‘Surviving Mars: Pioneer’ Takes Players to the Red Planet Today, On Meta Quest VR

For hundreds of years, humans have gazed up at the bright red dot in the night sky and yearned to set foot there. We’ve hallucinated networks of canals criss-crossing the planet’s surface. We’ve fought off scores of imaginary invaders. And more recently, we’ve sent a half-dozen robots there to dispel our more fanciful ideas.

But nobody has set foot there—until now. Today, Bolverk Studios, Impact Inked, and Paradox Interactive release Surviving Mars: Pioneer, a built-for-VR spinoff of Paradox’s acclaimed science fiction “city” builder. Over 100 million miles from Earth, you must use your wits and the resources at your disposal to create an oasis amid this vast red desert. Construct a base, manage food and oxygen and other essentials, and try to turn this tiny foothold into a home away from home. If not? There won’t be anyone to save you.

We sat down with Jesper Brun Halfter, Lead Game Designer at Bolverk Studios, to discuss adapting a city builder into first-person, what’s been brought over from the original series, and what mysteries reside on Mars.

Read the full interview below, or head on over to the Meta Horizon Store and pick up Surviving Mars: Pioneer, available now.

That was our intention from the beginning! We were inspired to develop a survival game with base building and exploration on Mars in first-person, and did it by taking inspiration from the universe of the original Surviving Mars. We wanted to play into the immersive strengths of VR and use that opportunity to present the universe of Surviving Mars in first-person.

Obviously we wanted to preserve the core premise: surviving on Mars. Players will still have to gather resources and build with them, although the implementations of these systems are different since this is a first-person experience where you need to survive on your own. Players will find structures and vehicles that are highly reminiscent of those in the original game.

We’ve also taken inspiration from Surviving Mars more broadly, particularly the game's world-building, and have included mysteries for players to discover—something that we found to be a strong and charming feature of the original game.

Yes and no. In our opinion, what makes the Surviving Mars universe interesting is that it is able to present itself as a sci-fi journey to Mars, but is not shy of taking liberties and getting players to imagine what could be out there.

Just like in the original Surviving Mars, our Mars holds a lot of secrets that we can't wait for players to explore. Players can uncover more of the game’s lore by finding notes hidden throughout the world of Surviving Mars: Pioneer. We are really excited to see the community come together and theorize what they think has happened!

Bolverk Studios is very excited to see how players adapt to Mars’s harsh environment. For the next few months after release, we are dedicated to polishing and improving the game based on the community feedback. We want players to join our Discord community so they can interact with us directly and tell us what they want to see.

Surviving Mars: Pioneer is a title that can really grow with the community, and we are excited to see innovative ways players manage their resources, build their bases, and survive.

While Surviving Mars: Pioneer is a bit of a departure from the traditional mechanics of the Surviving series, we hope players will enjoy this unique perspective and the mechanics that are made possible in VR. We’ve always wanted to explore Mars, and this feels like our first chance to really do that.

There are a lot of resources to find and a lot of lore to uncover, so start exploring—if you can survive, that is!

Surviving Mars: Pioneer is available now on the Meta Horizon Store.