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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Red Dust Colony
Panic Spreadsheet · Published by Panic Spreadsheet · Official site ↗
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
The spirit of the space race lives on in this Mars based colony sim. Mine, craft and research in order to build up your initial lander into a self sustaining colony. Keep oxygen levels high and CO₂ levels low. Discover and grow a variety of plants to balance out colonist nutrition.
Simulation · 2027 · More free games
Explore Red Dust Colony, a simulation where you mine, craft, and research to turn a lander into a thriving Martian base. Navigate the delicate balance of oxygen and CO₂ levels while growing plants for your colonists' sustenance.
About this game
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About the Game
Red Dust Colony is a Mars colony simulation where the machines break, the dust gets into everything, and your colonists have opinions about it. You'll guide a small crew from a hard landing to a working base, managing oxygen, power, food, research, and the people who make it all run. Each system interacts with every other, usually in ways you'll only fully appreciate the first time something goes wrong.
Everything your colony runs on starts as rock or ice. Mine regolith, iron, copper, and ice from the Martian surface, then turn it into building parts through a chain of specialised workshops including rock crushers, smelters, concrete mixers, fabricators, assembly stations and more. Recipes queue up. Bottlenecks shift. The list of things you need to make grows a little faster than the list of things you have. This, for some reason, is the fun part.
If you like solving a base the way an engineer solves a building, Red Dust Colony has a lot for you. A cell-based atmosphere simulates oxygen, carbon dioxide, toxins, heat, and pressure per tile. A circuit-based power grid routes electricity through wires, batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines. Liquid pipes handle plumbing, hydroponics, and aquaponics; when they carry hot water, they double as a heating system. Light matters - rooms without it are grim and unproductive. None of these systems are cosmetic. They interact, they conflict, and they reward the kind of player who enjoys reading a floor plan and thinking about flow.
Running a farm on Mars is mostly the same as running a farm anywhere else, except with higher stakes and fewer bees. Red Dust Colony gives you a wide variety of crops to grow - microgreens, kale, tomatoes, quinoa, peanuts, avocados, mycelium, medicinal plants, and more - each in plots that track water, fertilizer, and growth quality.
Botany research at the Botany Station unlocks new species and improves existing ones. Hunger is tracked by macronutrient - carbs, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins - so feeding your crew means balancing a real diet. Grow one crop forever and your colonists will let you know.
Progression in Red Dust Colony follows the same arc your colony does: life support first, industry next, comfort eventually. A branching research tree covers everything from oxygen regulation and temperature control to hydroponics, medicine, and interior decor. Early research keeps people alive. Later research lets them live well.
Your colonists have opinions, and when those opinions aren't managed, they break. Red Dust Colony simulates mental health in distinct ways - some colonists rage, some cry, some vent on the nearest wall, some go catatonic and need to be rescued. Which break they have depends on who they are, because every colonist is shaped by traits: Rockbreaker, Claustrophobic, Homesick, Suit Junkie, Night Owl, Snorer.
They eat, sleep, socialize, and form real relationships. Some of them will die. You'll decide whether the colony can spare the time to hold a funeral.
Red Dust Colony isn't our day job, but it's our real work. We're two people, one programmer-designer, one artist, and we've been building this in our spare time for over five years. Evenings, weekends, and plenty of late nights.
If RimWorld, Oxygen Not Included, or Surviving Mars are your kind of game, we think Red Dust Colony might be too. Wishlist it, follow along, and thanks for reading.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: 7 (64 bit)
- Processor: Dual Core 2 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD 4600 (AMD or NVIDIA equivalent)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 512 MB available space
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Devlog #18 - Going full time, roadmap and updates
Hello and welcome to the 18th devlog.Going full timeAs some of you might know, this project is something we've been working on in our spare time as we both have jobs. This is part of the reason the game has been in development for 6 years. The reality is that after 8 hours of work at a day job that's just as intensive as working on the game, plus all the little life admin, there's very little time and energy left.I'm pleased to say that I have resigned from my job and will be working on the game full time starting in October. We're in a very fortunate position where we can afford to do this without starving, and the timing just feels right. I'll be the only one to do this, at least for now, but most of the time the bottleneck has been programming and game design, not art.This is something we're very excited about because it means more focused work on the game and a bit of personal life back.RoadmapSomething that we've been asked more and more about is whether we have a roadmap, and now we finally have one.The next few updates are Industry (prospecting, mining stations, rare metals and high voltage power), then Thermal (temperature overlays, heat dissipation, radiators and frost snaps), then Liquid (pipes and plumbing, liquid thermal transfer, hydroponics) and Botanical (light, oxygen and CO2 mechanics for plants, glass hull, reworked farming). The Medical update you're playing in the demo is the first one on there. Early Access is currently targeted for February/March 2027.Keep in mind that this is not final and things can always shift, but this is the current plan. There are plenty of things to do beyond the list, and they're all part of a clear vision, but as the game evolves some details might change. The entire process so far has been iterative and it will continue to be so.Addressing feedbackThe demo was released about a week ago and we've received a constant stream of feedback from people enjoying the game and from people reporting issues, some bigger, some sm...Read full article on Community Announcements (Lorin)Patch NotesOfficial
Devlog #17 - Demo available now + new update
First things first: The demo is available now on Steam. If you've been following these devlogs, you'll know this has been a long time coming. We've said "soon" more times than we'd like to admit, so it feels good to finally just say: go play it. And there's no better time to jump in, because it launches alongside a new update that adds a whole new layer of complexity to the game.Medical UpdateIf you've followed along, you'll know that food items in the game have different nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and vitamins. While plants showed this information clearly, the simulation didn't really cover much when it came to digestion, deficiencies, effect on toilet needs, etc.The first thing that had to be implemented here was a new system for "Conditions". These are temporary or permanent issues that have an effect on health. They range from simple bruises and cuts to nutrient deficiencies, diseases and CO2 poisoning, each with different severities and progressions.Where do these injuries come from? Work accidents, machine breakdowns and even colonists going berserk have now all been implemented along with some contagious diseases.RestingColonists now seek medical rest if they're allowed, and will go lie in beds or medical beds so they can recover faster. This is very much recommended as a colonist forced to work not only heals slower but can be at risk of causing accidents, and depending on the exact nature of the condition, might even go unconscious, fall and get further injured. Still, the choice is yours. Depending on the state of the base, rest might just not be feasible.Cooking changesWith colonists resting in bed, however, came the problem of feeding them. Before this update, during free time they would just take some ingredients, prepare a meal and eat it. The ingredients picked would be based on levels of hunger and some rough nutrient balancing. An incapacitated colonist, however, cannot just get up and prepare a meal, so someone else has to do it....Read full article on Community Announcements (Lorin)AnnouncementsOfficial
Devlog #16 - The dangers of overexpansion
Before we get to the main topic, I have a little announcement: Due to a mix-up in the Steam page review process, which is needed for the demo page, we won't be able to launch the demo tomorrow as planned. Meanwhile, we've released the Demo on Itch as well for anyone who would really like to try it out as soon as possible. This is available right now. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link it here but the simplest web search will get you there. As for the Steam release, because of some upcoming gaming events, we'll have to delay for another 3 weeks or so. On the bright side, this will give us some more time to work on the next update. I'll post more about this in the next devlog so watch out for that one too.Now, onwards to the main topic.The machine must growYou've landed on the red planet, set up your living quarters, got a modest amount of planting going on and you've started mining and refining resources. The number of plants you're harvesting only stretches the rations you landed with a little further and all of the machinery that you need to place inside is really starting to make everything feel cramped.The parts you landed with can only allow you to expand so much but there's an easily available solution: Concrete production! Using the abundantly available regolith to expand quickly is textbook Mars colonization so you lay out the supply chain and get cracking.The atmosphere flows through the baseAs you expand your base, there's a hidden danger growing with every new tile of precious interior space. You see, every tile holds a given amount of oxygen. Initially, this is sitting comfortably at around 600 liters. Double the volume of the base by expanding and this drops to 300 liters per tile. Not ideal but nobody really bats an eye. Double your base volume again though and the effects will start to get noticed. All 3 sections above contain the same amount of oxygen. Smallest is perfectly breathable while the largest one is barely breathable.Colonists tend to breat...Read full article on Community Announcements (Lorin)AnnouncementsOfficial
Devlog #15 - Your first day in Red Dust Colony
Before we get to the main topic, we have some exciting news: The demo will become public on the 1st of June! It's been a lot of work and we couldn't have done it without the help of our community for which we're very grateful. Shoutout to you guys, you rock! (or do you regolith?)Now, with the demo being less than a week away, I thought I'd go over the first day in RDC and set you up for success.TouchdownOnce the lander settled and everyone got up from their seats, it's time to make some room and at the same time get some extra resources. Since we're not going to be leaving Mars anytime soon, both the rocket engines and the landing seats can and should be deconstructed.At the same time we need to place down a Stockpile for storing the bulky resources like Hull pieces, Iron Plates and soon, Regolith and Ores.The initial lander is pretty small and won't fit that much, but luckily, it's made out of carefully engineered Hull blocks, which adapt as more expansions are built, always keeping the inside pressurised. About 35-40 tiles should be enough to start with. I personally also like to fill in the corners where the Rocket Engines used to be.Living QuartersSleeping on the floor isn't a great experience, so before the sun sets, we should make sure that everyone has a place to lay their heads. Bunk Beds or Single Beds, the choice is yours, just maybe think of keeping anyone who snores further away from the others.Colonists also need somewhere to, *ahem*, relieve themselves, so let's place down a Toilet as well. Otherwise they'll soil themselves and the embarrassment (along with the smell) will linger on. Make sure to separate the Toilet with walls and a door in order to avoid any awkwardness.Since the base doesn't have any windows yet, a few lights make a pretty big difference, so let's go ahead and place some Wall Mounted Lights down. Don't forget to wire them up, though. They don't run on good intentions. Nobody likes sleeping with the lights on, and neither do the colon...Read full article on Community Announcements (Lorin)AnnouncementsOfficial
Devlog #14 - Life, Death, and a Public Demo
Hello and welcome to the 14th devlog for Red Dust Colony. This one's a big one: the public demo is almost here.New versionAfter around 4 months of development, we've made the new version available privately for playtesting and the reception has been pretty good so far. We're now on the third patch, having ironed out most reported issues with nothing too alarming popping up. This means the demo will very soon go public and everyone will be able to try it out. All we're really missing is a new trailer, as the current one is over 2 years old, and that's exactly what we're planning to take care of next week.A few features have been added since last time, tying up loose ends:New colonist arrivalsTo grow the colony, more hands are needed and for that colonists need a way to arrive. Once a rocket pad is built, new arrivals are made possible and the existing crew will be happy to greet newcomers. There's an option to skip all of this too, but nobody is going to be really happy about it.GravesThis is an unfortunate requirement. The worst can happen and players need a way to deal with it and colonists need a place to lay their crew members to rest. The players now have the option of letting colonists mourn and process their loss. It's a small moment but it helps offset the mood loss. Room typesBased on the contents of each room, a type is automatically assigned. This was only supposed to be added later, but one of the mental breaks requires colonists to go cry in a bedroom, so the game had to understand what a bedroom is. One thing led to another and now room types are implemented. Bedrooms, kitchens, recreation rooms and more are all recognized based on what's placed inside them.Wishlist or follow the game if you haven't already and want to get notified when the demo is made public. We know many of you have been waiting for this for a while and we really appreciate your patience. It's been a long road but we're almost there. Thanks for following along with the development an...Read full article on Community Announcements (Lorin)
