History VideoGame / TerraGenesis

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Set in either the near or distant [[TheFuture Future]], the player is given the task to {{terraform}} a planet, moon, or dwarf planet (called "world"), with help of one of the four Factions, each with different goals: [[NatureLover Daughters of Gaia]], Sons of Hephaestus, [[TheFederation United Nations Space Administration]], and [[MegaCorp Horizon Corporation]], [[SettlingTheFrontier colonize and develop the colony's culture]], and make the world the next habitable planet for humans to settle on. The player does so by controlling the world's temperature, pressure, oxygen, and water with the buildings they build in the world's cities. If they have Biosphere turned on, they can even piece new organisms from genes to inhabit and further influence the world.

'''[=TerraGenesis=]''' is an {{indie|game}} {{mobile|phonegame}} science-based RealTimeStrategy SimulationGame developed by Alexander Winsn and distributed by his company Edgeworks Entertainment, previously known for the ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' machinima ''WebAnimation/TheCodex''. It is available for iOS, Android, and Microsoft Windows.

'''[=TerraGenesis=]''' is an {{indie|game}} {{mobile|phonegame}} science-based RealTimeStrategy SimulationGame developed by Alexander Winsn and distributed by his company Edgeworks Entertainment, previously known for the ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' machinima ''Machinima/TheCodex''. It is available for iOS, Android, and Microsoft Windows.

The simulation is [[ShownTheirWork all based on real science]], courtesy of data from NASA. It's full-time and runs when the game is closed, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures unless you have paused]]. The player can terraform Mercury, Venus, a [[ClimateChange climate-change-suffering]] Earth, the Moon, and Mars for free. The moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the dwarf planets, the "speculative" planets of solar system TRAPPIST-1, the game's fictional planets, Earth's forms in the past (and future), and even [[RandomlyGeneratedLevel a randomly generated planet]] are paid access.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The terraforming of Mars starts in the year 2035, though it will take several centuries to completely do so. Earth starts in the player's current year, albeit with more threatening ClimateChange and advanced technologies to combat that.

* ArtificialIntelligence: The premise of the Historical Earths campaign has you to train an artificial-intelligence terraforming program called Project Ishtar by teaching how to terraform through a simulation.

* MegaCorp: Horizon Corporation, one of the four playable factions, is this. They are the modern, more positive take on the trope, as some of their governors do something good in the meantime of getting rich, such as stabilizing the Earth's fluctuating oxygen levels, helping flooded communities, or restoring and promoting cultural heritage sites.

* SpeciesLostAndFound:
** You may get news about a [[Film/JurassicPark "Genetic Park"]] forming in one of your cities, holding genetically engineered animal species as well as mythological ones. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial It is expected that absolutely nothing will go wrong.]]
** Chances are if a species goes extinct, it'll be found alive and "resurrected".

The simulation is [[ShownTheirWork all based on real science]], courtesy of data from NASA. It's full-time and runs when the game is closed, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures unless you have paused]]. The player can terraform Mercury, Venus, a [[GlobalWarming climate-change-suffering]] Earth, the Moon, and Mars for free. The moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the dwarf planets, the "speculative" planets of solar system TRAPPIST-1, the game's fictional planets, Earth's forms in the past (and future), and even [[RandomlyGeneratedLevel a randomly generated planet]] are paid access.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The terraforming of Mars starts in the year 2035, though it will take several centuries to completely do so. Earth starts in the player's current year, albeit with more threatening climate change thanks to GlobalWarming and advanced technologies to combat that.

* ColonyDrop: If playing on Expert mode (or normal mode on Cretacea, duh), you may be notified of a giant asteroid incoming to your world. If you don't throw off or break the asteroid in time with your Planetary Defense Network, then your world is doomed. Most if not ''all'' of your cities and outposts are wiped out, most of the facilities in the surviving cities are destroyed also, the world's stats are severely shifted, and worst of all ''at least a third of your technology are gone and have to be researched again''.
* DifficultyLevels: Worlds have their own difficulty level: Easy, Medium, or Hard. When creating a game, you can select Beginner, Normal, or Expert difficulty. Beginner, intended to be simpler and faster for new players to learn the ropes of the game, with no maintenance costs, faster research/construction times, no [[TheGreatFlood floods]], and [[EasyModeMockery lack of access to satellites and Biosphere]]. Normal has all features (except for [[ColonyDrop wordkiller asteroids]]) of the game for players with enough experience. Expert carries more challenges for those who have mastered, such as worldkiller asteroids, events involving solar winds, fissure vents, and volcanoes, and Planetary Defense System as the only satellite to build.
* EasyModeMockery: No, you cannot built satellites (which includes space elevators or settling on moons) or switch to Biosphere to make organisms in Beginner mode. {{Justified}} as the mechanics are quite simplified for the use of satellites at all, and the complexity of Biosphere is a tad much for Beginner.

Set in either the near or distant [[TheFuture Future]], the player is given the task to {{terraform}} a planet, moon, or dwarf planet (called "world"), with help of one of the four Factions each with different goals: [[NatureLover Daughters of Gaia]], Sons of Hephaestus, [[TheFederation United Nations Space Administration]], and [[MegaCorp Horizon Corporation]], [[SettlingTheFrontier colonize and develop the colony's culture]], and make the world the next habitable planet for humans to settle on. The player does so by controlling the world's temperature, pressure, oxygen, and water, researching new technologies and using the buildings of the cities they build to do so. If they have Biosphere turned on, they can even piece new organisms from genes to inhabit and further influence the world.

Set in either the near or distance [[TheFuture Future]], the player is given the task to {{terraform}} a planet, moon, or dwarf planet (called "world"), with help of one of the four Factions each with different goals: [[NatureLover Daughters of Gaia]], Sons of Hephaestus, [[TheFederation United Nations Space Administration]], and [[MegaCorp Horizon Corporation]], [[SettlingTheFrontier colonize and develop the colony's culture]], and make the world the next habitable planet for humans to settle on. The player does so by controlling the world's temperature, pressure, oxygen, and water, researching new technologies and using the buildings of the cities they build to do so. If they have Biosphere turned on, they can even piece new organisms from genes to inhabit and further influence the world.

* ParadisePlanet: {{Invoked}} by the Daughters of Gaia, who want to make ''every'' planet "paradise".

* FlatWorld: Flat Planet Mode/Conspiracy Pack turns your world from a sphere to a flat disk, though it still spins, like a coin. HilarityEnsues.

** There are no [[TheGreatFlood global floods]] on Easy mode, making the mode a casual cruise like it was intended. (There used to be one, but it was widely disliked and eventually removed.)

** Lampshaded in the archives, which states:
--> After all, while this is a game rooted in real-science, it is still a game, and needs to be fun.

Set in either the near or distance [[TheFuture Future]], the player is given the task to {{terraform}} a planet, moon, or dwarf planet (called "world"), with help of one of the four Factions each with different goals: [[NatureLover Daughters of Gaia]], Sons of Hephaestus [[TheFederation United Nations Space Administration]], and [[MegaCorp Horizon Corporation]], [[SettlingTheFrontier colonize and develop the colony's culture]], and make the world the next habitable planet for humans to settle on. The player does so by controlling the world's temperature, pressure, oxygen, and water, researching new technologies and using the buildings of the cities they build to do so. If they have Biosphere turned on, they can even piece new organisms from genes to inhabit and further influence the world.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The "Can I play this on an emulator, like Bluestacks" entry in the FAQ uses "lmao", which is abbreviation for "laughing my ass off". In an 4+/[[EveryoneRating E-rated]] game.
** The use of the word "sexy" in the "Local Mystique" event may count.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: Despite being scientifically-accurate, there are inaccuracies for [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality the sake of less frustration]]. Planets close to the sun, such as Mercury, don't heat up constantly because players found that too hard to control.

** There are no [[TheGreatFlood global floods]] on Easy mode, making the mode a casual cruise like it was intended. (There used to but [[ItsHardSoItSucks it was unpopular]].)

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: Despite being scientifically-accurate, there are inaccuracies for [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality the sake of less frustration]]. Planets close to the sun, such as Mercury, don't heat up constantly because players found that [[ItsHardSoItSucks too hard to tame]].

* ExcusePlot: The main story's a little bit more than to excuse why you're terraforming a planet or moon. There are [[AllThereInTheManual backstories to the factions]] and governor descriptions that are nice to know, but don't extend much beyond the excuse. The individual premises for Earth and Lethe and the story campaigns have more storyline on the other hand.

* GaiasVengeance: Too much GlobalWarming will result in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtYQEDqLGY0 Earth drying up and turning red like Mars]].

* MultipleEndings: The Historical Earths campaign has different endings based on whether you sided with Daughters of Gaia, Sons of Hephaestus, or [[TakeAThirdOption both equally]]. [[spoiler: The Hephaestus ending has the Sons proudly plan to overtake the Daughters and their "dangerous" mission of "paradise" with the failure of Project Ishtar (can come off as an EsteoricHappyEnding). The Gaia ending has them simply thanking the player for making their triumph over the Sons possible. The Neutral ending is a RayOfHopeEnding, in which an anonymous person's (probably the player) actions result in both factions going down and Project Ishar [[AIIsACrapshoot going crapshoot]], messing with the environment and killing people in the process. They do consider the choice of reprogramming Ishar back to normal.]]

** You may get news about a [[Film/JurassicPark "Genetic Park"]] forming in one of your cities, holding genetically engineered animal species as well as mythological ones. [[SuspciouslySpecificDenial It is expected that absolutely nothing will go wrong.]]

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: If you feel somewhat of a jerk, instead of building a habitable world for humanity, you can toy around with your world and be cruel to your population, such as heating up the world and turning it [[SingleBiomePlanet all lava]], or turning Earth into a Mars-like planet.

The simulation is [[ShownTheirWork all based on real science]], courtesy of data from NASA. It's full-time and runs when the game is closed, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures unless you have paused]]. The player can terraform Mercury, Venus, a climate-change-suffering Earth, the Moon, and Mars for free. The moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the dwarf planets, the "speculative" planets of solar system TRAPPIST-1, the game's fictional planets, Earth's forms in the past (and future), and even [[RandomlyGeneratedLevel a randomly generated planet]] are paid access.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The terraforming of Mars starts in the year 2035, though it will take several centuries to completely do so. Earth starts in the player's current year, albeit with more threatening climate change and advanced technologies to combat that.

* GaiasVengeance: Too much climate change and global warming will result in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtYQEDqLGY0 Earth drying up and turning red like Mars]].

* MadScientist: Zora Ikhwezi Michel, one of the governors, is an otherwise successful geneticist who is willing to experiment on herself. She has [[AnimalEyes cat-like eyes]] and some fur on her body as the result.

The simulation is [[ShownTheirWork all based on real science]], courtesy of data from NASA. It's full-time and runs when the game is closed, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures unless you have paused]]. The player can terraform Mercury, Venus, a climate-change-suffering Earth, the Moon, and Mars for free. The moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the dwarf planets, the plants of solar system TRAPPIST-1, the game's fictional planets, Earth's forms in the past (and future), and even a randomly generated planet are paid access.