Maia is a colony management simulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux from indie developer Simon Roth. Launched on Kickstarter the day the service became open to projects based in the UK – October 31st – the game has already received £26,721 over 1,500 pledges at the time of writing. With a goal of £100,042 to be pledged by November 28th, that means the game is already 27% funded.
So what is getting backers so excited? In the introductory video, Roth talks about the inspiration behind his game; he mentions science fiction from the '70s, and god gamers from the '90s, which is presumably a winning combination for this generation of gamers. These space simulations seem particularly popular on Kickstarter, potentially because they don't currently play a leading role in the mainstream video game industry.
The game involves management of a colony on a planet twelve light years away called Maia, one of the targets of humanity's first extrasolar colonisation programme begun in 2113. The planet has been terraformed from orbit for fourteen years – laser-equipped satellites placed in orbit to deal with threatening meteors, the volcanic atmosphere tackled with sulphur – before the authorities on earth declared it safe for settlement. As it turns out, the surface of Maia is inhospitable, and the colony you build and care for must be underground. You'll have to explore the surface, mine for construction materials, perform research, and look after your colonists.
If Maia sounds like your kind of game, you can check out its Kickstarter page for more details.
