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[More_Badass]

Developed by Ludeon Studios

RimWorld follows three survivors from a crashed space liner as they build a colony on a frontier world at the rim of the galaxy.
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Official Site
Kickstarter
Greenlight
Pre-alpha Trailer

The flavor of RimWorld is a mix between hard sci-fi and the Old West. It's a rim world at the edge of the galaxy, far from the civilized core worlds. The planet is vast and mostly empty, and there are no strong civilizing authorities anywhere nearby. You're on your own.

• Construct buildings to hold living and eating spaces.
• Grow food and mine rooms into the rock.
• Trade with passing ships.
• Decorate your colony to make it into a pleasurable space.
• Defend yourself from pirates and ravenous creatures (especially squirrels).
• Weather storms and fight fires.
• Capture refugees or prisoners and turn them to your side or sell them into slavery.
• There's a cover system that models low cover and leaning around corners.
• There's a really nuanced algorithm for determining and reporting hit chances based on distance, skill, weapon, lighting, angle, and cover.
• Weapons have some pretty deep stats.
• The AI plans and executes tactical moves like flanking while trying to stay out of the enemy's line of fire. It uses a number of heuristic algorithms to analyze the battlefield and use the space effectively. It works with allies and avoids bunching up.

2016 update: Features implemented since Kickstarter ended:

• Factions
• Social relationships
• Personality traits
• Raider sieges
• Various biomes
• Medical system (long-lasting wounds, blindness, doctors, medicine, surgery, organ harvesting)
• Prosthetics (wooden legs to bionic eyes)
• Diseases (flu, plague, malaria, etc.)
• Temperature and seasons (snowfall during winter, heatstroke, weather-appropriate clothing, etc.)
• Habits and interests (artists, sculpting, skygazing, mediation, chess, etc.)
• Aging (cataracts, gray hair, etc.)
• Animal taming
• Ancient artifacts, cryopods
• Storms and seasonal events (lightning storms, toxic fallout, volcanic eruptions, etc.)
• Psychic powers, weapons, armor, traps, defenses
• Dynamic ecosystem (predators, prey, spreading insect hives)
• Economy (space-traveling traders, ground caravans, etc.)
• Mining, farming, trading

In its fiction, RimWorld draws a lot from Firefly. This is where it gets its subtle Western vibe - frontier living, an arid environment, sparse law enforcement, and the constant threat of outlaws. We're also heavily inspired by science fiction novels like Dune and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. The Warhammer 40,000 universe also forms part of our inspiration.
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To keep things interesting, the game creates events like pirate raids, trader arrivals, and storms. But these events aren't random. RimWorld uses an AI Storyteller (modeled after the AI Director from Left 4 Dead) who analyzes your situation and decides which event she thinks will make the best story. There are several storytellers to choose from:

- Cassandra Classic aims to create a rising curve of tension over the course of the game.
- Phoebe Friendly is for the player who just wants to build and watch a colony grow.
- Randy Random follows no rules. He may give you some amazing stroke of luck, like a trader selling an advanced weapon for a low price or a group of helpful immigrants, followed by a near-unbeatable pirate attack combined with an electrical fire. If you think losing is fun, you might want to try Randy.

And we're considering other AI Storytellers, too. High population storytellers, starvation storytellers, seasonal storytellers, moody storytellers, and anything the community thinks up are all on the table.

In RimWorld, your colonists are not professional settlers – they’re survivors from a crashed passenger liner. They'll be accountants, homemakers, journalists, cooks, nobles, urchins, and soldiers.

Each character has a background that affects how they play. A nobleman will be great at social skills (for recruiting prisoners or negotiating trade prices), but refuse to do physical work. A farm oaf knows how to grow food, but cannot do research. A nerdy scientist is great at research, but cannot do social tasks at all. A genetically-engineered assassin can do nothing but kill – but he does that very well.

You’ll acquire more colonists by taking in refugees, capturing people in combat and turning them to your side, buying them from slave traders, rescuing them, or taking in migrants.

People in RimWorld constantly observe their situation and surroundings in order to decide how to feel at any given moment. They respond to hunger and fatigue, witnessing death, disrespectfully unburied corpses, being wounded, being left in darkness, getting packed into cramped environments, sleeping outside or in the same room as others, and many other situations. You can inspect a character's psychology at any time to see what they're feeling and why.

...You may end up interacting with people at much lower and higher levels, as well as acquiring and using their tools and weapons. In RimWorld, a single fight can involve a bow and arrow, a revolver, a charged-shot pulse rifle, and a near-magical teleportation device.

About the art style:

Blame my (Tynan's) lack of art skill - especially with characters. I made the character art you see in the trailer as a stopgap, and borrowed the Prison Architect style because I'm not a good enough artist to develop a new one. They were never intended to be final. With this Kickstarter, we'll be able to get a real artist who can sit down and develop an original style for RimWorld.

I've talked with the original Prison Architect artist, Ryan Sumo, and he's fully supportive of RimWorld. We didn't share any art or code with the PA guys.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

Looks interesting, but that art makes it look like a prison architect total conversion.

 

[element]

My old co-workers is making this. Glad to see the KS going so well.

 

[Perkel]

Wow 100k already. Probably this dude is happy now.

 

[More_Badass]

Looks interesting, but that art makes it look like a prison architect total conversion.

On the KS page, the developer said the current art is only placeholder and with the funds, they can hire an artist to develop a unique look for Rimworld. I'll add that to the OP

Here's the developer's quote:

Blame my (Tynan's) lack of art skill - especially with characters. I made the character art you see in the trailer as a stopgap, and borrowed the Prison Architect style because I'm not a good enough artist to develop a new one. They were never intended to be final. With this Kickstarter, we'll be able to get a real artist who can sit down and develop an original style for RimWorld.

I've talked with the original Prison Architect artist, Ryan Sumo, and he's fully supportive of RimWorld. We didn't share any art or code with the PA guys.

 

[Fjordson]

Sounds pretty neat, might have to back this.

On the KS page, the developer said the current art is only placeholder and with the funds, they can hire artists to develop a unique look for Rimworld. I'll add that to the OP

Was just about to say the art looks a tad bland given the description (RimWorld is a mix between hard sci-fi and the Old West) but that's good news.

 

[More_Badass]

And if some of you are curious by the lack of stretch goals, I find the developer's reasoning for not having any extremely admirable.

Some backers have asked about stretch goals. There are a few reasons I didn't set traditional stretch goals. First, I don't want to do anything that would threaten the basic schedule. Kickstarter projects can be destroyed by being overfunded. The creators feel too rich - they bloat the project out, and what was a tight and well-run project becomes an over-scoped mess. I've had a really good rhythm of work on RimWorld since Feburary; I want to maintain that pace. Lean and fast.

My other worry with traditional stretch goals is locking in design decisions. I prefer an agile approach to game design. This means that to know what I should do in February, I need to know the feedback from what was released in January (I've discussed this dependency problem extensively in my game design book). So if we laid out a bunch of stretch goals now, the project would be locked into a fixed design with no chance to adjust to design feedback. This would be very, very bad. Everything good about RimWorld - the basic concept, the control scheme, even the Western vibe - was created observationally, be reacting to where the game wanted to go instead of forcing it in a pre-decided direction.

I wish more devs thought like this. Just focus on making the best possible experience rather than stretching yourself thin with little add-ons and additions

 

[NZNova]

Rimmerworld?

 

[letterboxart]

I like the Rimworld art style, to be honest. It's clean and easy to read, and it doesn't take much imagination to see it as a bare-bones space colony on the frontier. Prison Architect's ability to be both expressive and informative with such a simple art style is really well done. I hope the final art style for Rimworld isn't annoyingly realistic or stylized.

 

[Dommel]

I'm such a sucker for alpha access (and steam early access).

Backed, sounds great but could look a lot better. There's plenty of extra funds to hire an artist now I guess.

 

[Coiote]

I am sucker for simulation games. Backing this project as we speak.

 

[Klyka]

This looks EXACTLY like Prison Architect.

Is it the same developers?

 

[ChosenPredator]

yeah looks like a replica of prison architects to bad he didnt attempt a different style if it is the same devs

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Heh. Rimworld.

Looks cool though, although very similar to Prison Architect.

 

[Copenap]

Looks interesting, but that art makes it look like a prison architect total conversion.

From the FAQ

It looks a lot like Prison Architect. What's up with that?

Blame my (Tynan's) lack of art skill - especially with characters. I made the character art you see in the trailer as a stopgap, and borrowed the Prison Architect style because I'm not a good enough artist to develop a new one. They were never intended to be final. With this Kickstarter, we'll be able to get a real artist who can sit down and develop an original style for RimWorld.

I've talked with the original Prison Architect artist, Ryan Sumo, and he's fully supportive of RimWorld. We didn't share any art or code with the PA guys.

Edit: Totally beaten...

Anyways, looks really interesting, glad it's funded.

 

[Messofanego]

The top-down perspective didn't excite me, but watching the trailer, I can see how this could be cool. I should play some FTL to see if if I'm into emergent gameplay in this perspective rather than just FPSs.

 

[More_Badass]

This looks EXACTLY like Prison Architect.

Is it the same developers?

yeah looks like a replica of prison architects to bad he didnt attempt a different style if it is the same devs

Heh. Rimworld.

Looks cool though, although very similar to Prison Architect.

Did you read the OT or Kickstarter page? The current art is temporary, due to the dev's poor art skills. The funding will allow him to hire an artist to create an original unique style.

 

[More_Badass]

The top-down perspective didn't excite me, but watching the trailer, I can see how this could be cool. I should play some FTL to see if if I'm into emergent gameplay in this perspective rather than just FPSs.

Here, check this out:
http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?board=7.0

It's the Rimworld forum's "Stories" section, where players share their unique tales and experiences. Reading how diverse and complex these stories were really sold me on the game

 

[More_Badass]

These are a list of feature "modules" that the dev hopes to work on and add to the game. The community will help decide which should be made priorities:

Personally I think Endgame Escape, Biomes, and Relationships are the most interesting.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Did you read the OT or Kickstarter page? The current art is temporary, due to the dev's poor art skills. The funding will allow him to hire an artist to create an original unique style.

I meant gameplay-wise.

 

[Acquiescence]

Rimworld.

 

[More_Badass]

I meant gameplay-wise.

I see. Idk, from what I've read on the forums, the only real similarities to PA is the building aspect and the fact that you can keep prisoners. Really the focus is on survival so you'll be herding alien cattle, farming, dealing with eclipses, using squad tactics to defeat enemies, recruiting (or enslaving) captives or new arrivals, worrying that your group doesn't go insane or starve to death...

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

So it's sort of like a top-down Terraria/Starbound (with less focus on building ofc) crossed with a bit of FTL? Sounds pretty good.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

I see. Idk, from what I've read on the forums, the only real similarities to PA is the building aspect and the fact that you can keep prisoners. Really the focus is on survival so you'll be herding alien cattle, farming, dealing with eclipses, using squad tactics to defeat enemies, recruiting (or enslaving) captives or new arrivals, worrying that your group doesn't go insane or starve to death...

I have to ask: do you have some kind of relationship to these devs?

 

[More_Badass]

I have to ask: do you have some kind of relationship to these devs?

lol, no, I'm just a passionate indie gamer

 

[Facism]

Rimmerworld?

hahaha yes!

 

[CaptainSlow]

Rimworld? Sounds like a website I subbed to a few years ago. =P

 

[Gazoinks]

This looks right up my alley, wish I had some Kickstarter money to throw at it. :| I'll definitely keep an eye on it and probably pick it up on release assuming it gets there and looks good.

 

[More_Badass]

Game was Greenlit in the most recent batch

 

[Purkake4]

Happy this is doing so well. The more procedurally generated stuff we have the better.

 

[MiloFoxburr]

Alpha was released tonight to backers, anyone here try it? It's pretty damn fun and deep. I've only played one game that I completely sucked at lol. One of my guys died taking down a raider and the other two had a mental breakdown.

Going to take a few games I think before I get a hang of this. Note to self batteries explode in the rain.

-edit- I left my game running after they all died and now a Raider is just running around destroying everything I built. He seems to be having fun

-edit2- Oh he gave up, nice

 

[PaulLFC]

Interested in this, I'll have to watch some videos of it and decide whether to buy yet or not. Would people who have it say it's worth the $30 currently? Completely missed the Kickstarter, didn't even realise the game existed until yesterday.

The art style really reminds me of Prison Architect.

Edit: I see the PA art comparison was already covered in the FAQ, fair enough explanation.

 

[More_Badass]

Saw this on dev's blog

I’m happy to announce that we’ve got eminent pixel and game artist Rhopunzel working on the in-game art for RimWorld!

Rho has worked on several awesome indie games. The most recent was Starbound, with pieces like this scary skeltal dragon or this crunchy mech. Before that, Rho did pretty much everything for Gnomoria.

Some people have asked how much the final art will change. Up until now, I’ve done all the art in a simple, iconic style. Rho will be working in a similar style (though at a much higher level of ability). We’re sticking with the vector look because it satisfies

RimWorld’s design constraints very well. The goal with this art isn’t just to look good – it must satisfy a specific set of design goals as well.

First, it has to convey a lot of complex gameplay information in a really intuitive way, even when compressed to a tiny space on-screen. For example, looking at a character will tell you:

Their identity (who, exactly, is it?)
Their team (raider, colonist, trader, etc)
Their general category they fall into (fighter, worker, researcher, farmer, etc)
Their facing
Their apparel (possibly several layers)
What they’re doing
Maybe, in the future, their current equipment or weapon

Packing that all into a space as small as 32×32 pixels and making it look good is tough!
Second, it has to balance abstraction with specificity. If it’s too abstract, people can’t intuitively understand what’s going on. If it’s too specific, it fills in too many gaps so players have no room to subconsciously interpret what’s happening. We need to leave room for players to interpret, because player intepretation is the real engine of game-driven story generation.

Third, it has to be lightweight in content, so it runs and loads quickly, can be iterated quickly, can be modded easily, and can be expanded to a wide variety of objects and characters. We’d rather have 100 kinds of characters with 3 frames of animation each than 3 characters with a hundred frames each. Because what matters is the final experience of the game, which in the case of RimWorld is best served by variety, not detail.

I’m happy to say Rho has been rising to the challenge. We’ve already been passing pieces back and forth and watching the style develop. Here are a couple shots of random colonists in various mixed outfits. Yes, one of them may be naked.

 

[r1chard]

Some updates from Tynan via twitter:

Here's his dev log - detailed and up to date.

Also, there's a new menu screen courtesy of the new artist:

He also recently posted the portrait images for a couple of the AI:

Cassandra Classic:

Randy Random:

 

[SuicidalSteve]

Rimmerworld?

Kryten, kindly get to the point before I jam your nose between your cheeks and make it the filling of a buttock sandwich

so many classic lines in this episode. one of my favourites

 

[More_Badass]

Public alpha just released for those who backed/preordered. Impressions later

 

[okiemok]

Public alpha just released for those who backed/preordered. Impressions later

Is it later yet? what are people thinking about this?

 

[r1chard]

There's not huge differences between this version and the original release:

- updated colonist graphics
- new ways to manage resource stockpiles

(and some bug fixes)

So the game feels quite similar. It's very good, but it just needs more gameplay now. Apparently he's working on cooking.

 

[More_Badass]

Is it later yet? what are people thinking about this?

Forgot to post my impressions here

I haven't played Dwarf Fortress or most other similar games, so the only game I can compare to is Prison Architect. While PA remains the more complete and complex game at the moment, I'm really enjoying RimWorld. The sci-fi aesthetic and colonization premise appeals to me a lot more than maintaining a prison.

While construction options are slightly bare bones at the moment, there is a ton of depth and variety at the moment, the interface and controls are intuitive and user-friendly, and it's the kind of game where watching your hard work and plans unravel and fall into chaos is as fun as maintaining a thriving colony. I think the art style of the characters seems kind of weird and unfinished currently (no hands!), but that's expected for an alpha. Biggest flaw at the moment is probably the combat, just feels very basic. RimWorld is already a fun challenging and rewarding experience, and it'll only grow and expand in the coming months

 

[Orgun]

Alpha 2 - Cannibal Modders is out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhw3j_pYWnI

 

[More_Badass]

Alpha 3 out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHuchTya6rA

The big new thing is the faction system. Now we have generated factions like pirate bands, outlander towns, and tribes. They even generate names for themselves! This leads to hilarity with three-way battles, buying off factions to get their allegiance so they’ll send fighters to help you, and getting raided by a dude’s friends after you capture him and beat him up. The video shows this in detail.

There’s now a planning tool, so you can put down inert designations that don’t do anything. This helps you plan your colony visually, on the map.

The map generates in a more varied way now, using a data-driven algorithm which you can mod

A proper hunting system which allows you to mark animals for hunting and let your colonists handle the details.

Many small AI improvements

 

[Purkake4]

Can't wait till this is ready.

 

[lemonlyman]

Totally in love with this game. I've played so much now that I kind of want to wait a few months and get a bunch of updates at once.

Not sure if it's cool to pimp my own show here, but we talk all about this game on my show this week.

http://www.joshandjayshow.com/episode-83-pizza-health-bar/

 

[More_Badass]

New alpha build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzfpEB5La6o

- Sieges added. Raiders will now sometimes besiege the colony by setting up a fortified position nearby and bombarding you until you die or come out to break the siege. Of course this also means there are now researchable and buildable mortar weapons – both explosive and incendiary.
- Escape ship added. You can now, at great cost, build a ship to escape the planet if you wish.
- Crashed ancient ship part incident added. Sometimes this bad boy will crash-land nearby and start emitting an ever-increasing psychic drone that slowly drives colonists insane. Attack it to make it stop, but beware its defenses.
- New mechanoid type added – the scyther.
- Many new sound effects from the illustrious Alistair Lindsay.
- A new gear system allows changing out of clothing. Clothing now has basic effects, like reducing damage or movement speed.
- There is now an info card you can view for most things in the game. For weapons, it shows statistics about damage, accuracy, and so on. For animals, it displays health, damage, meat amounts. Lots of other things can be inspected as well.
- A game history tracker records the history of your colony in graphs of wealth, population, and happiness, as well as recording individual important events.
- Game history is now uploaded automatically to our servers after an opt-in prompt is agreed to. This uploads your game history – the same one you see on your history graph – to us to help us balance future versions.
- More translations added (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, others) and existing translations updated.
- Language can now be switched by clicking the flag on the main game screen.
- Lots of other small improvements

 

[Purkake4]

Just looked at some videos of Alpha 5 and it's crazy with a billion guns, mortars and artillery. This is really shaping up to be a more user-friendly Dwarf Fortress.

 

[More_Badass]

Alpha 6 is out
http://youtu.be/5omZG5ZIOyQ

It’s a whol new world! Here’s Alpha 6, the update with world generation, biomes, a medical system that tracks every wound and body part, and personality traits.

- World generation added. You can now generate a world from a seed value and choose where to land your escape pods.
- Biomes added. There are six biomes on the world map, but only three of them are implemented so far – desert, arid shrubland (the only choice, previously), and temperate forest.
- Obviously, biomes have distinct animal and plant life which present unique challenges and opportunities.
- Coastlines added. If you land on a seashore, your map will have a coastline in it (though it doesn’t do much, it’s fun to play on the beach.)
- Medical system added. Instead of simply having hit points, characters, animals, and mechanoids have a body health tracker that records every wound and every body part and how they interact. Wounds will affect specific abilities, so someone with eyes burned out can’t shoot or do surgery well, and someone with leg wounds will move slow. Wounds can also become permanent if left untreated, or kill someone due to bleeding.
- Pain level is tracked. A character in too much pain will become incapacitated.
- Doctors and medicine now have a purpose! Your doctor will attempt to heal wounded colonists and prisoner (if the prisoner is marked to receive care). If there is medicine available, he will use it to increase the chance of giving quality care. Wounds treated with quality care are much less likely to become permanent.
- Delicate body parts like brains or eyes usually end up with permanent damage when harmed.
- Characters now have personality traits which affect gameplay! Enjoy playing with colonists who are lazy or hardworking, neurotic, psychically sensitive or deaf, bloodlusty, or nudist.
- Spacey new menu music from Alistair Lindsay. More in-game music and sound effects from Al added as well.
- More translations added and existing translations updated.
- Lots of other small improvements and dozens of bug fixes, as well as new bugs to discover!

 

[Terrified]

Rimmerworld?

First thing I thought of, too.

"Sir, do you still have those Wari balls?"

 

[Purkake4]

Alpha 6 is out
http://youtu.be/5omZG5ZIOyQ

All these things sound amazing, I love little details in these procedural games. Crazy things happen and then you can zoom in on the details and figure out that your only power generator blew up because a colonist went mad over his phobia of the color of his carpet or whatever. Crusader Kings style.

 

[Borman]

Picked up the game when Alpha 6 came out. It's proven to be really, really fun.

 

[cheststrongwell]

I'm a big DF fan, so this looks pretty cool to me. Is it pretty playable in its current state?