Terraformers: Early Access Release

The Bern-based studio Asteroid Lab has released Terraformers to Early Access on Steam and Gog for PC, Mac and Linux after three years of development!

The story of Terraformers is a showcase for how Pro Helvetia’s 360° support mechanisms can help throughout development, from early concept to release. The development of the game started in February 2019 and after presenting their first prototype to Pro Helvetia they were selected to be part of the Swiss Games delegation to different industry events such as the Nordic Game Conference and Gamescom. That same year, they were supported with a pre-production grant, which helped improve the prototype to present to publishers for potential financing. While continuing to work on the game during 2020, discussions went back and forth with multiple publishers. They were then selected as part of the Swiss Games showcase which provided them with business coaching and greater visibility. At the end of 2020 this was concretised in a partnership with Goblinz Publishing who would help finance the development and marketing of the game. From then on development kicked into high gear and they were able to hire 2 artists and start working with more freelancers for writing, music and sound designs. A production grant received in 2021 helped give another push. After another year of work, at the end of 2021 a prologue was released for free: Terraformers First Steps on Mars, which acted as a demo. This was the first time the game was shown to a wider public and the team was enthralled by the feedback they received: they got more than 90% positive reviews with about 60 thousand players. This helped concretise and solidify many aspects of the game to finally be able to release it to Early Access the 21 April 2022.