Hello Mars enthusiasts! We hope you are doing well. Here in Europe we’re seeing a warm and dry summer again. If only we could export our CO2 to another planet…
EA1 release
On July 18th, we released the first major update for Terraformers. Besides some bugfixes (and a few bug introductions), the main new features were:
- A custom mode where you could define your own difficulty settings and game length (also endless), and share your game-seed with other players, so you could play the exact same map and compare your results.
- The introduction of technologies. Technologies are suggested at specific moments and can be researched with science. They have an everlasting effect on the rest of your game and allow you to specialize more in specific strategies.
- The addition of the Marsyclopedia. This is a digital library accessible from the main menu where you can read about all the projects, leaders and lifeforms you’ve encountered so far.
Thank you for the feedback on this update, and we’re happy that most of you seem to be enjoying it.
Sneak peak into upcoming ocean related gameplay
So far, oceans have been mostly inaccessible terrain. But with the next major update (which will still take some time), they can be traversed and used to your advantage.
A city near the ocean, you can see a few coastal locations.
You will not be able to simply expand towards the ocean with your current expansion points. Instead, you’ll construct a sea port on a coastal location (a land location that borders an ocean). This seaport will then expand to nearby ocean locations automatically in a similar way as the expansion hub currently does this over land. A small dock will only expand to adjacent ocean locations, while an industrial harbor expands multiple connections further. Then on the ocean you can build platforms that extend your reach even further.
After building a doc the city was able to further expand to the with an ocean platform.
Once expanded over the ocean, you’ll be able to construct new buildings there. For example a water filtering installation that produces water, a fish farm that produces food, or an oceanic laboratory that produces science. There will also be specific buildings for coastal locations, like a barrage that will generate power, or a beach club that will generate support (more if it’s also warm there). And of course we are also finally bringing ocean specific lifeforms.
Some of the new marine lifeforms.
As development is still in an early stage, we’ll have to postpone screenshots on this until the next devlog, where we’ll also discuss the other main aspect of this new update: new leaders!
Gamescom 2022
In two weeks we’ll also be attending Gamescom in Cologne, something for which we are very excited. It’s the first on-site edition in three years. The last on-site edition we were also present, pitching an early prototype of Terraformers to publishers on the business days. This year we’ll only be attending the public days, to demo the game to players!
The indie arena at Gamescom 2019.
If you’re also attending Gamescom, be sure to meet us at the Indie Arena! Otherwise, see you in the next newsletter (or on Discord/Steam)!
Terraformers’ Team