Haemimont Games, the studio behind Tropico and Surviving Mars, revealed its latest project during Gamescom Opening Night Live. Stranded: Alien Dawn is a survival game set on an alien planet, where you have to help a handful of stranded astronauts settle down in a hostile environment.
The trailer opens with a burning spaceship exiting a space warp. An escape pod leaves the destroyed ship and heads to a nearby planet. It crashes on this alien planet and its survivors discover a new world.
Since the survivors didn’t have much in their escape pod, it’s up to you to help them survive in this hostile environment. You will need to provide them with food and water, make sure they don’t get any deadly diseases, and build shelters to protect your settlers from extreme weather and the alien predators lurking in the shadows.
Stranded: Alien Dawn is developed by Haemimont Games and published by Frontier Developments. Haemimont Games is an independent game development studio mainly known for its city-building games such as Surviving Mars and the Tropico series.
According to Haemimont Games, Stranded: Alien Dawn will feature “compelling and immersive strategic gameplay.” You will have to make decisions for your group to ensure their survival. Danger is everywhere on this alien planet, so you’ll need to build increasingly robust bases and improve their defenses.
Every survivor has a unique backstory with positive and negative traits. They have different levels of ability in key skills, allowing you to tap into their strengths to create a cohesive group. Optimizing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses will be key to thriving in the long term. These skills will improve over time, increasing the chances of survival of this marooned group.
To make sure no one starves to death, you will have to plant, grow, harvest, and hunt down food. The alien planet is rich in flora and fauna, but some of these alien species are more aggressive and dangerous than others.
The events impacting the survivors are random, so each playthrough is unique. Various elements can disturb the peace of their settlement, from extreme weather to alien wildlife threats and random story events.
On top of managing the health and survival of your crew, you can build their base however you like. Stranded: Alien Dawn features modular base building, letting you create a custom-made outpost. You can then set up perimeter defenses and furnish them to give your survivors a home away from home. Providing the stranded astronauts with a minimum of comfort is of the utmost importance, as their mental health impacts their overall ability to survive.
Stranded: Alien Dawn is launching in early access on Microsoft Windows via Steam in October 2022. Its price is still unknown, but you can already add it to your wishlist.
