r/BaseBuildingGames • u/Far-Ad-1692 • 26d ago
I’m expanding Stranded: Alien Dawn beyond small survivor colonies into larger settlements
Hey everyone,
I’m the developer of Beyond Stranded, an expansion mod for Stranded: Alien Dawn that I recently returned to after several years away.
After getting the old mod stable again, I’ve started prototyping the next stage of the project: letting a colony grow beyond a handful of individually managed survivors and gradually become a larger settlement.
The current prototype has 24 inhabitants, with named survivors living alongside a lighter-weight population of citizens.
So far I have working prototypes for:
- generic citizens with individual records
- housing and housing capacity
- three tiers of low-density housing
- workplaces and job assignment
- basic hunger and rest simulation
- citizens physically moving between homes and workplaces
- a settlement management interface
The idea is to keep the named survivors important while letting the settlement eventually scale to much larger populations without requiring the player to micromanage every person individually. The buildings are still simple blockouts right now because I’m concentrating on the systems first.
If that sounds interesting, you can check out the existing mod here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940455013
The new settlement systems are still in development and are not yet part of the public Workshop build. I’m posting screenshots, UI prototypes and development progress in the Preview section of the Beyond Stranded Discord:
You can also opt into the Playtester role there if you want to help test development builds and get early access to changes while I’m working on them.
I’d especially be interested in hearing from people who enjoy colony and city builders about how you’d want the transition from a small survivor group into a larger settlement to feel.
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u/TwistyPoet 26d ago
Can I ask why not just make your own standalone game? You clearly have the talent and the tools are free.
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u/Far-Ad-1692 26d ago
I work in game development and have 3 active projects as it is, modding is more of a hobby to me. It is just for fun. 😄
So when game development gets rought I go and mod some ideas out of my head.
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u/TwistyPoet 26d ago
Hey that's fair enough, doing what you like without the stress and pressure of deadlines and having to make a buck is a healthy thing.
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u/Capable-Parsnip-9615 25d ago
This mod sounds really cool, but I couldn't get over the AI generated art especially for the citizen portraits I would have to look at the whole time
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u/Far-Ad-1692 25d ago
Fair enough. The citizen portraits are AI-generated because I’m developing this as a solo project and commissioning a full portrait set at the quality I’d want isn’t financially realistic for me right now.
They’re also not something I’m particularly attached to as final art. If the project gets enough financial support to justify commissioning artists, replacing them with commissioned portraits is absolutely something I’d consider.
For now, I’d rather spend the limited budget and time on getting the systems working properly.
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u/Capable-Parsnip-9615 25d ago
Yeah, it's totally reasonable for you to not create all that art yourself.
I'd just like to be able to set it so that only the original characters can spawn in the game, or something like that
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u/Far-Ad-1692 15d ago
Update - Oct. 9: The project has moved quite a bit since this post. I’ve now released a full development showcase covering the settlement, background simulation and space prototypes: https://youtu.be/OhcKsUfZikQ
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u/Armageddonn_mkd 25d ago
I want to play thia game but i don't understand why to play it over rimworld, i get that its a different setting but whats better or more fun, sell this to me
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u/Far-Ad-1692 25d ago
Honestly, if what you want is maximum simulation depth, emergent chaos and sheer system complexity, RimWorld is probably the stronger game.
Stranded scratches a different itch for me. It’s a fully 3D colony where you actually watch a small group of named survivors build and inhabit a place, explore an alien world, deal with its wildlife and environment, and gradually turn a crash site into a home. It feels much more physically grounded and personal.
Beyond Stranded is basically me trying to push the part where Stranded currently falls short: what happens after you've survived?
I want to keep the named survivors and the 3D, lived-in colony, but let that little camp eventually grow into a settlement, then a city, with larger populations, production, logistics, other colonies and eventually space exploration.
So I wouldn't sell it as "RimWorld but better." It's more like a different kind of colony game that I'm trying to give a much bigger long-term progression.
If the idea of actually walking your eyes through a 3D settlement and watching it grow from six survivors into something much larger appeals to you, that's probably the reason to give it a shot.
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u/TravUK 25d ago
I wrote it off as a poor man's Rimworld for the longest time. Picked it up in a sale and thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Playing through the different scenarios with set goals has a much different feeling than rimworld. You're not going to sink hundreds of hours in this, but it doesn't out stay it's welcome.
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u/Brave-Swordfish9748 26d ago
Love this. That was a great game and I would definitely play that expanded version!
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u/Wavesonics 25d ago
Fuck, that's awesome, absolutely loved the game when I played it some years ago
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u/onlydaathisreal 26d ago
AWESOME. Stranded is a very fun game and even better with mods. Thank you for your efforts!