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Show HN: I created a Mars colony RPG based on Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books

by ariaalam177057051041 comments
I built a desktop Mars colony survival game called Underhill, in homage to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Land on Mars, build solar panels and greenhouses, and try not to pass out during dust storms. Eventually your colonists split into factions: Greens who want to terraform and Reds who want to preserve Mars.

There’s Chill Mode for players that just want to build & hang, and Conflict Mode that introduces the Red v. Green factions. Reds sabotage, the terrain slowly turns green as the world gets more terraformed.

Feedback welcome, especially on performance and gameplay!

by ariaalam1770570597
This is so cool. How are you going to simulate Michel's longing for Provence? Seriously though I adore the trilogy. I started a Mars storymapping project which incorporated Underhill, Senzeni Na, the Moholes etc. a little while back too:

https://saltwatercowboy.github.io/marsinplace/

by saltwatercowboy1770582128
Terraforming Mars is a board game that heavily references these novels which i highly recommend.
by AnotherGoodName1770579071
Loud music warning for those wearing headphones.
by sointeresting1770579902
Had 1000 of each resource, lots of income, landing pads and habitats, but never got more colonists?
by personjerry1770585726
Played for a bit, liked the aesthetics so I bookmarked it to come back to it later and discovered a bug. On mac/chrome, I hit CMD + D to bookmark. By doing so, I setup some kind of autowalk bug where I kept walking to the right. I couldn't stop myself from walking, even pressing WAS temporarily stopped me but as soon as I let go, I kept walking right.
by magicmicah851770576663
I must have missed something because my HP keeps ticking down until I pass out and get warped back to the command center. Eating food and resting do not seem to change the situation.
by 3eb7988a16631770584045
I'm on mobile (Android, Brave), and I can do everything but interact with the people. Am I doing something wrong?
by jimnotgym1770583023
Hmm, I just get a black screen on my iPhone when I click your link.

Did you use any existing stuff like the mars-sim project? https://mars-sim.sourceforge.io/

by lazyasciiart1770578373
Great, how did you build it? Also I have to read the books
by number61770577607
Surviving Mars (2018) is another really good game in this category.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5djTZfKVIKQ

by tantalor1770585679
I am on Firefox and it does nothing, no movement, just flashing resource monitors with zero values...
by xcf_seetan1770577890
Interesting game, love the design.

Struggled a little before understanding the instructions.

by oug-t1770578516
It’s not really clear how it’s played.
by deafpolygon1770576818
It is hard to understand and play... maybe make it more obvious. I made a solar panel, it says I should assign staff...

I would love to play if it would work. And music, thank god for the mute button.

by desireco421770578511
Lovely series. One of the first science fiction series I read that gave a proper anarchist culture a shot. (A big thing most people don't understand about anarchism is that it's not a violent, crime ridden, disorderly society without rules, but rather a society built on the idea that everyone deserves care, and we should all put in some effort to achieve that in a self organizing way.)

Loved seeing things like gift economies, self organization and free association, and a general care for both the people and the planet in those books.

by ahhhhnoooo1770582264