The big one is finally upon us: After a year of Early Access, the 1.0 version of Mars Attracts is out now!
This has been a long journey across three years of development and another year of Early Access. We're delighted to launch the full game, along with a 25% discount!
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2760580/Mars_Attracts/"]
Mars Attracts has evolved significantly over that time with player feedback leading us to rework many of the core systems of the game, add new features and tweak the balance to really make the game into the twisted theme park builder fans wanted to play.
New Features
Starting today, Mars Attracts will have a full Sandbox mode with unlimited resources for full creative freedom. Players will also discover a new map that sees the Martians take on the strange human concept of a casino, and be introduced to our final special character – the bloodthirsty General Jatak. We have also added a new human enclosure type – American Prohibition.
The gameplay has received some serious overhauls too. We’ve unified feedback into a rolling notification system to let players stay on top of their park management. We’ve added late game features like park marketing and staff training, as well as reworked how the park rating system is calculated to make hitting 5 stars a little bit more doable.
Security guards were feeling a little bored in a park where everything was running smoothly, so we’ve given them a new role: collecting cash from donation boxes.
We’ve added even more new music tracks and added a whole host of new sound effects to make your parks feel more alive, as well as adding in many new animations and character behaviours to increase variety and make characters – both human and martian – feel more unique.
On top of all of this we’ve made changes to the balance of objectives, park inspections, and human behaviour and traits to make Mars Attracts a more fun and rewarding challenge to play.
We’ve also made a number of big changes behind the scenes to optimize performance. We’ve improved how decor is loaded in to improve loading times, and made changes to character AI and guest LODs to improve performance on large parks.
Other Changes
Reworked camera to allow greater level of zoom and removed collision from buildings for a smoother experience
Updated animations for humans and Martians for smoother visuals, including humans being incinerated down to their skeletons by lasers!
Gave security and janitors tools when fighting or repairing buildings
Added Martian disguises for different staff members
Improved how character happiness is calculated and adjusted needs drain rate to improve balance
Reduced chance of certain overly negative human traits appearing to improve balance
Updated localization across all languages to remove errors and improve clarity
Added more tooltips and updated the tutorial
Updated menus and UI elements to remove unnecessary details and clutter
Fixed bugs related to Steam achievements not completing
And we’re not done yet! We still have several post-release content updates planned for the coming months, to add even more human types, park buildings, and functionality to Mars Attracts.
Once Again: Thank You!
To those who’ve joined us on this journey, from our first alpha playtests, to the demo and the year of Early Access: We say a massive thank you!
Making games as a small indie studio isn’t easy at the best of times, but knowing we’ve made something that people enjoy makes it all worth it!
We hope you have as much fun playing Mars Attracts as we had making it. We also hope that you’ll stick with us as we continue to make the game we want to play, towards the release of our next game – Kitman – and beyond.
To join the conversation stay in touch with all things Outlier, you can join us over on our Discord.
Love,
Paul & the Outlier team
