Expedition guide

Controls

Keyboard and mouse. There is no controller support in the demo.

Demo Orders work while paused. The expedition begins paused with a forecast and a briefing; press Enter when your first orders are set.

The loop

1. Read the forecast. The next front is always on the clock. Time, deadlines and resource rates share one colony clock: a Sol is a Martian day, and 1× runs it at a walking pace.
2. Build. Habitats, solar arrays and batteries, paid in kits. Power is one shared bus; a home with people in it draws life support, and a garden draws more.
3. Give everyone a job. Open Crew and set priorities for life support, repairs, construction and gardening. Everyone starts at Normal; higher priorities win, and ties fall to life support first. Work shows who will claim each task, what blocks it and what cancelling refunds.
4. Feed people. Homes hold twelve meals. A staffed, powered garden grows up to 0.75 meals a colony hour. Watch the food card and the hunger line before a storm.
5. Choose who comes. Passenger requests arrive four at a time. See passengers & charter.
6. Weather the storm. Shelter everyone, keep the air on, answer the storm’s questions. See storms.
7. Repair and record. Clear the damage, read the storm report, and open Log for the colony’s story so far. The lost stay in Log → Remembered with their name, home, time and known cause.

Founding Day

The demo’s milestone. Three conditions, in order:

1. Eight living pioneers across two functioning, occupied homes before a storm front arrives, and still eight and two homes when it clears.
2. Survive that complete storm at that size.
3. Two continuous colony hours of health across every occupied home after the clearing.

The watch is strict. Any unhealthy tick resets the two hours to zero, and the journal names what caused it: an unstaffed life-support post, a home with no power, an overcrowded home, a ruined garden. Another storm pauses the watch rather than ending it. Earlier losses and borrowing never disqualify you.

Founding pauses the colony for a short, skippable ceremony and a report. Afterwards you can replay with the same seed or continue the colony you have.

Storms

• Prepare. Solar output drops hard at the peak, so charge batteries and think about which gardens you can afford to switch off. Each home carries a reserve of emergency air; people die when it runs out.
• Shelter. Get everyone inside before the front. Arrivals and outside work hold until it clears.
• Decide. The storm asks questions while time is paused: send someone out to clean a dusty array, or wait it out with the garden off. Each option shows its risk and its cost before you choose.
• Recover. Clearing brings bounded equipment damage and a report. Repairs are jobs like any other; the next front is already on the forecast.

Passengers & charter

Who comes. Each request shows four people: their line, their trait and who they came with. Take them as they are or decline and wait for the next four. A ship takes time to arrive, and it needs beds and food at the other end. Asking before accepting is on by default; the colony never fills itself.

Charter income. Every storm cycle pays three objectives of 15 credits each: survive the clearing, restore operating power and life support, and keep every arrived pioneer healthy for two hours. For the charter objective that healthy clock pauses while a named blocker is open and resumes when you close it; only the founding watch resets.

Supplies. Logistics books cargo: 30 credits buys six kits, or 24 meals.

Loans. One loan of 120 credits at a time, shown with its complete repayment schedule before a separate signature. Nothing borrows on your behalf, and leaving the review never borrows.

Saves & browser

• Where it runs. A desktop computer with a keyboard and mouse. The demo has been tested in desktop Chrome on a Mac; other browsers and devices are not yet qualified.
• Where saves live. In this browser, for the itch site only: one manual save plus rolling backups and archives. Clearing site data removes them, and they are not shared with other browsers or computers.
• One tab at a time. A second tab with the game open is told that another tab owns the saves.
• Hidden or small. A hidden tab pauses the colony and its audio; so does a window smaller than 960×540. Returning never resumes on its own: you decide.

Demo limits

Demo The demo admits up to 16 permanent settlers, counting passengers you have already promised a place. There is no time limit and no demo ending: found the colony, then keep going.

Full game In development, on the same colony. No date yet; the devlog says so when there is one.