ExoColony: Planet Survival

The game has quite enjoyable game loop. I was planning to just test it out for a few hours and then spent much more time on it. It has that "just one more thing" feeling. Edit after 1.0 release: The game is much more polished now, good job devs!

Really enjoying ExoColony so far. The balance between managing resources, keeping colonists alive, research and expanding the base is challenging but rewarding. Looking forward to dig on the surface. It’s got that “just one more cycle” feel.

When you see the game screens, ExoColony looks like clone of Oxygen Not Included. Fortunatelly, it is not. It is focusing more on management and progression of entire colony (resource management, education, aging, research) rather than individual colonists. The end goal is to terraform the planet. After a few hours you can have 30+ colonists and they die in about an hour, so don't attached to them :). In general, it is less complex and with less content, you can get most of the information you need with a few clicks from overviews menu. It has a lower learning curve with comparison to ONI, so it is more suitable for casual players, but don’t expect everything to be easy - there’s still depth and survival is not granted. The game may feel confusing at the start, though the in-game tasks help point you in the right direction. And after ironing of few kinks this game will be even better Looking forward for future updates with aticipation. 7/10

If you like games that force you to optimize (maybe things like Factorio or the magnum opus of Dwarf Fortress) and survive (Banished and similars) this might be your right jam. Graphics are simple to provide a nice overview, mechanics are hardcore to make you kill off your colonists when they dig where they are not supposed to. I think this is a nice game for fans of indie hard core sims.

ExoColony has a strong foundation, with solid resource management and progression with planet terraformation as the end goal. That said, it still feels a bit rough around the edges – UI can be clunky, and some mechanics feel incomplete (I suppose that will be improved during EA), but it’s Early Access, so it is fine. I have not encounter any bugs that would affect the gameplay. Worth picking up if you are into colony simulation games. 8/10

I decided to give ExoColony a try based on the promise of multi-generation building and terraforming. You don't play with as many colonists as I expected. At one point, nearly all mine colonists were seniors, luckily you can unfreeze young women from the cryochamber as long as you have some. Managing rotation of colonists works well, maybe the lifespan of colonists should be longer. For me real challenges started when colonists morale dropped due to colony size and time spent on the planet. I didn't have problem with lack of oxygen or food at all, but I did run into some issues with water recycling. Overall, I can recommend the game.

There's a bug with saves that corrupts your game. When you reload, one of the rooms (usually the ship or the surface) will be empty. After this error, the menu will also be a blank window and won't allow you to load, save, or exit. Only F4 will close the game.