''Offworld Trading Company'' is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

(RTS)

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Mohawk Games and published by

Stardock Stardock Corporation is an American software development Company (law), company founded in 1991 and incorporation (business), incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch t ...

. The game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

in April 2016.

Gameplay

''Offworld Trading Company'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

themed

set on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. Featuring economic warfare ranging from hostile takeovers to sabotage, it puts the player in charge of one of four titular offworld trading companies. The players' choice of faction comes after they have their first look at the map, allowing them to tailor their choices to the situation. Regardless of their choice, players land their HQ and begin to construct resource extractors on the neighboring hexes. There are 13 resources in the game.

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

, Aluminum, Iron, Silicon, and Carbon can be extracted from hexes that contain those resources. Power can be generated by building a

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

, with different limitations depending on the type of power plant being built, and is usually used to power buildings.

Steel mills A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

generate steel from iron. Greenhouse farms make food from water. Hydrolysis reactors break water apart into oxygen and

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

. Glass kilns produce glass from oxygen and silicon. Electronics factories produce electronics from silicon, carbon, and aluminum. Chemical refineries produce chemicals from carbon and fuel. Finally, money can be produced by selling stockpiles of resources.

Supply and demand In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a Market (economics), market. It postulates that, Ceteris_paribus#Applications, holding all else equal, the unit price for a particular Good (economics), good ...

fluctuates constantly. If a player is buying large sums of glass for an expansion, their rival could be gearing up glass kilns to make a handsome profit. The game also offers more direct ways of engaging a player. Through the

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

, a player can purchase anything from underground nukes that wipe out resource pockets to

mutinies Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, b ...

that divert a rival's wealth into their pocket. When a player purchases something from the black market, however, its price rises, giving a wary opponent a chance to prepare a defense, usually in the form of a

goon squad A goon squad is a group of people, often composed of hired criminals, detectives, or mercenaries, formed to intimidate and assault a specific group of opponents, most often unionized workers. Examples In the United States, a goon squad is a gr ...

. The goon squad protects a single structure from most

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

actions, capable of stealing the sabotage for yourself. The end goal of the game is to buy a majority stake in every offworld trading company in the game. If a player loses majority stockholdership in their own company, or is subjected to a very expensive

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

, they are eliminated from the game, but can elect to watch as an observer. Players are warned when an opposing player earns enough money to buy them out (but the opposing player is not alerted), which usually results in tense, desperate races to earn money.

Development and release

''Offworld Trading Company'' was developed by Mohawk Games and published by Stardock. An in-development version of the game was released via

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

. The full game was released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

on April 28, 2016. The game's score was written by

Christopher Tin Christopher Chiyan Tin (born May 21, 1976) is an American composer of art music, composing for film, television, and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He is a two-time Gramm ...

Reception

''Offworld Trading Company'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to aggregate review website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

References

External links

* {{Stardock 2016 video games Early access video games Multiplayer and single-player video games MacOS games Real-time strategy video games Stardock games Video games set on Mars Video games developed in the United States Windows games Mohawk Games games