Mothership Entertainment announced today that they have been working on a new management sim for two and a half years. Their debut game, Aven Colony will feature planetary colonization and resource management elements in a scale similar to that of a city building game.

The company intends to release Aven Colony for US$29.99 on Steam and itch.io in early 2017. There will be a beta period prior to the expected 2017 release date, but pricing and format for that are yet to be determined.

Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Aven Colony boasts an impressive array of features:

•  A rich simulation of an extraterrestrial colony, including oxygen propagation, habitation, employment, electricity and power generation, mining, crime, food cultivation, limited inventory, water, and much more.
•  Dozens of different buildings, from simple inflatable-tent “modules” to massive skyscrapers created from metallic nano-cubes (“nanites”). Most of these buildings support 2-3 upgrade tiers.
•  A fully functional day/night cycle, which is tied to a “sol” on Aven Prime (a “sol” is equivalent to one earth week, and “night” is essentially a brief winter season). During the “winter” season, Aven Prime freezes over, and farms will not grow food and solar panels will generate far less electricity.
•  Use 3 different types of advanced flying drones (construction drones, police drones, and scrubber drones) to build, upgrade, and manage your colony.
•  An alien infection called “the creep,” which can glom onto buildings and cover them in alien tentacles. Build special “Scrubber Drones” to clear the creep from infected buildings and stop it from taking over the entire colony.
•  Additional environmental challenges including lightning storms, dust devils, deadly toxic gas emissions from geothermal vents, and shard storms.
•  Research, grow, and process various alien plant species and foodstuffs and decide on the best locations to place farms and greenhouses for roughly a dozen different crops, derived from both Earth-based and native plant species.
•  12 distinct “overlay” modes give more information about the colony: Crops, Citizens, Happiness, Crime, Air, Electricity, Employment, Resources, Beauty, Structures, Drones, and Water.
•  Manufacture dozens of types of foods, beverages, and “enhancement substances” that will alter your citizens’ morale and productivity.
•  A rich morale system based on 13 different morale factors, and regular referendum elections that will give your citizens the opportunity to kick you out of office if morale gets too low.
•  Over a dozen social policies.
•  Discover, analyze, and use ancient alien artifacts as you learn more about the civilization that once inhabited the world of Aven Prime.
•  A robust mission objective system that gently guides the player to build a viable colony at the start of the game, then expands to give broader objectives toward the endgame and keep the player moving. This system includes construction objectives, trade objectives, population / morale objectives, total colony size objectives, and much more. Up to three objectives are available to the player at a time.
•  Fully player-controllable game speed; pause the game at any time or play at 1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x game speed.
•  Rise in rank from Colony Governor to Expedition President (5 ranks total).
•  A unique narrative that reveals the secrets of the civilization that once lived on Aven Prime.

Gamers interested in taking part of Aven Colony’s beta can sign up for Mothership Entertainment’s mailing list here.