14 DAY TRIAL // Race to Mars is a space exploration management game from Polish developer Intermarum, which uses a turn-based structure to try and realistically simulate the way resources need to be marshaled for humanity to get to the stars, or rather its nearest neighbor.
The team says that it is working closely with members of a space-focused company from Poland in order to try to make the entire experience as real as possible without sacrificing gameplay.
At the moment, Race to Mars is looking for resources via Kickstarter and the version of the game I got to experience is pre-alpha.
Currently, the game is pretty limited and only allows players to do perform a few tasks, choosing research projects, buying a limited number of spaceships and launching them into space.
Gamers can also choose their engineers and they have a limited range of interactions with the media.
Intermarum is basically showing the community the potential of the idea and, given time and resources, Race to Mars could become an interesting game experience, mixing traditional tycoon elements with some light science and role playing.
Intermarum needs to make sure that the game has plenty of interesting choices to make and that it focuses on the economic realities that make space exploration so hard to conduct in the real world.
The variety of buildings and research projects also needs to be expanded in order to increase the options that players have as they try to create the perfect space vehicle to reach the Red Planet.
The actual space launches in Race to Mars also need to become more interesting and the player should have a clear role to play in the success or failure of a lift-off.
Take a look at the attached video to see how the game looks and don’t forget that the Race to Mars is still in the pre-alpha stage.