.

ECS animation system

We added an ECS animation system, which gives us much more control over more complex animations for both traps and enemies. This is a foundational upgrade that improves readability and timing, and it unlocks more expressive behavior and feedback as we keep expanding combat complexity.

Item progression foundation

We also made progress on item progression, and we feel like we now have a very solid foundation for making waves, killing enemies, progressing through the regions, and strategy all have meaningful impacts and consequences on design and player choice.

We are finalizing these decisions now, and the next dev log will go deeper into many of the choices and how they shape progression.

More art

Acid Sprayer Trap Concept

Laser Wall Trap Concept

Stun Trap

Slow Trap Concept

Shock Trap

That wraps up this month.

Combat is getting more tactical, defenses are getting clearer and closer to final, and the systems behind the scenes are lining up in a way that supports deeper strategy without adding confusion. Thanks for sticking with us and for being part of this project.

We would love to hear what you think. Drop by the Discord and collaborate with us!

-HM Team

Original post

02 Feb 2026Developer post

⚡ Hostile Mars Devlog: Reactor Power, Trap Strategy, and Smarter Bots

December and January December and January were big production months for Hostile Mars, and a lot of the work was aimed at making moment-to-moment gameplay decisions feel sharper and more impactful. We also have some concept work from the team to show. This devlog is a mix of game

December and January

December and January were big production months for Hostile Mars, and a lot of the work was aimed at making moment-to-moment gameplay decisions feel sharper and more impactful. We also have some concept work from the team to show. This devlog is a mix of gameplay-facing improvements and the deeper systems upgrades that let us keep accelerating development.

Power is built, not granted

Power generation in Hostile Mars is shifting toward something you actually construct and expand.

Reactors generate your power. If you want more available power, you build more reactors (and keep them connected to your grid).
Reactor capacity is tied to progression. As you push deeper into wave progression, you unlock additional reactor slots in that region. Early on, you are forced to make real choices with limited power.
It is not just “build X reactors and you are done.” Reactors can be upgraded, so progression is not a simple linear march toward a higher reactor count. You can invest into fewer reactors and improve them, or expand toward the cap when you unlock more slots.
Result: power becomes a planning problem, not a background stat. Do you use your resources to upgrade reactor capacity and build more defenses, or upgrade what you already have and squeeze more out of your current footprint?

Trap placement consequences

A big chunk of December and January was stress-testing one core promise: defenses should not be “place anywhere, win anyway.”

We built a test lineup of around 10 different defenses, chosen to represent the full spread of trap behaviors, then started designing around how they overlap and how they fail.

Different traps control space in different ways. Some are directional, some hit an area, some are single-target. Some are instant burst, some are multi-target, and some apply damage over time like acid. The point is that every trap has a shape and a job, and the layout needs to respect that.
Spamming one trap should never be the answer. We put serious thought into making sure the game rewards mixing defense types, because a “just build 30 of the best one” strategy is basically game design malpractice.
Enemy variety changes what “good” means. The same defensive layout can perform totally differently depending on what the region sends at you. A setup that melts one enemy type might get embarrassed by another, which forces you to adapt instead of solving the game once.

The goal is simple: your choices matter. What you build, where you place it, and what you pair it with should be the difference between holding the line and watching your base get remodeled by hostile machinery.

(Concept work for two traps we're working on)

Pathing with tagged surfaces

Bots now have preferences when pathing, they will prioritize going on panels over bare ground. They even try to stay on the center of panels, almost following the grid, rather than cutting it close to the edges. This makes it easier to layout traps as bots more predictably follow panels, especially around corners. It also allows us to raise the terrain to be nearly aligned with the ground panels such that bots can drive off an on panels from anywhere, and still have the bots follow the “road” without needing walls to prevent shortcuts.

Enemy code improvements

Long story short, we’ve made the enemy code a lot more workable! It used to be like a gigantic clock where each gear meshes in a different building, with invisible ties to other parts. Now it’s laid out in plain view in one central place, which makes it much easier for us to keep refining bot behaviors.

For a technical explanation: the bots are entirely done in ECS. We used to split each behavior across a few components and systems, with logic spread between queries and jobs across several files. On top of that, we often needed extra “glue” code to link behaviors together. The new version moves jobs into regular functions, components into regular structs, and removes the queries and systems. We call these structs “building blocks.”

Each building block is split into a shared parameter struct and a per-instance struct for better memory efficiency. Now we have a single system per bot, with one component holding all per-instance data and a blob asset holding all shared data through composition of those building blocks. Instead of many queries deciding when to execute jobs, we run one job and use regular code to call the various functions. The end result is significantly less code, no glue needed, no caching components or allocations, since temporary data between jobs now stays inside a single job, while still being more flexible than the previous system.

More Art

We’re not totally sure what these are yet, but the art team swears they belong in the game.

That’s it for our December and January progress.

A lot of what we pushed forward this cycle is about making the game reward good decisions: power is something you expand and upgrade, trap choices have real tradeoffs, and enemy behavior is becoming far more consistent and extensible as we keep dialing in combat. We’re going to keep turning these foundation changes into more and more “you can feel it immediately” gameplay moments as we move through production.

Thanks for sticking with us and for caring about the details. More updates soon.

-HM Team

Original post

08 Dec 2025Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog: Core Runs, Smarter Scrap, and More Bots On Screen

📝 November Devlog: New Regions, Smarter Scrap, More Bots On Screen November was about three things: Giving you a way to push into new regions that feels like an actual mission Making Yield the clearest expression of turning broken bots into progress Letting us pack more robots i

📝 November Devlog: New Regions, Smarter Scrap, More Bots On Screen

November was about three things:

Giving you a way to push into new regions that feels like an actual mission
Making Yield the clearest expression of turning broken bots into progress
Letting us pack more robots into the simulation without turning your PC into slag

Plus, Facility Research Centers and new concept art to glue it all together.

🚚 Core Delivery Vehicle: Bringing The Fight Somewhere New

** Yes, the transport is placeholder. Please mentally replace it with the most overbuilt, beautifully engineered convoy you can imagine and pretend we already finished it.

The Core Delivery Vehicle is how you expand into new regions of Mars. You load a region core onto it, then escort it across the map to a socket in a new area.

The route is dangerous, with a lot of enemies along the way, and every deployment runs on a strict stability timer. If you keep it alive and reach the destination in time, that region powers up with new waves, new defenses, new resources, and a fresh zone to fortify and automate.

Each launch is meant to feel like a focused push into enemy territory, not just clicking a button to unlock another area.

📊 Yield: Turning Bots Into Progress

The main progression driver in Hostile Mars is resources. The core loop is simple. You destroy huge numbers of bots, grab their scraps, and use those to build bigger bases so you can destroy even more bots.

At the end of each wave, you see a summary that shows how well you did at capturing Yield from enemies. Yield is just the usable scrap and material you managed to pull out of the mess.

Some tools lean into this more than others. There are options that do massive damage but waste a lot of potential Yield, and there are slower options that protect more of the material.

We are now refining this system so you have more control over how that Yield is generated. A new global Yield channel lets you choose perks that boost scrap and materials in different ways, depending on how you like to play.

Over time, destruction itself becomes part of the processing chain. The damage type and the enemy type act like inputs to a crafting machine, and the output is the scrap you take home.

🧊 Collision Performance: More Bots, Better Frames

A key part of the game is physically simulating every enemy as a rigidbody. This lets us read the contact forces from the physics solver and use them to apply damage or other effects as a byproduct.

This is difficult to do at scale. Even around one thousand bots grouped up usually means multiple contact events for each bot as they hit one another and the ground all the time. That can turn into many thousands of events to process every physics frame.

When we profiled large waves, contact processing often used a significant portion of the frame budget.

This system was revamped to use multithreading much more effectively, reaching roughly double the performance in the worst case and around three to four times faster in most situations.

On top of that, it has been tuned to return much less noisy data by calculating the forces in a more custom way. Impact damage is now more reliable and more predictable than when we used raw output from the physics solver.

In practice, this lets us put roughly thirty to fifty percent more bots in one place while still maintaining a better frame rate than before.

🧪 Facility Research Centers: Turning Regions Into Mars Labs

Across Mars, each region has its own Facility Research Center. This is a physical station you discover, bring online, and then permanently dedicate to a single tech branch.

It is not just a menu. It is a real structure in the world that you can feed with resources.

When you activate one, you make a one-way choice. You decide that this center is now a Defense blueprint lab, or an Automation technology hub, or a Weapons research facility. Each facility becomes a concrete commitment to that specific tech fantasy.

Under the hood, these centers plug into a tiered research system. The first center you assign to a branch unlocks its early technologies. Every additional center you point at that same branch pushes you deeper into that tech tree and reveals more specialized traps, turrets, automation tools, or weapon upgrades.

How you spread and specialize your research centers across regions directly shapes your long-term build. Over time, your logistics network turns into a planetary web of Mars labs, slowly grinding out power.

🎨 Concept Art: Filling Out The World

We have also been pushing further on the visual side of Hostile Mars. This month’s concept art explores environment updates and facility blockouts.

That wraps up November.

We are getting closer to the version of Hostile Mars where combat, factory planning, and research all feed into each other in a tight loop. Core delivery runs open new regions, facilities shape your tech identity, and the Yield system turns every destroyed bot into a real decision about how you want to progress.

As always, thank you for following along and for being patient while we keep tearing this thing apart and rebuilding it stronger. More updates soon.

-HM Team

Original post

01 Nov 2025Developer post

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog: Playtests, Regions, and a Friendlier Build Mode

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog - Focused Playtests, Regions, and a Friendlier Build Mode We went quiet for two months to refocus and playtest. The result: a clearer, tighter game plan and a much friendlier loop. We cut features that weren’t pulling their weight, doubled down on what make

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog - Focused Playtests, Regions, and a Friendlier Build Mode

We went quiet for two months to refocus and playtest. The result: a clearer, tighter game plan and a much friendlier loop. We cut features that weren’t pulling their weight, doubled down on what makes Hostile Mars sing, and fixed a bunch of “why is that enemy under the ramp again?” moments. Here’s the fast tour:

🧪 Internal Playtesting & Defining the Game

We put a lot of hours into hands-on testing and hard calls. The goal was simple: sharpen the core loop so you spend less time wrestling systems and more time building, defending, and expanding. We now have a locked-in direction for finishing: regions as the backbone, waves that stress your choices, building that scales without becoming a chore, and UI that tells you what matters.

*gameplay footage includes some block-out quality models/textures and placeholder UI

🗺️ Regional Game Design

Regions are where the identity of the game shows up: different environments, enemy mixes, and pacing.

Each region has a core and a wave structure that asks for different playstyles.
Terrain and enemy types push you toward different solutions (tight corridors vs. open fields, fast bots vs. heavy haulers).
Progression is about adapting, not just grinding. Expect to re-think traps, routing, and your combat loadout per region.

🧱 Group Placements

Building big structures piece by piece is certainly possible, but there's nothing like dragging to place a whole lot at once!
We're reintroducing group placement with the reworked build mode, allowing you to build at scale much faster without compromising on the new features.

🚁 Build Drone View

We had disabled the drone camera when using the build mode due to a number of issues, like on HUD icons not updating properly or lighting artefacts when transitioning in and out of the camera.
We've brought it back with all issues resolved, and new features like a quick warp to the player!

👻 Ghosts and Repairs

We've wanted base destruction to happen during waves in various contexts, but every single time this brought a lot of frustration when playing, as it meant manually rebuilding everything.
The new building system supports different build stages, now including ghosts!
When a building is destroyed, it turns into a hologram that can be repaired outside of the wave.
Repairs cost fewer resources than fully dismantling and rebuilding something.

🧰 So Much Build Mode

Paint mode, build priority, decoration pieces, "new unlock" icon, selection group actions, tooltips...
Many other invisible improvements were made to ensure other systems work as expected with the reworked buildings, such as properly refunding resources when dismantling buildings, setting up pathfinding colliders, optimizations for loading buildings from a save, and more.

🆘 HUD Enemy Statuses

As some of you may remember, physics-simulated enemies means they regularly get themselves in a pickle: stuck upside down in some crevice or shoved under something.
This has been long overdue, and finally, bots now add icons on screen when they get stuck or when they are lost! This is a first version, and the icon movement can be a bit jarring still, but it makes a world of difference when figuring out why a wave is not completing!
It even helped find a number of issues while testing.

🚛 The Hauler

The Hauler, which was only a concept in a previous devlog, appeared in the full glory of 3D!
It'll receive some more love to make the movement smoother in a later pass.

🎨 Art Corner

We’ve got a stack of sketches and blockouts to share: machine silhouettes, prop passes for conveyors and power hubs, and layout studies for region cores. Expect a more grounded, industrial vibe - “built to last until it didn’t.”

🔭 Looking Ahead

Polish First: tighten what’s already in. Cleaner build flows, clearer HUD cues, fewer edge-case headaches.
Player Controller: lock in a robust feel for movement, camera, and responsiveness across combat and build mode.
Player Weapons: iterate on recoil, feedback, and upgrade paths so every shot feels purposeful.
Enemy Behaviors: smarter pathing and role clarity (rushers, disruptors, heavies) to make fights readable and satisfying.
Tuning & QA: short, frequent playtest loops to sand off rough edges and keep the core loop snappy.

– The Hostile Mars Team

Original post

01 Aug 2025Developer post

July Devlog: Foundations, Smarter Selection, and Dynamic Power for Hostile Mars

July was a month for groundwork—literally and figuratively. While much of our focus was on core building systems, the art team continued to shape the world’s industrial identity. Here’s what’s new and in progress on Mars: 🏗️ Foundations: Laying the Groundwork The placement syste

July was a month for groundwork—literally and figuratively. While much of our focus was on core building systems, the art team continued to shape the world’s industrial identity. Here’s what’s new and in progress on Mars:

🏗️ Foundations: Laying the Groundwork

The placement system got a major upgrade this month, making building both smarter and more flexible:

Adaptive Snapping: Buildings now snap more intelligently to their surroundings, speeding up construction and reducing headaches.
Build Stages: We introduced clearer build stages, from request to “ghost” preview, so you always know what’s being placed.
Automatic Dependency Placement: The headline feature: foundations! Now, panels must connect to a foundation to be considered grounded. Foundations also help fill terrain gaps that don’t match the grid—perfect for smoothing out rough ground.
Yes, you can pour concrete over the whole world (if you want to).

🟦 Selection: Precision Returns

Selection tools are back and better than before:

The new system provides much clearer visual feedback when selecting and deleting objects.
While it currently supports deleting buildings, future updates will add multi-object editing, blueprints, and batch settings (imagine setting the recipe on 100 machines at once).
Copy-paste is on the roadmap!

⚡ Powered Panels: Dynamic Power Grids

Expanding your base’s power network just got easier and more robust:

The power grid system now uses the new building system to dynamically define panel connections.
This means you can add panels of any shape—half walls, diagonal floors, and more—and they’ll intuitively propagate power through your structures.
We’re looking forward to seeing what creative bases and power networks players build with these new tools.

🎨 Art: Facilities, Repairs, and Mars Transit

The art team’s been deep into facility and transport exploration:

Damaged vs. Repaired Facilities: New concept art shows facilities in both their ruined and restored states, helping set the visual tone for player-driven progress.

Transport Concepts: From mining convoys to futuristic cargo haulers, new transport designs are helping us imagine how resources move across Mars.

Facility Exploration: These visuals capture the difference between an abandoned outpost and one brought back to life—one of the core themes of Hostile Mars.

🔭 Looking Ahead

Every piece of groundwork this month supports bigger ideas on the horizon—from creative base layouts to smarter automation and evolving world art.
Thank you for following along, sharing feedback, and helping us build Mars one panel at a time.

And yes, part of our team is in Sweden—so if progress seemed a little slower, just know July is practically a national month off over there. We promise they’ll be back (and full of cinnamon buns) soon!

– The Hostile Mars Team

Original post

01 Jul 2025Developer post

Devlog 41: Automation, Regional Progress, and Loot Physics on Mars

There’s a rhythm to building on Mars: some months are all show, others are about wiring up what’s underneath. This month was about connecting those wires - automation, regions, and enemy escalation - so that every new area feels distinct and every system supports the next. ⚙️ Aut

There’s a rhythm to building on Mars: some months are all show, others are about wiring up what’s underneath. This month was about connecting those wires - automation, regions, and enemy escalation - so that every new area feels distinct and every system supports the next.

⚙️ Automation: Machines That Work for You

Much of this month was spent improving the backbone of the game’s automation. Machines and containers now automatically handle their own input and output, letting resources flow between systems with minimal player intervention. This is a big step toward the fully functioning, player-driven supply chains that make large-scale defenses possible.

🧪 Item Pickup Performance: Stress-Testing at Scale

Sometimes the only way to be sure your code works is to try to break it. That’s why we decided to drop over 18,000 items in one spot, just to see what would happen. (Sorry, Mars.)

The result? A mountain of loot taller than most of our buildings, and a framerate that was still holding strong. Thanks to the pickup radius logic, items were instantly collected when running through it, leaving behind what can only be described as the world’s first player-carved tunnel of loot (no sources were checked while making this claim. No sunlight seen since the start of this project).

If you’ve ever wanted to clean up a mess so efficiently that you accidentally invent Martian mining, we’ve got you covered.

🗺️ Regional Systems: Distinct Frontiers, Unique Challenges

The world of Hostile Mars is no longer one giant base; it’s a network of distinct regions, each with unique play spaces, threats, and progression:

Regional storage means every region manages its own resources, pushing players to adapt their strategies and logistics.
Unique spawn points and enemy types are assigned per region, so every new territory introduces a different defensive and automation puzzle.
Region-specific setups now include their own spawn points, power systems, and storage, providing a fresh tactical challenge in every zone.

Regions aren’t just cosmetic; they shape gameplay from the ground up, forcing creative solutions as players expand across Mars.

🪓 Spawn Systems: Designed for Player Agency and Escalation

After months of iteration, the enemy spawn system has been fully reworked to give players more control and to tie enemy escalation directly to automation and regional progression:

Manual activation: In some cases, players choose which spawn points to activate and when. Each is tied to a unique bot type and activates escalating waves as you progress.
Waves and upgrades: Each spawn point ramps up over five waves, maxing out at a fixed output. After reaching the cap, you can upgrade the spawn for higher-tier, more rewarding (and challenging) enemies.
Strategic diversity: The order and types of spawn points you activate define the enemy composition and flow, so every region, and every playthrough, feels different.
Automation integration: Some late-game spawn points require item input (manual or automated) to trigger waves, integrating your supply chains directly with the combat loop.
Player pacing: You control the rate of escalation, letting you prep defenses and automation at your own pace, before choosing to trigger the next wave.

🛠️ Building the Build Mode UI

While much of the core systems work continued in the background, Hugo focused on updating the Build Mode UI to support all the new design changes. The goal is to make building more intuitive, responsive, and visually clear for players.

This month’s work centered on prototyping new interface elements and logic, still using programmer art, so the team can rapidly test different layouts and user flows. This hands-on approach is helping us define the player experience we want before finalizing the look and feel.

These efforts are setting the stage for a smoother, more satisfying Build Mode, where players can construct and manage complex bases with confidence and clarity.

🏗️ Design: Mars is No Longer a Monolith

With these changes, Hostile Mars is moving away from the old “one super-base” mindset. Instead, each region is a modular puzzle: its own power grid, automation backbone, and unique set of threats.

Terrain, verticality, choke points, and hazards now push players to constantly rethink their builds.
Facilities and points of interest reward exploration and clever engineering.

This approach keeps expansion fresh and meaningful, and gives every step across Mars a sense of progress and discovery.

🎨 Art: Enemies, Environments, and Atmosphere

New Enemy: The Sawhead Niclas Halvarsson created an in-game version of the new “Sawhead” enemy, a bot built to cut into Mars.
Concepts: Old Mars Bases Daysh provided concept art for possible mining operations, showing everything from large industrial complexes to smaller, more intimate sites.

🔭 Looking Ahead

The team is working toward a world where every region, every wave, and every upgrade feels deliberate and satisfying.
The systems put in place now are all about giving players more agency, more variety, and more reasons to keep exploring.

Thanks for being with us through these foundational months.

- The Hostile Mars Team

Original post

01 Jun 2025Developer post

May Devlog: Builder Drones, Smarter Placement, and Regional Systems Expanded

🪐 May Devlog – Stabilizing the Surface This month wasn’t about flashy reveals, it was about structure. Literal and metaphorical. We focused on grounding major systems: how buildings are placed, how objects are initialized and powered, how regions are managed, and how players int

🪐 May Devlog – Stabilizing the Surface

This month wasn’t about flashy reveals, it was about structure. Literal and metaphorical. We focused on grounding major systems: how buildings are placed, how objects are initialized and powered, how regions are managed, and how players interact with the game on a technical and mechanical level. In short: the scaffolding beneath the chaos.

Let’s walk through what got done.

🧱 Building the Right Way

➤ From Grid to Grounded Placement

We replaced the old grid-based building validation system with a simpler, more reliable collision-based query. The previous system had grown too complex and fragile, especially around terrain and object interactions. The new approach makes building feel smoother and frees up designers to create more intuitive, flexible placement rules.

➤ Builder Drones Take the Lead

Instead of snapping buildings into existence, we’ve started implementing the long-awaited builder drone system. After placing a structure, drones will deliver resources and construct it over time. In the future, drone performance, speed, capacity, concurrent jobs, will be region-specific and upgradable. It's a small step toward automation and strategy becoming deeply linked to regional progress.

➤ Structural Integrity Warnings

With the addition of a structural integrity system, we’ve taken care to avoid surprises. The system now predicts what would happen before removing panels, offering a warning if a removal would cause parts of your base to collapse. The goal: smart constraints without frustration.

➤ Smarter Build Controls

Build inputs, like rotation, now adapt more intelligently based on what you're placing and where. The difference is subtle, but it reduces the jarring moments where a building suddenly flips or misaligns due to unexpected input behavior.

🔌 Systems, Initialization, and Power

A lot of invisible work went into cleaning up and organizing object behavior at runtime.

We built out an object power controller to manage which objects are powered and how they respond to power state changes.

We implemented a clean initialization flow for objects, especially defensive ones, so they’re consistently set up, registered, and controlled when entering a region or being placed.

These systems work together to improve how the world behaves under the hood: more predictable, more modular, and more efficient.

🕹️ Input and Interaction Cleanup

We also refactored and cleaned up the player input system, consolidating code and eliminating outdated logic. This improves how the player interacts with the game at both a systems level (like input registration) and a gameplay level (more responsive and maintainable).

🌐 Region Management Expanded

Following last month’s introduction of region-based expansion, we spent May deepening its implementation. Region systems are now better organized, with clearer definitions for what’s controlled, what’s powered, and how gameplay behaviors change based on region state.

This work ties directly into builder drone restrictions, future enemy patrol systems, and long-term progression strategy.

🎨 From the Art Team

➤ New Enemy: The Hauler

A new enemy concept entered the world. This heavy-duty bot is designed to haul large cargo containers, but what it’s carrying, and how it might be repurposed, is up to you to discover.

➤ Final Concept: Rock Crusher

The Rock Crusher is a heavy industrial shredder designed for breaking down metal, especially hostile bots. This final concept gives us a clear visual language for high-power, high-risk processing equipment in the world of Hostile Mars.

➤ Base Concept Exploration

We also explored an early concept of what a prior mining operation base might have looked like. This piece is purely conceptual—but helps us imagine the kind of remnants, structures, and industrial patterns that could shape the world’s visual storytelling.

➤ Robot Legs

Some robot legs. Solid.

🔭 What’s Next
Looking ahead, we’ll continue expanding Build Mode functionality, flesh out region-specific gameplay, and start connecting systems like drones, logistics, and enemy pressure into a cohesive loop.

Thanks for following along, and as always, your feedback helps us build this world more intentionally.

– The Hostile Mars Team

Original post

02 May 2025Developer post

April Devlog: UI Rebuild, Drag-and-Drop, and Build Mode Rework

🚀 April Devlog – *Into the Red* It started like any other mission. We gathered in the virtual war room, surrounded by sticky notes, half-written TODOs, and that one monitor that always flickered for no reason. The goal was simple: make *Hostile Mars* better. The goal was simple.

🚀 April Devlog – Into the Red

It started like any other mission.

We gathered in the virtual war room, surrounded by sticky notes, half-written TODOs, and that one monitor that always flickered for no reason. The goal was simple: make *Hostile Mars* better.

The goal was simple.

The execution? Pure chaos.

🧱 Act I: The UI Crisis

Our first battle was a mess of windows.

Menus overlapped. Panels wouldn’t close. Some UI elements had developed... minds of their own. The system we’d once duct-taped together had become a rogue AI with a grudge.

We needed a fresh start. So we tore it all down.

We built an entirely **new modular UI system**, piece by piece:

- Windows that knew when to stay in their lane
- Panels that could be dragged around like civilized interfaces
- A smart visibility system that kept things clean and conflict-free
- An in-game debugger panel to monitor open windows and help us spot problems instantly

> The UI is no longer a war zone. It's a well-oiled command center.

🎒 Act II: The Great Inventory Rebellion

No sooner had we patched up the UI than another old beast woke up: the inventory drag system.

It was slow. It was clunky. Sometimes it didn’t even *drag*. And worse—when it broke, it took other systems down with it.

So we launched a total takedown.

Now, a brand new, **fully modular drag-and-drop system** stands in its place:

- Items follow your cursor smoothly
- Dragging gives clear visual feedback
- Works across all inventory types: weapons, gear, upgrades, containers
- Future-proofed to work with crafting and loot systems

> Inventory chaos defeated. One system reclaimed.

📊 Act III: Loading… At Last

Until now, starting *Hostile Mars* was like pressing a button and hoping for the best.

No loading bar. No status. Just vibes.

That changes today.

We’ve added a full **step-based loading screen** that shows exactly what’s happening as the game loads:

- Each system (world, player, structures, UI) loads one-by-one
- You’ll see a **progress bar for the current task**
- And a **second bar showing total progress**

> You’re no longer flying blind. You’re riding shotgun through startup.

🏗️ Act IV: The Build Mode Uprising

Build Mode used to be functional—but clunky. We wanted it to feel *inspiring*.

So we’re rebuilding the entire experience from the ground up:

- Assignable hotbars
- Structure tabs and quick hotkeys
- Better flow and intuitive controls

And for the builders who want to express themselves? We're adding:

- **Color palettes**
- **Structure styles**
- **Windows, doors, catwalks**, and more

> Build Mode is evolving—from tool to playground.

🌍 Act V: Build-Anywhere Returns (With Teeth)

You asked for it. We heard you.

**Build-anywhere is coming back**—but now it has depth and danger.

The world is now split into **regions**. To build in one, you’ll need to:

1. Explore and scout
2. Defeat patrolling enemies and automated defenses
3. Activate the region’s central core
4. Deploy builder drones and expand your base

To keep things grounded (literally), we’re also introducing a **structural integrity system**. You’ll still have freedom, but builds will need support—no more floating fortresses without physics.

> You're not just building. You're conquering.

🧠 Act VI: Quiet Cleanup, Big Payoff

Meanwhile, our engineers dove into the backend and eliminated:

- All remaining LINQ usage (goodbye, GC spikes)
- Unsafe buffer usage in ECS
- Legacy bottlenecks slowing inventory performance

It wasn’t flashy work—but it will make the entire game feel smoother.

> Behind every smooth experience is a lot of invisible work. We did the work.

🎉 Epilogue: April Complete

By the end of April, we’d wrestled old systems back under control, laid the groundwork for the future, and opened up exciting new possibilities for players and builders alike.

Here’s what’s now in place:

- ✅ A clean, conflict-free UI system
- ✅ A fast, flexible drag-and-drop inventory
- ✅ A clear, informative startup loading sequence
- ✅ A fully redesigned Build Mode in progress
- ✅ Region-based base expansion with structural realism
- ✅ A faster, more stable engine under the hood

🔭 What’s Coming in May

- Finalizing the new Build Mode UI
- More testing and balancing of regional conquest
- Combat UI polish and feedback clarity
- Continued performance upgrades and bug squashing

Thanks for walking the surface of Mars with us. Whether you're reporting bugs, building megabases, or just sending us cursed screenshots of floating rocket launchers—we see you, and we appreciate you.

More to come soon.

– The Hostile Mars Team 🔴

Original post

01 Apr 2025Developer post

Devlog #38 | Benchmarks, Better Bots Through Automation, and Unity 6

Hey Defenders! March has been all about foundations and future-proofing. We’ve been deep in the trenches building tools, polishing visuals, and tweaking systems to ensure Hostile Mars scales smoothly as we introduce more chaos, more bots, and more explosions. 🧪💥 Let’s take a lo

Hey Defenders!

March has been all about foundations and future-proofing. We’ve been deep in the trenches building tools, polishing visuals, and tweaking systems to ensure Hostile Mars scales smoothly as we introduce more chaos, more bots, and more explosions. 🧪💥

Let’s take a look at what we’ve been working on this month!

Benchmarking the Botpocalypse

With all the traps, enemy types, and new mechanics coming together, performance is top of mind. So, we built a dedicated benchmarking tool that allows us to spawn enemies, activate traps, and simulate intense scenarios in controlled test environments.

This new tool lets us:

Measure framerate impact
Analyze how different bots react to certain setups
Identify performance bottlenecks early

It’s already helping us diagnose potential problems before they hit your base. Plus, it’s just fun watching hordes of bots get obliterated in controlled chaos.

Spawners with a Twist: Input Requirements

We’re exploring a new twist on how wave spawners work: giving some of them intake requirements to activate. Imagine this—during a wave, a spawner won't trigger unless it's supplied with a specific crafted component.

Why is this exciting?
Because it means:

Spawners become part of your automation loop
Players must manage logistics and prioritize resources in real time
Crafting and combat start blending in new, meaningful ways

We’re still experimenting with the system, but it’s already opening doors to dynamic and reactive gameplay that ties your entire factory together.

Elevated Platforms – Giving Your Base Some Lift

We’ve been putting polish on the look and feel of your base, and one subtle but impactful change has been elevating platforms slightly above ground level.

This gives each structure:

More visual weight and clarity
A cleaner silhouette and separation from the terrain
A stronger sense of foundation and connection to the environment, making each platform feel firmly anchored to the Martian surface

It’s a small touch that makes a big difference—and we’re loving how it ties the whole environment together.

Upgrading to Unity 6

We’ve made the leap to Unity 6, which offers several performance and workflow improvements. While this won’t look like much on the surface, it will translate to:

Better performance both in-game and in the editor
Improved compatibility with newer features and tools
A more stable foundation for long-term development

Nothing flashy to show here—but trust us, your frame rate will thank you later.

Character Design – The Face (and Armor) of the Fight

Our work continues on designing the main character and their exoskeleton armor. We’re not just aiming for cool visuals—we’re defining the core of how your upgrades and abilities will feel in the field.

We’re experimenting with:

Modular armor pieces and progression
Integrated tools for both combat and automation
A strong silhouette that communicates power and versatility

Stay tuned—more visuals and details are coming soon.

New Recipe System – More Flexibility, More Crafting Fun

Crafting just got a major upgrade. Our old system tied each item to a rigid list of ingredients—great for simple setups, not so great for more complex machines or dynamic outputs.

So we’ve rebuilt the system to be:

Recipe-first instead of item-first
Able to support multiple recipes per item
Flexible enough to allow variable outputs, chances, and machine-specific logic

This opens up a lot of room for factory optimization, tech progression, and alternate resource routes—everything we want crafting to be in Hostile Mars.

Wrapping Up

While March might not have brought the flashiest features, it’s laid essential groundwork for the exciting systems to come. From performance tools and gameplay mechanics to visual polish and character upgrades, we’re charging forward to make Hostile Mars the best blend of automation and annihilation it can be.

As always, your feedback fuels our development—so don’t be shy!

🔗 Join the community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Until next time—keep your turrets loaded and your platforms elevated.
—The Hostile Mars Team 🚀

Original post

03 Mar 2025Developer post

Devlog #37 | A First Look At The Character Exoskeleton

Welcome Defenders February has been a month of major refinements, fixes, and experimentation as we continue to evolve Hostile Mars. From pathfinding improvements and turret firepower to spawn system balancing and trap adjustments, we’ve been hard at work making the game feel even

Welcome Defenders

February has been a month of major refinements, fixes, and experimentation as we continue to evolve Hostile Mars. From pathfinding improvements and turret firepower to spawn system balancing and trap adjustments, we’ve been hard at work making the game feel even better. Let’s dive into what’s new!

Size Matters – Large Enemies & Movement Improvements

Bigger enemies bring bigger problems, and we’re working to make sure they navigate and behave properly in your mazes. Turns out, size definitely matters when it comes to AI movement!

Bottleneck Detection Fixes – The system that detects stuck bots wasn’t sensitive enough to larger enemies. Previously, it only triggered when 30+ bots were jammed in one spot—not very useful when a single Foreman takes up the space of several smaller bots. Now, it properly registers when big enemies are causing blockages.
Improved Terrain Adaptation – Larger bots now better conform to uneven terrain and navigate ramps properly by dynamically adjusting their movement based on ground surface data. No more awkward floating or jittering!
More to Come – This is still a work in progress, and we want large enemies to feel fully integrated with the game’s physics. Expect more refinements soon!

Pathfinding Challenges & Improvements

Normally, we avoid updating third-party packages unless absolutely necessary. Keeping up with API changes and unexpected bugs can be a nightmare. However, the pathfinding package we use has received several major improvements, including performance boosts and fixes for errors we've been encountering.

At first, updating seemed like a smooth process—until ramps suddenly started blocking navigation at random. This unexpected issue has been holding up progress, but we’re in direct contact with the package’s developer to get it resolved. One big benefit of updating is that we now have official support for these types of problems, so once this hurdle is cleared, we should see smoother, smarter pathfinding across the board.

Refining the Spawn System – Organic Growth & Factory Gameplay

We’ve been playtesting extensively to fine-tune how enemy spawn points work together—and the results have been incredibly promising.

🔹 Each spawn point now focuses on a single enemy type and increases its spawn rate over five waves. Once it reaches max spawn rate, a new spawn point opens up.
🔹 After 10 unbroken waves, players can upgrade a spawn point, increasing the enemy rank in exchange for higher resource yields—at the cost of stronger and faster bots.
🔹 The system never feels overwhelming since the focus is on dealing with the latest spawn point before worrying about how they integrate together.

This mechanic ties in perfectly with the factory vision of Hostile Mars. Think of each spawn point like a resource node—your job is to figure out the most effective way to destroy enemies, harvest resources, and optimize production. As complexity ramps up over time, logistics will become a key part of progression, ensuring players are constantly engaged but never overloaded.

Turrets: More Barrels, More Firepower

Who doesn’t love absurd amounts of firepower? We’ve been pushing turret systems to support massive amounts of barrels, and while it’s still a work in progress, here’s how it currently functions:

Each additional barrel speeds up the turret’s fire rate. For example, a turret with 1 barrel fires 1 shot per second, while 4 barrels fire 4 shots per second.
At higher barrel counts (100+), firing one at a time becomes less interesting, so we’re experimenting with clustered shots, where multiple barrels fire together—think mega chain gun levels of destruction.
We’re still refining how best to balance extreme turret builds, but one thing’s for sure: turrets are getting deadlier than ever.

Other Fixes & Additions

February has also been full of smaller but important improvements, including:

✅ The Magnet Trap is back in the build! Bots beware.
✅ Refined trap & turret stats – Adjusted cooldowns, activation times, trigger colliders, damage, fire rates, and status effects.
✅ FINALLY fixed the mouse sensitivity reset bug – Seriously, how did you all play with this issue for so long? Sorry about that!
✅ Bullet Wall Optimization – Now only fires if at least one shot will hit an enemy—no more wasted ammo.

Concept Art – Player & Exoskeleton Gear

This month, our concept art explorations have been all about designing the player and their exoskeleton gear. Since Hostile Mars is all about automation, combat, and survival, we want the player’s design to reflect their role as both a defender and a high-tech engineer. The following are very early concept sketches and explorations. WIP!

We’ve been experimenting with different armor styles, modular attachments, and utility-focused designs that allow for both heavy firepower and efficient resource management. The exoskeleton isn’t just for looks—it will play a key role in movement, upgrades, and overall survivability.

Check out some of the latest sketches and let us know what you think! 🚀🔧

Looking Ahead

As we continue refining gameplay, we’re getting closer and closer to a fully realized combat & automation experience. Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping Hostile Mars, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next!

Let us know your thoughts in the Discord, and stay tuned for more updates.

🔗 Join the community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

See you on Mars,
The Hostile Mars Team 🚀

Original post

01 Feb 2025Developer post

Devlog #36 | Wave Refinements, Ramps Return, and New Deadly Traps!

Defining the Core Wave Gameplay This past month, our main focus has been refining how enemy waves interact with player defenses. That meant a lot of cleaning up, bug fixing, and fine-tuning the systems that make waves function properly. The goal? To lock in the core mechanics of

Defining the Core Wave Gameplay

This past month, our main focus has been refining how enemy waves interact with player defenses. That meant a lot of cleaning up, bug fixing, and fine-tuning the systems that make waves function properly. The goal? To lock in the core mechanics of enemy waves and establish a solid lineup of defenses that showcase different strategic possibilities.

The process was something like this: brainstorm wave or defense mechanics, implement them, test, find a bug, fix it, break something else in the process, repeat. While we have a few new traps in the mix, this month was more about refining what’s already there rather than introducing tons of flashy new features.

A big part of this was improving enemy pathfinding and refining behaviors. After plenty of tweaks, bots are much better at navigating—fewer traffic jams, less aimless wandering, and (hopefully) fewer cases of them standing still questioning their existence.

Vertical Building

🚀 Ramps are back! 🚀

While experimenting with different gameplay concepts, we initially kept things simple by focusing on single-level mazes. But now, ramps are back in the build, adding a whole new layer of strategy (and a whole new set of things to break).

Of course, this introduced some new challenges—making sure bots don’t casually walk off elevated paths, ensuring smooth transitions between ramps and flat ground, and implementing an intuitive placement system so ramps don’t feel like a puzzle piece that refuses to fit.

Bringing verticality back into enemy waves adds a whole new dimension (literally), and while it introduced a fair share of bugs, it also reinforced that many of the game’s core physics are working as intended. Plus, we got some unexpected surprises along the way—some of them intentional, some… less so.

Base Enemy Types

We went back to the drawing board (again) to define the foundational enemy types that will make up the early-game threats. Here’s what we settled on:

Ground bots – The basic foot soldiers, rolling along like they own the place.
Hovering bots – They don’t care about small obstacles—just casually gliding over them like smug little drones.
Flying bots – Because things weren’t chaotic enough on the ground.
Each of these occupies a different space within the grid, meaning you’ll need to think carefully about how to counter them. No single defense will work against everything, so get ready to strategize.

We’ve also been exploring how turrets can handle massive amounts of firepower. Instead of explaining, we’ll let the pictures do the talking. Spoiler: It involves a lot of guns.

Bugfixing

With the core ideas getting more refined, we’ve been focusing on stability before moving on to the next big phase.

Some of this month’s bug-squashing efforts included:

Updating icons (because UI deserves love too).
Finalizing the concept of identity for every entity (yes, even bots need a sense of self).
Fixing collision masks on traps (turns out, traps that don’t trap are just… decorations).
Adjusting how walls affect pathfinding (because bots running into walls on repeat is not a valid strategy).

It’s not the flashiest part of development, but getting everything running smoothly is crucial before we start layering in more complexity.

Traps (concept models)

We’ve been experimenting with more ways to make bots suffer—uh, I mean, "add strategic depth to the game."

Acid Sprayer – Applies a lovely coat of corrosion to bots, dealing damage over time.

Acid Pool – Bots enter. They don’t leave. Simple as that.

EMP Trap – We’re not sure how it works, but it definitely makes bots take an unexpected nap.

Crusher – It crushes things. Enough said.

Rocket Trap – Ever wondered what happens when a bot crosses paths with a fully operational rocket engine? Spoiler: it’s not great for the bot. Whether they get incinerated on the spot or launched into orbit, one thing’s for sure—it’s highly effective.

Some highlights from this month’s visual brainstorming:

Variations of a defense that delivers shocky-shocky to bots.

Two different spinny traps, possibly for mining… or for when a lot of bots need to be deleted.

Astroware Outpost – A super cool design that we can’t wait to share more about.

That’s it for this update! As always, thanks for following along, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Join our Discord and let us know what you think: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

We truly appreciate your ongoing support and can’t wait to share what we have in store next!
See you next time, Defenders! 🚀

Take care,
-HM Team

Original post

01 Jan 2025Developer post

Devlog #35 | Big Bots, New Traps, and Arc Missile Mayhem!

Welcome to our December Dev Log! As the year comes to a close, we’ve been busy wrapping up some exciting developments for Hostile Mars! From experimenting with enemy sizes to introducing thrilling new traps, this month’s update is packed with progress. Whether it’s refining our s

Welcome to our December Dev Log!

As the year comes to a close, we’ve been busy wrapping up some exciting developments for Hostile Mars! From experimenting with enemy sizes to introducing thrilling new traps, this month’s update is packed with progress. Whether it’s refining our systems or exploring creative new ideas, we’re pushing boundaries to make the game even more engaging. Let’s dive into the details!

Size, Speed, and Mass

This month, we went all-in on enemy experimentation—playing with sizes, speeds, and masses to find that perfect flow of oncoming threats. In the process, we defined our base enemy types and hammered out their proportions. Once locked in, these stats will help us shape trap design and progression moving forward.

If you spot some colorful boxes, don’t worry—those are just placeholders for our future mining bots, letting us rapidly tweak size, mass, and speed. Take a peek at the clip below to see our wild testing in action!

Large Enemy Pathfinding

Recently, we've started exploring different sizes of enemies and how they would move through mazes or block each other. A year ago, when the Foreman was introduced as the hover tank in devlog #25, we had to limit its size because more prominent agents would try to follow paths that went too close to walls and kept getting stuck.

This issue has now been fixed. We've revised our pathfinding system to support multiple agent sizes, so bots can now occupy a corridor's entire 8m width or even be larger than a single cell of the build grid.
In addition, obstacles can now block enemy types differently, such as a half wall that flying bots can pass over, but that forces ground bots to find another route.

More Trap Goodening

Last month we introduced a bunch of new traps, and we've continued to add and revise traps in December:

Spring Trap

Since this trap was created, the idea has been to physically simulate a board springing up around a hinge. This would have led to accurate physics behavior, but there was a huge issue: it was very unpredictable!

The number of enemies—along with their mass, shape, or velocity—would completely change where they got thrown. They would be flying all over the place, making the trap hard to balance or use.

We've changed the concept entirely from a spring-actuated board to an electromagnet, sacrificing realistic physics in favor of a more reliable launch trajectory that sorts bots by mass to some extent. Chaos remains, but it's up to the player to figure out how to handle it.

With the trajectory now predictable, preview arcs can be implemented, so there's no need to blindly guess what will happen!

Push Wall

We've had a prototype of this one for a while, but it was too unstable to be used in practice, as it would often glitch out.

Now, we're presenting a revised version that's very stable and easier to configure. It also received a facelift, including a work-in-progress model and some animations using a custom IK (Inverse Kinematics) system.

(I wonder if we'll see some other things using IK… Stay tuned for future devlogs!)

Arc Missile Trap

Walls and barriers have always stood in the way of standard turrets, blocking their line of sight and wasting precious range. That’s why we created the Arc Missile Trap—a cunning launcher that fires heat-seeking, wall-avoiding rockets right over obstacles! It’s perfect for hitting enemies you’d otherwise never be able to reach, and it turns every maze into a playground for explosive, long-range chaos.

Art

Concept Art

Here is a giant electromagnet that acts as a push trap:

Some wall design exploration:

Exploration on push trap arm mechanics:

What is this???

That’s it for this month’s update!

We truly appreciate your ongoing support and can’t wait to share what we have in store next. In the meantime, stay connected by joining our awesome Discord community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Take care,
-HM Team

Original post

03 Dec 2024Developer post

Devlog #34 | Traps, traps, traps, traps, traps

Hostile Mars Development Update Hello, Mars pioneers! Welcome to another development update for Hostile Mars. This month, we've focused on new traps, wave system improvements, bug fixes, and build mode enhancements. Let's dive into the details. More Traps We're excited to announc

Hostile Mars Development Update

Hello, Mars pioneers! Welcome to another development update for Hostile Mars. This month, we've focused on new traps, wave system improvements, bug fixes, and build mode enhancements. Let's dive into the details.

More Traps

We're excited to announce several new traps we have been testing, expanding your defensive options and strategies. These traps are designed to give you complete coverage over different enemy types and scenarios. (Please keep in mind we're still prototyping these traps using our finest 'programmer art' - Our art team will work their magic soon enough.)

Conveyor Trap

Continuing our prototyping of new traps, we're testing The Conveyor Trap! This ingenious device manipulates enemy movement by pushing them while they're stunned or slowing them down by shifting them to the side. Use it strategically to direct enemies into other traps or to delay their advance, giving your defenses more time to take them out.

Rocket Engine Trap

Another newcomer is the Rocket Engine Trap, a powerhouse that activates when enemies are in front of it. It thrusts them away with immense force, dealing serious damage in the process. This area-of-effect trap is highly efficient at wiping out large groups but consumes resources to operate and yields fewer resources from the destroyed bots. Deploy it wisely to control the battlefield!

Rock Crusher Trap

Crush those pesky small ground bots with the Rock Crusher Trap! This mechanical marvel pulverizes enemies that venture too close. You can upgrade it to process multiple bots simultaneously, making it even more efficient at clearing out swarms.

Acid Sprayer

Turn the battlefield into a corrosive nightmare for your enemies with the Acid Sprayer. This trap douses passing bots with acid, inflicting damage over time. It's perfect for weakening enemies before they reach your core defenses.

Acid Pool

Set deadly traps with the Acid Pool! Bots that are small enough will fall into this hidden pit, where they'll be slowly dissolved by acid. It's a satisfying way to eliminate groups of weaker enemies without expending additional resources.

Drill Bit Trap

Stop large enemies in their tracks with the Drill Bit Trap. A massive drill bit emerges from the ground, dealing increasing damage over time. It's especially effective against bigger bots that can't squeeze past it, allowing you to focus fire on other threats.

These new traps not only diversify your defensive arsenal but also open up new strategic possibilities. Whether you need to handle swarms of small bots or halt a giant mech, these traps provide exciting and effective solutions. Equip them wisely, and watch your enemies crumble!

Wave System Improvements

We've enhanced the systems controlling enemy waves to support multiple locations that can run waves independently. For example, a major outpost discovered through exploration could have its own waves and defenses. This allows for more granular wave progression or having the failure EMP only affect certain spawn points, so they can fail independently.

These changes are designed to test various concepts for base defense gameplay. We're considering different sizes for building spaces—such as multiple smaller buildable areas to spread defenses around, as opposed to having one vast open area.

We're also researching how much agency the player should have over progression—whether you should be able to control when to spawn new enemies or if the waves should impose their own rhythm.

Incoming Wave Information

One issue we've had with wave progression was that players would enter a new wave blind to what was coming. While this mostly worked with a slow ramp-up of the number or rank of enemies, the introduction of new spawn points or enemy types came as unexpected surprises that players had to deal with manually.

There could be value in keeping some of that information vague or hidden, but the potential for heavy consequences from an unhandled spawn point or enemy type felt unfair.

So, we're introducing a toggleable overlay that displays information on upcoming waves. Currently visible in-world, this might be changed to appear in a menu or look different in future versions.

Build Mode Quality of Life Improvements

Many enhancements have been made to the build mode this month! As we internally playtest, we're constantly looking for ways to improve this central mechanic to be as frictionless and efficient as possible.

Free-Form Selection: We've changed the selection from a grid-snapped box to a more free-form selection. This allows for finer control over what gets selected, making quick edits in crowded areas easier. We've also added incremental selection controls to add to or remove from the current selection when dragging a new box.

Grid Placement: Placing a grid of objects is now supported, making the construction of larger structures more straightforward.

Non-Grid Objects: Support for non-grid "free placeable" objects has been reintroduced. Previously removed to streamline interactions, we've brought it back for small items like decorations or utility objects (e.g., storage crates) that don't conform to the build grid. These objects also work with selection and copy-pasting!

Additional Tools: We've added a pipette tool to easily pick an object to place from the world and a deletion hotkey to quickly remove buildings.

Art

Props

Concept

That's all for this month's update. We’re incredibly grateful to have such a passionate community and excited to keep sharing our progress with you. To stay up to date with all the latest developments, join our incredible Discord community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Take Care,
-HM Team

Original post

01 Nov 2024Developer post

Devlog #33 | Maze Mechanics, New Enemies, and Base Design

Hostile Mars Development Update Hello, Mars engineers! Welcome to another monthly development update for Hostile Mars. We've been hard at work enhancing the gameplay experience, focusing on maze design, enemy diversity, and base-building mechanics. Let's dive into what's new this

Hostile Mars Development Update

Hello, Mars engineers! Welcome to another monthly development update for Hostile Mars. We've been hard at work enhancing the gameplay experience, focusing on maze design, enemy diversity, and base-building mechanics. Let's dive into what's new this month.

Enemy Congestion Events

Building on last month's work, we're emphasizing the importance of managing bottlenecks in your maze designs. Significant congestion will now trigger a timed warning, giving you insight into potential issues and an opportunity to address them before the bots react. Be cautious—failing to design your maze to scale can have serious consequences!

Prototyping Enemies

While focusing on the tower defense aspect, we're exploring new enemy variants to enhance diversity and deepen strategic gameplay. We've been prototyping extremely fast bots, others that resist most damage types, and even bots that ignore the core and hunt you down!

Splitting Paths

A long-standing idea from our design meetings is introducing mechanics that split enemies into multiple paths. We're adding temporary tools to experiment with this concept. Similar to splitting resource conveyors into multiple processing modules in factory games, we're curious to see if treating enemies more like living resources rather than just foes can lead to interesting player choices.

Combat and Waves Deep Dive

This past month, we've concentrated on isolating wave combat and defenses to increase player agency and experience. In doing so, we've been prototyping different defenses that significantly impact maze design. Here are a few examples:

Bullet Wall Trap:

Shoots a barrage of lasers across multiple cells, offering an advantage when placed at the end of long hallways.

Arc Missile Trap:

Launches missiles over walls within a certain radius. As long as ceilings aren't placed and the area is open, units will be targeted.

Artillery Cannon:

Our first large-format turret, occupying four squares. Similar to the Arc Missile Trap but fires a giant bomb instead of a small missile. It has massive range but requires a long preparation time for each shot.

We're also aligning trap designs to better consider the quantity of enemies passing through the maze. We plan to showcase more in next month's dev log.

Home Base Design

We've dedicated significant time to defining what the Home Base will be—how much will be pre-existing structures versus player-defined. You can see a few sketches in the concept art. We're leaning towards a smaller starting base, allowing you to make critical choices about where larger base elements will reside.

Concept Art

Hammering Down Design Elements

As you know, the possibilities in a physics-based, wave-based shooter are extensive. It's crucial that we make design decisions based on what's best for the player experience, rather than adhering strictly to genre conventions. We dissect each gameplay aspect to determine its value in the context of the multiple genres we're incorporating. Though it takes time to refine these mechanics, the result should be a more polished and unique experience for many players. We invite you to continue this journey with us as we work through the game mechanics to create a great experience.

That's all for this month's update. We're excited about the direction Hostile Mars is taking and can't wait to share more with you in the coming weeks. As always, we appreciate your support and feedback. Stay tuned for more updates, and happy building!

We’re incredibly grateful to have such a passionate community and excited to keep sharing our progress with you. To stay up to date with all the latest developments, join our incredible Discord community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Take Care,
-HM Team

Original post

10 Oct 2024Developer post

Devlog #32 | Forging the Future: Combat, Power Systems, and New Wave Mechanics

Welcome to the October 2024 Hostile Mars Devlog! As we get further into development, the team has been hard at work refining every aspect of the game, from waves of enemy robots to player-driven systems and mechanics. This month, we’ve been focusing on improving the core combat e

Welcome to the October 2024 Hostile Mars Devlog! As we get further into development, the team has been hard at work refining every aspect of the game, from waves of enemy robots to player-driven systems and mechanics. This month, we’ve been focusing on improving the core combat experience, enhancing the game's systems, and introducing exciting new features that will shape how you defend Mars. Let's dive into what’s new and get you prepped for the battles ahead!

Combat-Focused Development

We’re currently isolating the wave system and Home Base defenses, doing a deep dive into traps, turrets, player weapons, and enemies to see how they can be optimized. The goal is to make waves not just challenging, but also full of interesting choices for the player. Expect big changes!

Once we’re satisfied with the core wave mechanics, we’ll layer the manufacturing and logistics systems on top to further deepen the design. This process is taking a bit longer than expected due to the unique blending of genres, but we're getting closer to finding the perfect formula.

Grid-Based Behaviors

Our shift to grid-based traps and buildings is paying off. By using grid cells to track enemy positions, we can optimize how traps interact with enemies, making it easier to detect when bots are bottlenecked or when players have created efficient mazes. This optimization allows us to reward clever base-building strategies and reduce unnecessary complexity in the process.

Build Mode: Copy & Paste and then Blueprints

We’ve made a few quality-of-life improvements to Management Mode, streamlining the UX by automatically switching between selection and placement tools based on input. This speeds up the process of building and adjusting your base, making it feel more fluid. We’ve also added a copy-paste feature so players can quickly duplicate base elements and design more efficiently. You can even drag the blueprint to repeat over a large area! Take that all other games that don't have this feature!

Player Status Effects

It’s time for the player to feel the impact of battle! We’re adding status effects like stun, knockback, and slow to make combat feel more dynamic and dangerous. These effects will add a layer of challenge beyond just managing health, making certain enemies even more threatening. Plus, we’ll be integrating improved animations so the player character reacts more naturally to being hit, adding a deeper sense of immersion.

Health and Damage Systems

We’ve cleaned up and improved the code for handling damage and health, giving us far more flexibility in how entities interact in combat. Now, when an entity deals or receives damage, it can track what caused the damage and even trigger special behaviors—like bots self-destructing upon destroying a structure or spike traps activating on impact. This upgrade opens up new design possibilities as we fine-tune the game’s tower defense mechanics.

Grid-Based Power System

Power has always been a tricky part of our game’s design, especially considering its importance in factory-building games. But in a wave-based combat game, a power outage during a wave could punish players too harshly. So, we’ve revamped the system into a grid-based power system.

Power flows through tiles connected to a central generator. As long as tiles are connected, they’ll stay powered. If an attack breaks the connection, only those affected tiles will lose power—so don’t worry about catastrophic failures mid-wave. The new system simplifies power management, letting you focus on building without worrying about power shortages.

New Enemy Wave System

While there may not be much to show visually, we’ve drastically improved the way waves are structured. Now, we have more control over where and when enemies spawn, allowing us to create more exciting and strategic waves. The new system lets us fine-tune which spawn points release specific enemy types, giving us the ability to design waves with more precision and intensity.

Art Spotlight

This month, we’re giving you a sneak peek at some of the latest concept art for Hostile Mars! Our talented art team has been hard at work bringing the Martian landscape and enemy designs to life. From the gritty, industrial feel of your Home Base to the mechanical menace of enemy bots, the visual direction is getting sharper every day.

Expect to see towering enemy robots, deadly traps, and a Martian landscape filled with hidden resources and strategic opportunities. We can’t wait for you to experience these environments and enemies in action, but for now, enjoy this exclusive look at some of our newest concept art!

Concept Art

Models

That wraps up our October devlog! We’re excited about the progress we’ve made and can’t wait to share even more updates as we continue refining Hostile Mars. With major improvements to combat, new systems in place, and a deeper focus on strategy and gameplay, we’re getting closer to delivering a Martian defense experience like no other. Stay tuned for more, and as always, thanks for your continued support!

Until next time, keep defending Mars! 💥

We’re incredibly grateful to have such a passionate community and excited to keep sharing our progress with you. To stay up to date with all the latest developments, join our incredible Discord community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Take Care,
-HM Team

Original post

01 Sep 2024Developer post

Devlog #31 | Explore What's New: Hostile Mars September Dev Log Highlights!

Welcome Back, Defenders! Public Pre-Alpha Demo Results The public pre-alpha demo of Hostile Mars, launched during Steam's Tower Defense Festival, was a resounding success! Over 2,500 users engaged with the demo, averaging two hours of playtime each. We’re thrilled with the turnou

Welcome Back, Defenders!

Public Pre-Alpha Demo Results

The public pre-alpha demo of Hostile Mars, launched during Steam's Tower Defense Festival, was a resounding success! Over 2,500 users engaged with the demo, averaging two hours of playtime each. We’re thrilled with the turnout and deeply grateful for all the feedback received through the post-demo survey. It has been instrumental in guiding our enhancements. If you haven’t had the chance yet and would like to provide feedback, you can still do so here.

Your feedback has given us clear insights into what’s working well and where we can focus our efforts to improve the game. We’re particularly grateful for the constructive suggestions regarding features that are still in development, such as the outpost system. This system is designed to provide unique experiences and unlock new technologies with each completed outpost, and we’re excited to refine it further to meet your expectations.

We were blown away by the creative base designs that many of you shared. Seeing how you engaged with the game’s mechanics has been a huge inspiration for our team. Your participation and feedback are vital as we continue to develop and enhance Hostile Mars. We’re listening closely and are already implementing many of your ideas to make the game even better.

Demo POIs and Progression

In preparation for the demo, we made some significant updates to the game’s progression system. By tying the tech tree directly to the world, we’ve created a more immersive and rewarding experience. This also meant reimagining the environment with new Points of Interest (POIs) and special locations that align with the revamped progression.

The demo showed us that we’re on the right track, and we’re committed to refining these elements to ensure they’re both intuitive and enjoyable. We’re excited to see how these changes will enhance your experience as you explore and conquer Mars.

Adding an Intro Sequence

We’re excited to share that we added a new intro sequence to the demo, bringing a fresh layer of narrative depth to Hostile Mars. While there’s still more to come, the current intro has already received positive feedback, and we’re eager to continue expanding the game’s storytelling elements. This is just the beginning of the cinematic experiences we plan to offer, making the world of Hostile Mars even more engaging and immersive.

Continuous Improvement

Throughout the demo, our team worked tirelessly to ensure everything ran as smoothly as possible. We’re always striving to deliver the best experience, and your feedback is helping us polish the game even further. We’re a small but dedicated team, and every challenge we face brings us closer to creating the best version of Hostile Mars.

Demo Build Mode Feedback

We heard your thoughts on the building system, and we’re excited to announce some great improvements! Building vertically is now more intuitive, thanks to updates that make placing walls and floors easier and more precise. These enhancements will allow you to focus on your creativity, making base building a more enjoyable and seamless experience.

Art

The art team has been working hard on lots of stuff, here's a preview of some of the concept work done:

Concepts: Character Exploration

Concepts: Loot Boxes

More Game Props

Thank you for your continued support! We’re incredibly grateful to have such a passionate community and excited to keep sharing our progress with you. To stay up to date with all the latest developments, join our incredible Discord community: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

That's it for this dev log.
Take Care,
-HM Team

Original post

01 Jul 2024Developer post

Devlog #30 | Public Demo Countdown, The Ripper, and Major System Overhauls!

Public Demo The public demo is almost here! Hostile Mars is excited to participate in the Steam Tower Defense Festival, featuring our latest demo! The festival kicks off on July 29th, but you can dive into the action early with the public demo going live on July 26th . Get ready

Public Demo

The public demo is almost here! Hostile Mars is excited to participate in the Steam Tower Defense Festival, featuring our latest demo! The festival kicks off on July 29th, but you can dive into the action early with the public demo going live on July 26th. Get ready to defend Home Base!

If you experienced our last public demo, prepare for a whole new adventure! This demo has been completely overhauled from top to bottom, with revamped game mechanics, enhanced enemy behaviors, and a host of new features. Get ready to dive into an even more thrilling and immersive Martian battlefield!

Let's take a look at the things we've been working on for the past month:

The Ripper

We've been crafting a weapon that truly captures the essence of Hostile Mars. With our focus on battling massive waves of enemies and physics-based interactions, we've created "The Ripper."

The game kicks off with The Ripper as your primary utility weapon. Originally designed for repairing and debugging live robots, this versatile tool can disassemble bots into pieces for inspection. It also throws scraps too heavy to move manually into storage or recycling bins. But here's the twist: The Ripper can be easily modified to pull enemies in close, tear them apart, and hurl the pieces at other bots!

Upgrades allow The Ripper to pull in more enemies and shoot more scraps per shot. It's an incredibly satisfying weapon to wield, and we're continually refining it to ensure it feels fantastic and scales seamlessly with the increasing waves of enemies. Get ready to rip through the robotic hordes with style!

Attack Token Changes

We've enhanced the attack token system, which balances combat by limiting simultaneous enemy attacks. Previously, all enemies shared a global token budget, making it hard for all enemy types to get a chance to attack in large groups. Now, each enemy type has its own attack group with a private budget, ensuring more balanced and engaging combat. Enemies can still use the shared budget, but if depleted, they rely on their group's budget. This update allows for fine-tuning the number of attacks from each enemy type, making battles with mixed enemy groups more dynamic and exciting.

Aggro Changes

Up until recently, the enemies would aggro the player whenever they were in range, no matter what. This meant the player could easily stop the entire wave from progressing by standing in range of the path as enemies would try to reach the player instead of going for the core. And this worked even when hundreds of enemies were around.

We've changed the aggro behavior to limit how many enemies will take the aggro at once, using the attack token system described above. This resulted in much better interactions when getting too close to the swarm, most of it will continue going for the core as some enemies stay behind to take care of any pesky player bothering them !

Management Mode

We've revamped Build Mode, now called Management Mode, with a cleaner UI. The interface has moved from a vertical stack to a bottom row, freeing up screen space. Category tabs are smaller with clearer icons, and material costs are shown only when hovering over items. This is our first pass, with more improvements to come based on feedback.

Home Base Designs

We are building out home base to fit with the wave structure of the game and this is the central power generator!

More Art

Mahines, Turrets, and Crates.

Building Health

Health for structures has been implemented more robustly and now shows on the prompt when viewing an object's cursor prompt.

Refining the Machines and Crafting System

We've been hard at work tuning our machines and crafting system to seamlessly integrate with Hostile Mars' intense gameplay. Each type of enemy scrap can be used towards smelting two different metal types, giving you the freedom to choose which resource to extract from each enemy. Additionally, certain traps can yield both resources from each enemy type, emphasizing the importance of home base design and strategic resource collection. The better you design your base, the more resources you'll harvest from each wave, enabling you to build and upgrade with even higher efficiency. Get ready to optimize your base and turn enemy scraps into Martian treasures!

That's it for this dev log. If you want to keep up with development, join us on Discord:
https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

Take Care,
-HM Team

Original post

Updates & announcements

We’re excited to announce that the Hostile Mars playtest will begin this Friday!

Player Threats

Bot Processor

Death Spectacle

Destructive Behavior

Conveyors

Region 2 Design Blockout

Build Mode: Gizmos and Sounds

Building Health and Repair

Codex

Death Reactions

Art

Closing

Destruction Matters

Bringing Combat to Life

Keep Exploring

ART!

Closing

Critical shots

Stacks of status effects

Elite Enemies

Trap polish pass

Wave bot tooltips

ECS animation system

Item progression foundation

More art

December and January

Power is built, not granted

Trap placement consequences

Pathing with tagged surfaces

Enemy code improvements

More Art

📝 November Devlog: New Regions, Smarter Scrap, More Bots On Screen

🚚 Core Delivery Vehicle: Bringing The Fight Somewhere New

📊 Yield: Turning Bots Into Progress

🧊 Collision Performance: More Bots, Better Frames

🧪 Facility Research Centers: Turning Regions Into Mars Labs

🎨 Concept Art: Filling Out The World

🚀 Hostile Mars Devlog - Focused Playtests, Regions, and a Friendlier Build Mode

🧪 Internal Playtesting & Defining the Game

🗺️ Regional Game Design

🧱 Group Placements

🚁 Build Drone View

👻 Ghosts and Repairs

🧰 So Much Build Mode

🆘 HUD Enemy Statuses

🚛 The Hauler

🎨 Art Corner

🔭 Looking Ahead

🏗️ Foundations: Laying the Groundwork

🟦 Selection: Precision Returns

⚡ Powered Panels: Dynamic Power Grids

🎨 Art: Facilities, Repairs, and Mars Transit

🔭 Looking Ahead

⚙️ Automation: Machines That Work for You

🧪 Item Pickup Performance: Stress-Testing at Scale

🗺️ Regional Systems: Distinct Frontiers, Unique Challenges

🪓 Spawn Systems: Designed for Player Agency and Escalation

🛠️ Building the Build Mode UI

🏗️ Design: Mars is No Longer a Monolith

🎨 Art: Enemies, Environments, and Atmosphere

🔭 Looking Ahead

🪐 May Devlog – Stabilizing the Surface

🧱 Building the Right Way

➤ From Grid to Grounded Placement

➤ Builder Drones Take the Lead

➤ Structural Integrity Warnings

➤ Smarter Build Controls

🔌 Systems, Initialization, and Power

🕹️ Input and Interaction Cleanup

🌐 Region Management Expanded

🎨 From the Art Team

➤ New Enemy: The Hauler

➤ Final Concept: Rock Crusher

➤ Base Concept Exploration

➤ Robot Legs

🚀 April Devlog – *Into the Red*

🧱 Act I: The UI Crisis

🎒 Act II: The Great Inventory Rebellion

**We’re excited to announce that the Hostile Mars playtest will begin this Friday!**

🚀 April Devlog – Into the Red