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Dungeon Keeper-ish space colony sim Maia leaves early access this week
Simon Roth's space colony sim Maia is just about ready to launch off into the void beyond early access. After a long and eventful six years of solo development, the game is just about ready to be labelled 'complete'. As of the latest update, the current early access version is effectively the finished game, complete with a tutorial, mission-based campaign and a procedurally generated sandbox…
Simon Roth's sci-fi survival game Maia [official site] has been in deep development for a while now - the last time we mentioned it was 2014 and it had already been in Early Access for the better part of a year. Roth has continued toiling away at his Dungeon Keeper In Space, releasing videos now and again of its status. For those counting at home,…
Simon Roth is taken by a fey mood! Simon Roth screams "I must have Kickstarter funds!" Thankfully the fortress contains more than the funds required, saving Simon Roth from a slow descent towards insanity. Simon Roth works furiously! But what is he building in there, locked away inside his room? Something terrible, forged in bone? Simon Roth, Programmer has created Maia, an in-development, Dungeon Keeper-like…
Maia, the Dungeon-Keeper-in-space game from Simon Roth that's been forging through Early Access for the best part of a year, is utterly fascinating. It's dedicated to accurate simulation to the point of internal bodily functions governing whether a colonist lives or dies, and it's full of future tech based upon real world science extrapolated to logical outcomes. Each new update brings more systems, and another…
The Maian Prophecy came true after all! Just as was foretold by a news post I wrote a couple months ago, so shall it be. Maia is now available on Steam Early Access, and I'm aching to worm my futuristically gloved hands into its steaming, ropey gut pile of systems and AIs. The Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress-inspired colony sim is, however, currently not working…
Maia really does sound insanely marvelous, doesn't it? It's got all the complexity of a whirring, churning management simulation paired with the more down-to-earth-space personal side of something like The Sims or even Dwarf Fortress. The game's planet is a harsh, unwelcoming place, but it greeted Adam with a brain-warming embrace. He quickly fell in love, and - via the ropey spinal strands of our…
Philosophy would be so much easier if we could use console commands. Here's a conundrum people in the new Maia alpha are asking: "What comes first? The door, or the workshop that you need to build to build the workshop door?" It's actually a trick question, and the answer is that you need to build the workshop first, then use debug commands to place a…
Questioning crowds about their commitment to Maia caused one of the most tense Kickstarters ever. It eventually cleared the goal with room to spare, but for a time the future was not so certain for the space colony management simulator. With the game on firmer footing, and the alpha in the hands of backers, developer Simon Roth has taken the next and inevitable step of…
Feature: Devils and Details
At the first Rezzed, a year ago, I saw Maia for the first time. Back then, before the nail-biting Kickstarter campaign, what I was shown was more engine than game, an almost frighteningly impressive technical achievement, created by one person and almost tentatively shown to a few eager onlookers. A couple of days ago, I saw the game again. It isn’t finished but it was…
Three cheers for the small god. A couple of days ago things looked a wee bit shaky for Simon Roth's Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress-inspired god game Maia, but a flurry of Kickstarting over the weekend has seen it beat its once faintly ridiculous-seeming £100,000 target and reach the esteemed status of A Thing That Is Happening.
Feature: "The most accurate Marmite simulation ever seen"
Peter Molyneux's unnervingly vague but tear-jerking Project GODUS isn't the only god game revival on the crowd-funded block. British indie dev Simon Roth is in the last mile of seeking pledges for his sci-fi-themed, Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress-inspired, procedurally-generated management game Maia. Between its rather spangly proprietary engine and the fact that there's a whole lot of it being shown off already, I'm personally…
With Britstarter well under way, it's time for me to point to one of the most interesting projects to have appeared, which is Simon Roth's Maia. The project - we've mentioned a few times - proposes a planet-colonising God game which will see players "excavate an underground colony to escape the hostile surface of the world." Needless to say, there's plenty of base-building and colonist-caring…
Maia, the procedural, Dungeon Keeper-esque space management/god game from newly ex-Mode Sevener Simon Roth, is right up there in the top branches of indie games to stare at with creepily unblinking desire. A procedural world, taking a few notes from the likes of Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft, and a highly ambitious proprietary engine to realise it all in. And, now, a first person mode, straight…
Simon Roth is best known as the newest recruit to Frozen Synapse creators Mode 7, but he's also one of the most veteran developers in the entire history of the world, if my research is correct. And he's moonlighting on a side-project all of his own, the Bullfrog/early Maxis-inspired sci-fi management game Maia. This isn't a matter of keeping colonists happy with space ice cream…
We all loved Terry Cavanagh's wonderful VVVVVV last year, didn't we? Well I certainly did, that Kieron bloke did, and a straw poll of my hands unanimously voted in favour it. Universal approval if ever I saw it. Fantastic news: Terry has joined up with programmer Simon Roth to push out a major update to VVVVVV. Here's the what's new in VVVVVVersion 2.0:
