ICEWAKE

The world is dead. Keep moving.

The ocean has frozen over, and sunken cities lie beneath the ice. Your nuclear icebreaker is the last warm home in a frozen wasteland. Steer it across the frozen world, breaking through ever thicker ice, dive beneath the surface and salvage whatever helps your crew survive and keep going.

MOBILE BASE

The icebreaker is shown in cross-section: bridge, reactor, engine, workshop, lab, crew quarters. The captain walks between compartments, plots the route on the globe and steers the ship. Upgrade the engine to break ever thicker ice and open up new parts of the world.

UNDER THE ICE

Sonar shows which nearby areas hold the most salvage. Send the mini-sub down and explore the sunken world: ports, roads, houses and high-rises fading into the dark. The claws feel for the cargo on their own and lift recognizable wreckage — crates, cars, buses, trucks — and whatever is too heavy to lift, you cut apart with a saw right on the seabed. The receiver's teeth in the hangar break the haul down into resources as the sub docks.

CRAFTING AND UPGRADES

Metal, electronics and polymers go into upgrades for the compartments and the sub, and the workshop's 3D printer turns them into AA ammo, repair kits and batteries. Give the sub more arms for the claw and the saw — up to four — reinforce its hull to dive deeper and boost its engine to haul ever heavier salvage off the seabed.

THREATS

On the way, enemy helicopters attack the icebreaker: sirens wail and the captain runs up on deck to the AA gun. And something huge lives in the deep. Don't stay still for too long.

UNDERWATER TOWNS AND THE VACCINE

People still live on the seabed. Underwater bases are small towns whose windows glow in the dark water: residents work and care for the sick, while a virus slowly claims those lying in bed. Take samples, develop a vaccine in the lab and save as many people as you can in time — every patient needs a dose of their own. Cured residents become allies and send supplies to the ship, and among the survivors you will find new crew: a soldier who mans the AA gun, an engineer who runs auto-crafting, a scientist who speeds up research.

FEATURES

• A nuclear icebreaker as a mobile base, shown in side cross-section
• A world on a globe with four grades of ice thickness
• Mini-sub dives with a claw and a saw to the sunken ruins of civilization
• Recognizable salvage, breakdown on docking, 3D-printer crafting
• Defending the ship against air raids
• Living underwater towns where a virus slowly claims the sick
• A crew of rescued specialists
• A global goal: a vaccine that saves people
• Pixel art and a cold atmosphere beneath the ice