Permafrost Game

Permafrost is a colony survival game for Windows.

The game was released in April 2020 for Team 2's submission for CS2010.

The latest version of the game can be downloaded here.

Concept

Permafrost is a single player strategy game where a player controls a small group of colonists with the aim to manage resources to achieve survival. Permafrost is a top down colony management and survival game set in a distant post-apocalyptic future. In an attempt to save the world from global warming, humanity built a global system of cooling towers. This however, allowed the AI controlling the towers to overthrow humanity by freezing the earth. The game is set after these events in a hostile frozen wasteland, with humankind fighting for survival.

The player must manage resources, most important to manage is food and temperature. Wandering through the wilderness interactable objects can be harvested for different resources which can be used for building and crafting; offered by Workbenches and Forges. Progression will be met with increased difficulty with random enemy encounters and events.

The game starts with a single colonist controlling a tower. From there the player can harvest resources.

Game Play Tips:

Here are a few tips to get you started with the game. More information is available on our wiki.

• Early on, wood is a scares resource so crafting an Axe using a work bench should be a high priority.
• Keep an eye on cold colonists and move them to warmth before they take too much damage.
• Campfires can be used to provide a small amount of heat, useful for when your colonists are far from home.
• Enemy towers are guarded by robots, and the towers are located every 7 zones in each direction and can be captured once all robots are defeated.
• The 10th tower of the game will be more difficult, and will allow completion of the game.

We intend to design the game to be played in a number of ways. A player might want to setup a base around a single tower, and then perform short explorations into other zones to gather resources. Or the player could have multiple small bases in different zone to allow for exploration over a further distance. A nomadic method maybe favourable however is not necessary. The game is balanced in a way to give the player options for how they want to play the game.

Controls

• W, S, A, and D or Arrow Keys controls the camera.
• Mouse controls allow for giving instructions to colonists, and for interacting with the UI for buildings, and selecting colonists.
• Scroll wheel controls Zoom.
• 1-9 allow for quick selection of colonists.
• R returns the camera to the centre.
• ESC opens the pause menu.
• F11 quickly toggles between full screen.
• In Dev mode I, J, K, and L can be used to quickly move between zones.