SitRep: Rimworld

Title: Rimworld

Developer: Ludeon Studios

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Coming to Steam in July

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Three years ago when I wrote about Rimworld, it was still gathering backers on Kickstarter and seeking votes on Greenlight. So it's only appropriate that, when I come back to the game now, it's slated to come to Steam Early Access next month. Between then and now, Rimworld has evolved and expanded exponentially, growing into what is easily the closest we've gotten yet to a sci-fi Dwarf Fortress.

The basic idea of building a colony from scratch, and then expanding into a thriving settlement, remains the same, but it's grown and expanded in all directions. Colonists aren't just schedule-driven robots; they have emotions, and activities that bring them joy like sky gazing and mediation, and have opinions of each other.

Families extend from fathers and sisters and cousins and uncles, colonists can become couples and get married...and then divorced. Colonists are carpenters, or sculptors who past the time making artwork, or animal tamers with their favorite pets, or drunken narcissist, or doctors and hunters. They grow old, and their backs give out, or they fall ill with malaria, or they get badly burned in a raging fire and lose their legs (only to replace them with bionic prosthetics).

And all that happens in a dynamic world that doesn't wait for you to change and thrive. Predators and prey roam, both the animal kind and the human kind that raid your colony and perform devastating sieges. Time passes literally, seasons changing bringing downpours and feet of snow that has to be shovelled. With weather comes heatstroke and hypothermia and frostbite and spoiling food.

Thankfully with the right tech and gear, you can endure all of that, through clothing such as parkas or equipment like heaters. A vast arsenal lets you hunt roaming herds, and fend off attacks with mortars and rocket launchers. But even your best laid plans and tools might not prepare you for the long-lasing chill of a volcanic winter or the insanity-spreading psychic pulse of a crashed alien vessel. Survival in Rimworld is never easy.

Rimworld is expected to arrive on Steam Early Access in July, along with an new alpha update that adds a host of changes and, more importantly, a deep scenario creator that lets you edit everything from the traits your colonists might develop to what gear they start with and what random events might befall them.

You can purchase the alpha from the game's site and add Rimworld to your Steam wishlist here.

The Watchlist: RimWorld

Title: RimWorld

Developer: Ludeon Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Releasing 2014
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Day 7 dawns. The harvest is going well, we should have enough food to sell soon...Out of nowhere, my autoturrets open fire. It's a lone guy...After a couple of solid hits, the stranger collapses. I hastily construct a prison cell, and start nursing him back to health with a view to recruit him...While my warden plies him with food and words, my scientist goes to work on improving food yield. 

Day 8, the harvest is complete, and Archer has agreed to join our little world! He's a trained soldier, so I gear him up with the rifle and put him on construction detail. It's high time we split the dormitory into individual bedrooms. Things are looking up again! Midway through construction, pirates land and start planning an attack. There are only two of them, against my three turrets and a soldier. Easy, let them come...

That story is just one of many from the RimWorld forums, one out of endless possibilities in this sci-fi survival simulator. The premise is simple - "RimWorld follows three survivors from a crashed space liner as they build a colony on a frontier world at the rim of the galaxy" - but the depth and emergent narrative promises to make RimWorld an indie to keep an eye on.

Disregard the Prison Architect-esque visuals for now; developer Tynan Sylvester plans to hire an artist to design an unique art style for the game. What matters is the gameplay and RimWorld plans to deliver a deep expansive simulator inspired by the show Firefly, Dwarf Fortress, and the Revelation Space series. The story may always start in the same general fashion, as your three colonists find themselves on a hostile alien world, but your narrative can go down myriad paths. Fend off pirates and raiders, trade with passing merchants for much needed supplies, research new power sources, maintain crops, take prisoners, recruit new survivors, train them to be soldiers, deal with lightning storms, starvation, rampaging wildlife, fires, insanity, corpse disposal, and more. Thanks to different AI storytellers (which work similarly to Left 4 Dead's Director), the game can craft a diverse variety of random events and occurrences to challenge your growing colony.

RimWorld's gameplay is twofold. You have the colony building simulator, where you must worry about the daily maintenance of your group and their mental health, but when your colony is attacked, RimWorld reveals its other facet: tactical combat. Your defenses such as walls and turrets may keep pirates and other enemies at bay, but when a firefight is unavoidable, you can give your drafted colonists orders to fight. Flanking, taking cover, weapon stats, lighting, line of sight, angles of fire, and other factors all must be considered. And due to RimWorld's unique world, your battles could involve everything from primitive bow and arrows to modern firearms and advanced teleportation devices.

RimWorld is only available as a closed alpha for the moment, but pre-alpha builds and later a public alpha will be available once its Kickstarter is completed. While the game already offers a great deal of mechanics and strategic depth, even more prospective features are planned, including more biomes, the ability to develop relationships with factions or between colonists, religion, archaeology, and modding. You can support the game on its official site or Kickstarter and vote for RimWorld on Steam Greenlight.