Reshaping Mars

Reshaping Mars is a Mars colony-building game about turning the cold, barren planet into a habitable world. As base commander, you choose a landing site, establish a settlement and manage its development while working toward transforming the planet.

Build a Mars base

The game uses a real Mars terrain database, with geographical names and elevation data matching the planet. You can survey the terrain and mineral deposits before choosing where to settle; higher ground is recommended for stronger wind power and to avoid later flooding from the Martian ocean.

You mine resources, produce building materials, connect power grids and water pipes, build housing and factories, recruit residents and conduct research. Engineering vehicles help with construction, and you can control them directly, but you cannot directly control the inhabitants. They have free will, though you can influence their behavior through wages, rents, market prices and policies. The game also asks you to provide a decent standard of living for the workers who have come to Mars.

Shape the terrain

The landscape retains the changes you make to it: mined areas become pits, mountains can be excavated for resources, and seas can be filled to make way for roads. Digging deep or filling high enough can make your work visible from space.

Transform the planet

Develop technology and production, then work toward closing the base's resource cycle before directing production toward planetary transformation. You can fill the atmosphere, modify the magnetic field, raise the temperature, rebuild the oceans and plant trees. Once a Martian ecological cycle begins to form, natural processes help continue the transformation.

Alternative scenarios

Other story backgrounds offer different settings for reshaping Mars. These include a mechanical empire without living people, a settlement where lower-class workers do the reclamation, a project driven by wealthy young people, and a Mars whose communication with Earth has been cut off.