Surviving Mars

Lore & Background

Surviving Mars is a city-building survival game set on Mars, where the player chooses a sponsoring nation and a commander profile, each conferring different benefits, a unique building and vehicle. Sponsors include the International Mars Mission, the United States, Europe, India, China, Russia, and fictional organizations such as the Blue Sun Corporation, SpaceY, the Church of the New Ark, and Paradox Interactive. Resources found on the surface or extracted underground include metals, rare metals, concrete, water, and sometimes polymers; all other resources must be manufactured or imported. Money is used only for transactions between the colony and the sponsor, generated mainly from exports of rare metals. The technology tree has five categories: physics, engineering, social, biotechnology, and robotics. Natural disasters include dust storms, meteor storms, cold waves, and dust devils.

To create a colony, the player must build a dome with buildings inside, provide power, water, and oxygen, and bring colonists from Earth. Each colonist has traits, flaws, and a specialization, as well as stats on morale, comfort, sanity, and health. Happy colonists may father martian-born colonists; unhappy colonists may become Earthsick and return to Earth or become rebels. Tourists may also live in domes for a limited time, paying money if their comfort is high. The game includes storylines called mysteries, which add events such as plagues, war, rival corporations, AI revolt, and alien contact.

Development began with Haemimont Games, who initially considered settings on the Moon or Venus before settling on Mars due to the Mars race. The team studied real-world challenges of colonizing Mars and translated them into gameplay elements, seeking a balance between scientific complexity and simplified mechanics. The game's aesthetics were inspired by The Jetsons and Futurama. Publisher Paradox Interactive announced the game in May 2017, describing it as a 'hardcore survival city-builder.' The game included mod support from the start.

Reader's Guide

Surviving Mars received generally favorable reviews and, alongside Cities: Skylines and Frostpunk, helped revive the city-building game genre, which had declined after the failure of the 2013 SimCity reboot. With the SimCity franchise no longer producing new games, smaller developers had an opportunity to provide more creative games. Paradox Interactive noted that things not big enough for the largest publishers were big enough for them, leaving space to grow. Surviving Mars provided increased complexity to the genre, as bad decisions could cause the player to lose the game. The city-builder Cities: Skylines, also published by Paradox, received a free update themed around Surviving Mars to celebrate the game reaching sales of over five million and its third anniversary. The update added a new city building with a launch pad, an astronaut user in Chirper, and a new radio station, 'Official Mars Radio.' Two spiritual successors, Surviving the Aftermath and Surviving the Abyss, were released in 2019 and 2022. A spin-off, Surviving Mars: Pioneer, and a remaster, Surviving Mars: Relaunched, were released on November 10, 2025.

Did You Know?

• A free update for Cities: Skylines added a Surviving Mars-themed radio station called 'Official Mars Radio.'
• The game includes storylines called mysteries, which can involve plagues, war, AI revolt, or alien contact.