Destination Ares

Released: Sep 22, 2017
Platforms: Windows
Last updated: 04 Sep 2026, 09:19 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

01 Jun 2022Developer post
The Re-Release is Here
It's time. Destination Ares is re-releasing imminently and will be available for purchase soon. The game is also being permanently reduced in price! $19.99 / £19.99 / €19.99 -> $9.99 / £7.99 / €8.99 I will also be doing fewer sales these days, so I hope the reduced price makes
It's time. Destination Ares is re-releasing imminently and will be available for purchase soon.
The game is also being permanently reduced in price! $19.99 / £19.99 / €19.99 -> $9.99 / £7.99 / €8.99
I will also be doing fewer sales these days, so I hope the reduced price makes up for that. Note that it might take a bit of time for the reduced price to propagate, but it should be there soon!
If you already own the game, you can get access to v1.1.0 now.
The New Destination Ares
This update, v1.1.0, is significant in some fundamental parts of the code. It will break any in-progress runs.
Difficulty Options, for the less masochistic
(Note: you still qualify for achievements while using these)
Resource Drain
- High (default), Low
Crew Skill
- Untrained (default), Skilled, Expert
Luck
- Even (default), Improved
Minigame Toggle
(hotly demanded!)
System Construction & Salvage
Build makeshift systems in-flight
when everything goes wrong! (Uses Science skill)
Break down old systems
for a few materials and parts! (Uses Mechanical skill)
New Events - what could go wrong?
Free a crewmember
from the jaws of the toilet's suction piece
Flood the atmos with vaporized fuel
when the air pressure is low
Turn an old corpse
into something useful
Use solar arrays
as a shield from micrometeoroids
Push a faulty fabricator to consume everything onboard
or die trying
Receive a definitely innocent memo from GuideBot
Fixes, Improvements, and Wildly Incoherent Changes

Started up minigame tutorial sooner
Sped up minigame tutorial
Made GuideBot harass you more often with snarky tips
"Broken" tooltip text now red
Overhauled event data structure internally
Updated dev tools
Unlocked all crew personalities from the beginning of the game; I apologize in advance if you roll a Chatty crewmember
Fixed - Crew sometimes abandoned ship secretly when they were supposed to die, were listed as "Survived"
"Pause" now slows the game to 1/500 speed, rather than perfect 0
Added a second way to enter the path to the secret ending
Some hard to press buttons are now, you know, easier to press
Your hidden AI core more consistently consumes energy (every 10 seconds)
Command skill is now more effective at preventing that passive energy drain, with the same diminishing returns
Base crew resilience to stress is lowered, but more consistent
Command skill increases stress resilience for all crew - so long as the crewmember(s) with the skill are capable of doing work
(No changes to bonus minigame time from Command skill)
Crew need to eat slightly more food and sleep slightly longer
Special crew with increased resilience to needs (i.e., the "skilled engineer" and "famous scientist") eat a little less and sleep faster, in addition to less often
The "wealthy doctor" gets a bonus point in Command
Choosing "high quality system retrofits" does more, including handing out keywords
Achievements should no longer unlock early
Known Bug

Rarely dead crew continue moving for awhile, drifting about the ship and/or swinging arms (definitely won't fix)
Let me know if you run into any new bugs, I might fix them again in another 4 or 5 years.
Original post
25 Feb 2022Developer post
Destination Ares will be Re-Releasing
In 2020, I removed Destination Ares from all stores, including Steam. A few months ago, I quit my job as a tech lead at a game company to start a new studio. While I'm waiting on admin stuff to go through, I've been touching up Destination Ares. And so, I'm happy to announce: Des
In 2020, I removed Destination Ares from all stores, including Steam.
A few months ago, I quit my job as a tech lead at a game company to start a new studio. While I'm waiting on admin stuff to go through, I've been touching up Destination Ares.
And so, I'm happy to announce: Destination Ares will be re-releasing this Spring.
This game had burnt me out. I haven't updated it since 2017, shortly after launch. It's both incredibly flawed, and incredibly niche. It never has and never will make me enough money to be worth spending any time on.
However, one of the game's fans reached out privately awhile ago, hoping I'd come back to DA one day. And, like all things that you hurt yourself loving, this game means too much to me to let it die so quietly.
Indeed, over the years I had occasionally come back to it when I felt a burst of inspiration. Much of that work never went anywhere and remains unfinished, but it started a base for the new update you'll see this Spring.
So far, the re-release will include:

new features!

in-flight construction
salvage of systems
new events!
hotly requested difficulty options!
and a minor amount of polish and bugfixing
It's still the same old masochistic and obtuse Destination Ares, and I look forward to giving it back to you.
Original post
01 Jun 2020Developer post
Temporarily Not for Sale
Dear players, Destination Ares is temporarily disabled for new purchases, effective immediately. The ongoing situation in the US has become critical, and while self-care and relief from that pain is important, it is the opinion of this American developer & publisher that this
13 Jul 2018Developer post
#LOVEINDIES Week Sale and Competition
On Monday, #LoveIndies week starts! --> What is #loveindies week? Destination Ares will be 29% off here on Steam! ( wtf, why 29%? ) I'm also running a bit of a competition for part of the week, and winners can get swag (stickers!) for themselves and keys to give to their frien
02 Apr 2018Developer post
PAX East
This week, I'll be taking Destination Ares to Boston for PAX East! I scored a sweet opportunity with the Indie MEGABOOTH folks and will have a little station Thursday and Friday (April 5th and 6th), section 17070. If you're going to be at PAX, come on by and meet me! I'll have st
02 Apr 2018Developer post
PAX East
This week, I'll be taking Destination Ares to Boston for PAX East! I scored a sweet opportunity with the Indie MEGABOOTH folks and will have a little station Thursday and Friday (April 5th and 6th), section 17070. If you're going to be at PAX, come on by and meet me! I'll have st
14 Mar 2018Developer post
Sales Pricing Structure
You may have noticed that Destination Ares has had suppressed sales prices on Steam. This was an intentional experiment. :redscientist: From launch onwards, every sale was 10% off, plus 1% per sale before it. So, the second sale was 11% and the sixth was 15%. My goal was to build
14 Mar 2018Developer post
Sales Pricing Structure
You may have noticed that Destination Ares has had suppressed sales prices on Steam. This was an intentional experiment. ːredscientistː From launch onwards, every sale was 10% off, plus 1% per sale before it. So, the second sale was 11% and the sixth was 15%. My goal was to build
13 Oct 2017Developer post
Happy Launch! Here's a quick patch :)
This update is mostly Quality of Life, bringing in a bunch of fixes and improvements to clean up the experience. :redscientist: Notably, crew will do off-task work more often. This should make the game demonstrably easier for less attentive AIs. (You still won't win. Git gud) Pat
This update is mostly Quality of Life, bringing in a bunch of fixes and improvements to clean up the experience. :redscientist:
Notably, crew will do off-task work more often. This should make the game demonstrably easier for less attentive AIs. (You still won't win. Git gud)
Patch:

Improvements

Shortened how long it takes before the minigame tutorial turns on
Slowed minigame tutorial down
Clarified wording in minigame tutorial
Improved clickability of minigame's "Return to Ship" button
Destroyed systems are now more recognizable in their tooltips
Increased how often crew will do off-task work. Should see more idle usage and repairs, especially with jobless crew
Fixed

Fixed some special loss events getting ignored if the player resumes a run after exiting the game
Fixed a couple achievement toggles (incl The Arean Trail. Grats if you got it free), though I suspect there's something else going on here
Fixed typo in one of the Madness possibilities
Fixed a bug in event management that had weird cascading effects
Fixed Loss events getting overridden
Fixed Loss events not spawning
Made some tweaks that hopefully prevent a rare, hard-to-reproduce crash
Fixed some blank crew chatter popping up
On a personal note, I'm glad to see the full game is well-liked — especially after a rough Early Access.
Sales haven't been enough, though. No one is surprised that getting visibility is not my strong suit. It seems that I am going to have to begin work on other projects; I've been working for nothing for too many years.
Still, I reserve the right to come back and add to this game at any time ;)
-Pat
Original post
13 Oct 2017Developer post
Happy Launch! Here's a quick patch :)
This update is mostly Quality of Life, bringing in a bunch of fixes and improvements to clean up the experience. ːredscientistː Notably, crew will do off-task work more often. This should make the game demonstrably easier for less attentive AIs. (You still won't win. Git gud) Pat
This update is mostly Quality of Life, bringing in a bunch of fixes and improvements to clean up the experience. ːredscientistː
Notably, crew will do off-task work more often. This should make the game demonstrably easier for less attentive AIs. (You still won't win. Git gud)
Patch:

Improvements

Shortened how long it takes before the minigame tutorial turns on
Slowed minigame tutorial down
Clarified wording in minigame tutorial
Improved clickability of minigame's "Return to Ship" button
Destroyed systems are now more recognizable in their tooltips
Increased how often crew will do off-task work. Should see more idle usage and repairs, especially with jobless crew
Fixed

Fixed some special loss events getting ignored if the player resumes a run after exiting the game
Fixed a couple achievement toggles (incl The Arean Trail. Grats if you got it free), though I suspect there's something else going on here
Fixed typo in one of the Madness possibilities
Fixed a bug in event management that had weird cascading effects
Fixed Loss events getting overridden
Fixed Loss events not spawning
Made some tweaks that hopefully prevent a rare, hard-to-reproduce crash
Fixed some blank crew chatter popping up
On a personal note, I'm glad to see the full game is well-liked — especially after a rough Early Access.
Sales haven't been enough, though. No one is surprised that getting visibility is not my strong suit. It seems that I am going to have to begin work on other projects; I've been working for nothing for too many years.
Still, I reserve the right to come back and add to this game at any time ;)
-Pat
Original post
29 Sep 2017Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Unknown Pleasures: the best new little-known Steam games this week
Welcome back to Unknown Pleasures , our weekly round-up of the most excellent hidden gems we dug up from the past week of new releases on Steam. This week: endless runners remixed, spaceship life simulation and Dark Souls vs Ico. (more…)
22 Sep 2017Product Release
Now Available on Steam - Destination Ares, 10% off!
Destination Ares is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!* You're the AI of a rickety colony ship, bound for the red planet. You have limited resources, a desperate crew, and an unknown fate awaiting you. Can you survive the journey across the Big Black? *Offer ends September 29
22 Sep 2017Developer post
LAUNCH
Today we leave Early Access. Welcome players, new and old! I think you'll like what you find in Destination Ares. By the way, Steam cards are here in time for launch! Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes: New Events (Helpful) Critical Systems Repair: a chance to fix something destroyed or b
Today we leave Early Access.
Welcome players, new and old! I think you'll like what you find in Destination Ares.
By the way, Steam cards are here in time for launch!
Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes:
New Events
(Helpful) Critical Systems Repair: a chance to fix something destroyed or broken that you absolutely need to succeed
(Helpful) Gained Experience: a chance to level up the crew or systems
[SECRET] A Dark Truth: a shift in priorities
(Standard) Hungry Crew
(Standard) Electrical Surge New Secret Achievements
"A Dark Truth"
"Rigged and Armed"
"Glitched Understanding" Polish
Added custom victory results other than "Reached Destination"
More fading, always more fading Balance Changes
Reduced how quickly crew pass out from exhaustion, and how that affects their stress levels
Also reduced odds of passing out from an accident (side effect: increased odds of being injured instead)
Increased negative effects and possible results in Puketastic event
Trimmed event timing to be a bit more accurate
Events that feed crew are now more effective Fixes
Character chatter that's all punctuation should once again show properly
Game Over stats will set its correct height
Achievement popups will actually stay on screen for a couple seconds
Other minor things Steam Trading Cards Added
13 Cards; resources from the game
10 Backgrounds (4 common, 3 uncommon, 3 rare)
10 Emoticons (4 common, 3 uncommon, 3 rare)
Oh, and some cheeky badges. I hear you like those ~~ Also included: ~~ v0.9.1 (Hotfix)
Fixed a crash
Smoothed text chunk typing
Colorized in-event dialogue
Original post
22 Sep 2017Developer post
LAUNCH
Today we leave Early Access. Welcome players, new and old! I think you'll like what you find in Destination Ares. By the way, Steam cards are here in time for launch! Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes: New Events (Helpful) Critical Systems Repair: a chance to fix something destroyed or b
Today we leave Early Access.
Welcome players, new and old! I think you'll like what you find in Destination Ares.
By the way, Steam cards are here in time for launch!
Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes:
New Events
(Helpful) Critical Systems Repair: a chance to fix something destroyed or broken that you absolutely need to succeed
(Helpful) Gained Experience: a chance to level up the crew or systems
[SECRET] A Dark Truth: a shift in priorities
(Standard) Hungry Crew
(Standard) Electrical Surge New Secret Achievements
"A Dark Truth"
"Rigged and Armed"
"Glitched Understanding" Polish
Added custom victory results other than "Reached Destination"
More fading, always more fading Balance Changes
Reduced how quickly crew pass out from exhaustion, and how that affects their stress levels
Also reduced odds of passing out from an accident (side effect: increased odds of being injured instead)
Increased negative effects and possible results in Puketastic event
Trimmed event timing to be a bit more accurate
Events that feed crew are now more effective Fixes
Character chatter that's all punctuation should once again show properly
Game Over stats will set its correct height
Achievement popups will actually stay on screen for a couple seconds
Other minor things Steam Trading Cards Added
13 Cards; resources from the game
10 Backgrounds (4 common, 3 uncommon, 3 rare)
10 Emoticons (4 common, 3 uncommon, 3 rare)
Oh, and some cheeky badges. I hear you like those ~~ Also included: ~~ v0.9.1 (Hotfix)
Fixed a crash
Smoothed text chunk typing
Colorized in-event dialogue
Original post
10 Sep 2017Developer post
Incoming: v0.9.0
This is the last planned update before release on September 22nd! Version 0.9.0 brings a bunch of polish to the table. Most of the focus is on a revamp of the new player experience, as well as improvements to the Game Over presentation. There's also a small bit of new content. To
This is the last planned update before release on September 22nd!
Version 0.9.0 brings a bunch of polish to the table. Most of the focus is on a revamp of the new player experience, as well as improvements to the Game Over presentation. There's also a small bit of new content.
Tons more content coming for the launch!
v 0.9.0 Notes:

Beginner Experience Overhaul
Introducing your new frenemy: Guide Bot!
Ripped out the old tutorial
Fused together a second beginner ship: the Gerridae
Crafted a better (and more visible) explanation of the minigame
New Content
Fuel Line Pressure event
"Viking Funeral" Achievement
Game Over events
Polish
Slight gradient overlay
Ship naming input now has a red backdrop to match other UI elements
Talking happens in words and chunks, rather than each letter
Prettified the Game Over screen
Balance Changes
Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy)
Capped how far you can go off course
Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be
Original post
10 Sep 2017Developer post
Incoming: v0.9.0
This is the last planned update before release on September 22nd! Version 0.9.0 brings a bunch of polish to the table. Most of the focus is on a revamp of the new player experience, as well as improvements to the Game Over presentation. There's also a small bit of new content. To
This is the last planned update before release on September 22nd!
Version 0.9.0 brings a bunch of polish to the table. Most of the focus is on a revamp of the new player experience, as well as improvements to the Game Over presentation. There's also a small bit of new content.
Tons more content coming for the launch!
v 0.9.0 Notes:

Beginner Experience Overhaul
Introducing your new frenemy: Guide Bot!
Ripped out the old tutorial
Fused together a second beginner ship: the Gerridae
Crafted a better (and more visible) explanation of the minigame
New Content
Fuel Line Pressure event
"Viking Funeral" Achievement
Game Over events
Polish
Slight gradient overlay
Ship naming input now has a red backdrop to match other UI elements
Talking happens in words and chunks, rather than each letter
Prettified the Game Over screen
Balance Changes
Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy)
Capped how far you can go off course
Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be
Original post
21 Aug 2017Developer post
I hope you like big, surprise updates... v0.8.0
This has been a whirlwind to make. The imminent update brings a ton of overhauls and metagame progression , in addition to new content. Expect a tutorial revamp and even more content in the next updates. Until then, enjoy! Side note: Destination Ares' price will now be rising to
This has been a whirlwind to make.
The imminent update brings a ton of overhauls and metagame progression, in addition to new content.
Expect a tutorial revamp and even more content in the next updates. Until then, enjoy!
Side note: Destination Ares' price will now be rising to it's release level, in anticipation of the upcoming launch. :)

Metagame Progression

Unlock content by spending advancement points
Gain advancement points from achievements
Gain advancement points from completed runs
New Ships

Caelifera, a tiny new starter ship for beginner players to learn the ropes
Mantodea, a difficult but powerful ship for veterans
New Roles

Electrician — +2 Mechanical when repairing systems that consume energy
Maimed — Reduced movement speed
Athlete — Increased movement speed, less likely to get maimed
Military — increased priority when tasking (currently locked)
Balance Changes

HUD Warnings about beds, toilets, and kitchens now better account for ignored systems
Loneliness hits unconscious crew for less. Likely harder to get a death from it now, but also more likely to result in psychotic breaks (and dying while in a psychotic state)
Nerfed total loneliness amount
Added chance to become permanently maimed when falling unconcious from an injury
Low mass ships stay on course a bit better
Added storage leak HUD warning
Helms lose a *little* less raw speed when adjusting the ship
Events now give you all their resources (even if you can't store them)
Fuel cells have 1 latent capacity (even when turned off, but not when broken), in addition to the capacity gained while turned on
Reactors' 8 latent capacity now goes away when broken
Increased driftiness of ship (go offcourse less)
Crew will take more care of their needs
Increased hunger resistance
Reduced distance to Ares
Customization Options

Personalities can now be chosen in ship building, under crew appearance
Tons more ship stats unlockable: thrust, navigation, capacity, mechanical score, science score, command score, energy production, materials prod., oxygen recycling + prod., fuel prod., food prod., waste prod., and waste recycling
Fixes and Quality of Life Improvements

Killed a crash bug that's been around since ancient times! (fk yeah!!)
Cut the opening exposition down a bunch
Unplaced objects now trashed from your hand when opening menus in ship building
In-game achievement announcements
Detrimental roles are now colored red in tooltips
Event results now tracked correctly when result tags are off
Mouse pings show regardless of wildly different scene setups
Space dust is more uniform in speed (still a little differentiated for parallax)
Camera controls more lenient and spacious
Turned off system audios in ship building (it was annoying af)
Turned base music levels down a bit
More menu fading
Added reminder on controls bar on how to lock it open
A few minor HUD & UI tweaks
Original post
21 Aug 2017Developer post
I hope you like big, surprise updates... v0.8.0
This has been a whirlwind to make. The imminent update brings a ton of overhauls and metagame progression , in addition to new content. Expect a tutorial revamp and even more content in the next updates. Until then, enjoy! Side note: Destination Ares' price will now be rising to
This has been a whirlwind to make.
The imminent update brings a ton of overhauls and metagame progression, in addition to new content.
Expect a tutorial revamp and even more content in the next updates. Until then, enjoy!
Side note: Destination Ares' price will now be rising to it's release level, in anticipation of the upcoming launch. :)

Metagame Progression

Unlock content by spending advancement points
Gain advancement points from achievements
Gain advancement points from completed runs
New Ships

Caelifera, a tiny new starter ship for beginner players to learn the ropes
Mantodea, a difficult but powerful ship for veterans
New Roles

Electrician — +2 Mechanical when repairing systems that consume energy
Maimed — Reduced movement speed
Athlete — Increased movement speed, less likely to get maimed
Military — increased priority when tasking (currently locked)
Balance Changes

HUD Warnings about beds, toilets, and kitchens now better account for ignored systems
Loneliness hits unconscious crew for less. Likely harder to get a death from it now, but also more likely to result in psychotic breaks (and dying while in a psychotic state)
Nerfed total loneliness amount
Added chance to become permanently maimed when falling unconcious from an injury
Low mass ships stay on course a bit better
Added storage leak HUD warning
Helms lose a *little* less raw speed when adjusting the ship
Events now give you all their resources (even if you can't store them)
Fuel cells have 1 latent capacity (even when turned off, but not when broken), in addition to the capacity gained while turned on
Reactors' 8 latent capacity now goes away when broken
Increased driftiness of ship (go offcourse less)
Crew will take more care of their needs
Increased hunger resistance
Reduced distance to Ares
Customization Options

Personalities can now be chosen in ship building, under crew appearance
Tons more ship stats unlockable: thrust, navigation, capacity, mechanical score, science score, command score, energy production, materials prod., oxygen recycling + prod., fuel prod., food prod., waste prod., and waste recycling
Fixes and Quality of Life Improvements

Killed a crash bug that's been around since ancient times! (fk yeah!!)
Cut the opening exposition down a bunch
Unplaced objects now trashed from your hand when opening menus in ship building
In-game achievement announcements
Detrimental roles are now colored red in tooltips
Event results now tracked correctly when result tags are off
Mouse pings show regardless of wildly different scene setups
Space dust is more uniform in speed (still a little differentiated for parallax)
Camera controls more lenient and spacious
Turned off system audios in ship building (it was annoying af)
Turned base music levels down a bit
More menu fading
Added reminder on controls bar on how to lock it open
A few minor HUD & UI tweaks
Original post
03 Aug 2017Developer post
Massive Overhaul (v0.7.0)
This is a huge patch. It also breaks saves. Aaaand, it also increases the game's difficulty by a fair margin. Good luck. I probably forgot to log a ton of things. Here's what I remembered to tell you about: Additions Crew chat when you click on them Systems turn on/ off when you
03 Aug 2017Developer post
Massive Overhaul (v0.7.0)
This is a huge patch. It also breaks saves. Aaaand, it also increases the game's difficulty by a fair margin. Good luck. I probably forgot to log a ton of things. Here's what I remembered to tell you about: Additions Crew chat when you click on them Systems turn on/ off when you

Updates & announcements

The New Destination Ares

Difficulty Options, for the less masochistic

Resource Drain

Crew Skill

Luck

Minigame Toggle

System Construction & Salvage

Build makeshift systems in-flight

Break down old systems

New Events - what could go wrong?

Free a crewmember

Flood the atmos with vaporized fuel

Turn an old corpse

Use solar arrays

Push a faulty fabricator to consume everything onboard

Receive a definitely innocent memo from GuideBot

Fixes, Improvements, and Wildly Incoherent Changes

Known Bug

On Monday, #LoveIndies week starts!

This week, I'll be taking Destination Ares to Boston for PAX East!

This week, I'll be taking Destination Ares to Boston for PAX East!

Of course, there were two issues with this method.

So, I've decided to amend my strategy.

From now on, Destination Ares' sales price will add 3% each time.

Hopefully, this will be the sweet spot.

Of course, there were two issues with this method.

So, I've decided to amend my strategy.

From now on, Destination Ares' sales price will add 3% each time.

Hopefully, this will be the sweet spot.

Improvements

Fixed

Improvements

Fixed

Now Available on Steam - Destination Ares, 10% off!

Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes:

Version 1.0.0 Patch Notes:

Balance Changes Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy) Capped how far you can go off course Bugs Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Bugs Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Balance Changes Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy) Capped how far you can go off course Bugs Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Bugs Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Metagame Progression

New Ships

New Roles

Balance Changes

Customization Options

Fixes and Quality of Life Improvements

Metagame Progression

New Ships

New Roles

Balance Changes

Customization Options

Fixes and Quality of Life Improvements

Additions

Changes

Fixes

Additions

Changes

Fixes

Balance Changes
Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy)
Capped how far you can go off course
Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Balance Changes
Radar now spends twice as much energy over time (doubled chance of burning energy)
Capped how far you can go off course
Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be

Bugs
Fixed ships being unlocked when they shouldn't be