- Rewrite Devlog #19 - 4 September 2026
Hello! Welcome to the, uh... August instance of the devlog, which has been slightly delayed. Sorry about that. More information on why is at the end. Nothing catastrophic this time.Anyway, the devlog is supposed to show some of the new features that are available in the rewrite - the new completely rewritten version of Alien Horizon - as opposed to the alpha, which is available now.Public transportOf course public transport has been in the game since the alpha, but the visuals have gone through significant improvements. You can set each line to have a color which is visible on the map, the paths are nicely animated and you can even easily tell when two lines are going through the same area or sharing stations.Number of buses desired and actually assigned can also be seen in the line list along with number of stations. Once a desired number of buses is set, they are now assigned automati…
- Playtest invitation - 7 August 2026
As promised in the last devlog, the playtest is up.Please join the Discord or Stoat where organization is taking place. You will find more information there.
- Rewrite Devlog #18 and Playtest Date - 31 July 2026
Hello and welcome to the July's edition of the rewrite devlog. Yes, it still is July, at least here. As was said in all other devlogs, these are supposed to show some of the new features of the upcoming new rewritten version of Alien Horizon, that's coming quite soon. In fact, if you're impatient, there's gonna be more information about the playtest that was promised in the last devlog at the end of this one.Today we're going to take a look at the weather system. In the alpha, weather just meant temperature and wind speed, but with the addition of water, it's so much more here.CloudsAs was mentioned in the previous devlog, there's cloud cover on the planet now. Clouds will affect how well your solar arrays work. Of course, since the game is called Alien Horizon, you can tilt the camera enough to actually see the horizon and that means the sky too, so I took the time to make a dynamic ef…
- Rewrite Devlog #17 and Playtest Announcement - 26 June 2026
Summer heat is here and with it the June's devlog, showing off some of the new features in the so called "rewrite" - a new proper version of Alien Horizon that's getting close to release, planned by the end of summer (no promises, though).Today, we'll take a look at new UI features and the UI in general.GeneralHere's what the game's main UI looks now. I hope it's an improvement over the alpha, but the truth will come out once more people play it. Let's look at each individual part.NavigationThe lower left corner is the main navigation. Here you can access all the windows for managing your colony, like the build menu, exploration, objectives, research, laws or newly also the stasis window as was mentioned in one of the previous dev logs. Whenever no other window is selected, the colony resources window is shown instead (although if you feel it's taking up too much space, it can be minimi…
- Rewrite Devlog #16 - 29 May 2026
You're reading the May's devlog now, showing new features you can expect in the proper version of Alien Horizon that's being rewritten from scratch and is planned for the end of summer (no promises). Today we're gonna look at colonist behavior and healthcare.Friends and familyAs was mentioned in previous devlogs, colonists can become acquaintances and later friends whenever they meet in a building. Friends and family members care about each other, so their well-being affects the people around them. This means that if some colonists are not doing well, they're going to worsen the mood of their friends. This makes it important to ensure all colonists are doing well, or alternatively, make sure the ones who aren't don't meet the ones who are.Some players have been asking for a way to "deal with" retired colonists who aren't productive anymore, and while there isn't any direct way to get ri…
- Rewrite Devlog #15 - 24 April 2026
This is the last Friday of April, isn't it? I guess I should write the devlog then. What devlog? The one about progress on the upcoming proper version of Alien Horizon, which I call the rewrite. Time to show how laws and housing have changed.LawsThis is the new laws screen. I have to admit I'm not entirely happy with how it looks, so it may get a facelift in the future, but it's adequate for now. Unlike the alpha, only enacted laws are visible at first and you can switch mode to see laws that you can enact, which should make the screen much less cluttered, especially since a lot more laws are planned.What's much more important is that each law gets its own screen with options to select from and information about effects on different colonist groups.Laws don't always need to have distinct options now - some can scale linearly.But the biggest change is the introduction of rationing, which…
- Rewrite Devlog #14 - 27 March 2026
Is that spring I smell? It is, which means it's time for March's devlog about the rewrite - the planned new version of Alien Horizon that's rewritten from scratch, currently scheduled for sometime in the summer. Today we're gonna take a look at changes to objectives and research.ObjectivesHere's the objectives screen. As you can see, not all objectives are revealed right from the start. When objectives are achieved, new ones pop up, which were dependent on the previous objectives. For example "Interim concrete production" objective is dependent on "Geosurvey capability", because it's not possible to achieve it without first building a survey office and surveying at least one deposit, so it's not going to show up until "Geosurvey capability" is achieved. The dependencies are never arbitrary, but rather arise from what the objective actually needs in order to be achievable.This should mak…
- Rewrite Devlog #13 - 20 February 2026
Welcome to what was supposed to be January's devlog, which unfortunately had to be pushed to February, because of health issues.In January, I was hospitalized with what's called sudden sensorineural hearing loss of uncertain origin in my right ear. The doctors expect the hearing damage to be permanent, although it has improved to an extent since then. Whether it continues improving remains to be seen over the coming weeks to months. Thankfully, I still have one good ear, so I should be able to work on the sound aspect of Alien Horizon without too many issues.Let's move on to a more cheerful topic and take a look at some minor changes and improvements that are coming in the rewrite, the new version of Alien Horizon that's planned for... well, because of the aforementioned issues, the April release is no longer feasible, as I'm still not back to working at 100%, so let's say summer.Waking…
- Rewrite Devlog #12 - 19 December 2025
Welcome to this year's last devlog about the upcoming rewritten version of Alien Horizon, currently planned to be released in April (no guarantees). As promised last time, today I'm going to show you some of the changes to education, services and shopping.EducationAs you can see, thanks to customization of work shifts, you can set multiple studying shifts in regular schools, even night shifts. Keep in mind, however, that children have significantly worse studying results when doing so when it's dark outside and that it's impossible to have more than one shift that guarantees sunlight during the whole shift. So, those afternoon and night shift students are going to be handicapped.The bigger changes are to higher education, though. In preview alpha, colonists chose the skill (expertise) they were going to study by a weighted dice roll, with each skill having a different manually set weigh…
- Rewrite Devlog #11 - 21 November 2025
Welcome to November's edition of the rewrite devlog, this month all about logistics and storage. The rewrite is the proper version version of Alien Horizon, as opposed to the preview alpha, which is more of a prototype. It's planned to be released sometime next year, currently most likely April, but this can still change, as it has in the past.The general functionality behind storage and logistics is the same as in preview alpha, but there are a couple of new mechanics and usability changes.StorageThe storage UI is mostly the same, but at the bottom, you may see indicators of two new mechanics: the adjustable number with the truck icon - maximum number of suppliers, and the progress bar with weight icon - processing load.In preview alpha, whenever large amount of resources needed to be transferred from one storage to another, it created a huge traffic jam as all available cargo trucks w…
- Rewrite Devlog #10 - 24 October 2025
Number 10 in the title suggests that this is the October's edition of the rewrite devlog, showing off some of the features and improvements in the new version of Alien Horizon, that is remade entirely from scratch. Unfortunately, it's pretty much settled that the January release is not gonna be made, so set your expectations to April instead.In this devlog, we'll take a look at changes to mining, resource production and life support.ProductionThe biggest change is that, just like construction, production is now running continuously, instead of only progressing on top of the hour. Originally, the hourly updates were supposed to improve performance, but it turned out to just create huge spikes of activity every hour. The new implementation is actually significantly more performant, because it's only updating when the player is looking and just has a scheduled finish time when unobserved,…
- Rewrite Devlog #9 - 26 September 2025
It's been September for quite some time now, so it's high time for another devlog for the rewrite - the new improved version of Alien Horizon that's rewritten completely from scratch. So far scheduled to release in January, but to be honest, this release date is starting to look unrealistic...Visible resourcesAnyway, today we're taking a look at construction and maintenance. So, let's plan a structure and wait for logistics vehicles to deliver resources:As you can see, when there are resources present at a construction site, they are represented by cargo containers. Their number scales with the amount, so you can see at a glance how many materials have already been delivered. The only exceptions are construction sites with less than 10 resources, like power lines or utility lines, where the containers would clutter the area too much.Construction progressOnce resources are delivered, the…
- Rewrite Devlog #8 - 22 August 2025
Welcome to August's devlog for the rewrite, showing off new features and improvements of the new proper version of Alien Horizon, that's being worked on. Currently, it's scheduled to be released in January, but don't take it as a promise.Just like last time, there isn't as much to show visually, but huge improvements are done under the hood. As promised, we'll take a look at how workplaces and employment work in the rewrite and there's also a little bonus at the end.Structure selectionThe one UI you're probably going to interact with the most is the structure selection window, so a lot of thought went into making it work well and look good:Here's a the section for managing the workplace. The UI should be mostly familiar to you if you've played preview alpha, but let's go over the whole thing. At the top, you can see power and life support status and power consumption. And just like with…
- Rewrite Devlog #7 - 25 July 2025
Welcome to July's edition of the rewrite devlog, showing off new features and improvements of the new proper version of Alien Horizon, that's being worked on. Currently, it's scheduled to be released in January, but don't take it as a promise.A lot of work is still being done under the hood, so not a lot to really show, but I am going to at least talk about some of the huge changes that are being done to colonists and their simulation.Here we have the colonist selection window:You can also see how the game's UI is very different. Let's go through it item by item:At the top, you can see the colonist's gender and age, similar to how it is in preview alpha, and their name, with a much more obvious rename button.Home and jobsThe next section is the colonist's home and a list of their jobs. You can focus the camera on the location by clicking on the icons. And yes, jobs, plural. Colonists ca…
- Fix patch 25.07.11 - 11 July 2025
Changelog, version 25.07.11UXDifficulty settings are saved between game sessions.FixesRandom crash when trying to build any type of stockpile or when loading a colony with stockpiles in it.Crash after a Construction office was upgraded to a large one.Random crash related to tutorial.Setting cargo ship distance difficulty too low could cause infinite loading. Such low settings are no longer allowed.When clicking the upgrade button on a Construction office before Large construction office was available, no upgrades were shown. Now the large office is visible, but grayed out.
- New version 25.07.04 - 4 July 2025
The summer update is here! Keep in mind that this is the last update for preview alpha. There may be hotfixes and very minor updates after this, but I'm going to fully focus on the rewrite now. At this moment, it's likely to release in Q1 2026. You will be informed about further developments and the devlogs will continue as scheduled.Changelog, version 25.07.04 Features Added difficulty options when starting the game. Effect on game balance hasn't been thoroughly tested, so experiment with them at your own risk. ContentNew structures:Large construction officeLarge conveyored stockpileLarge stockpileMassive pressure vesselParkRestaurantNew technologies: Ecosystem maintenanceLarge crew organisation UXImproved the notification pin informing about lack of schools - it shows when capacity is about to run out and not only for basic schools, but higher education too.Resource production toolti…
- Update stream announcement (Summer 2025) - 27 June 2025
A developer stream is going to happen on 4th July at 19:00 CEST on Twitch. I will show off the upcoming update, answer any questions and possibly play the game for a while. The update will be released during the stream. Keep in mind that this is an update to the preview alpha not the rewrite mentioned in the devlogs.
- Rewrite Devlog #6 - 20 June 2025
It's been 4 weeks since the last devlog, so it's time for another one. Devlogs show off some of the new features you can look forward to in the new proper rewritten version of Alien Horizon I'm currently working on. So far it's been scheduled for November, but judging by how fast development is going, it's actually unlikely to arrive before January.Since a lot of what I've been working on has been under the hood lately and isn't very showy, I thought I'd show you some of the less consequential, but very showy features that are supposed to make the game a bit more lively.Animated vehicle lightsAll vehicles have received animated lights, which includes headlights, signal lights, brake lights and even reverse lights. Don't worry about performance as I've managed to implemented them with negligible overhead. This goes for all other animations in this devlog.Structure animationsSome building…
- Rewrite Devlog #5 - 23 May 2025
Welcome to May's devlog, showing off some new features and improvements of the proper rewritten version of Alien Horizon (scheduled for November at the earliest). Today I only have some small things, but there are more of them: Resource deposit textures Resource deposits of different types now not only have different colors, but also textures. Each deposit has a unique one, which should make them easier to tell apart at a glance, but also provides some flavor. Since there's liquid water now, which can be frozen in place, ice deposits as you know them in preview alpha no longer exist. New surveyor The surveyor now has a sleek new model, which comes with an animation, so you can tell it it's surveying or just being idle. All other vehicles will also get a facelift. New survey designation When determining what area should be surveyed, you no longer have to painstakingly cover it with 7-til…
- Rewrite Devlog #4 - 25 April 2025
It's April and with it a new installment of the devlog, showing off work that is being done at the proper, rewritten version of Alien Horizon (so far still scheduled for November at the earliest). Let's take a look at some new features and improvements: Starting sector selection Before your ship lands, three probes are sent ahead to explore a suitable area for landing, revealing three sectors you can choose from. All of them should be much more suitable than they were in the preview alpha, but if you have some more specific desires, you have an option to choose. This should minimize the number of times you have to restart the game in order to get a starting position you're happy with. Once you select a sector, you can choose the specific spot your colony ship will land at. There's going to be an animation of the landing too, but I haven't gotten to that yet. Exploration Once you establi…
