Aground Zero started with a simple idea: What if I made a 3D spinoff of Aground focusing on base building and automation? I teased this idea with an April Fool’s joke that turned out to be very real:
Now, four years later, we’ve shared another April Fool’s joke and Aground Zero is finally released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3rN1CkJEcI
Imagine you wake up underground having missed the Apocalypse. At first, it takes all your energy just to survive, but after setting up a semi-automated base and waking up other survivors to help you operate machinery, you can focus your attention on returning to the surface and learning more about what happened to Earth while you were sleeping. The story has several revelations and takes place during the events of the original Aground game, but you do not need to have played Aground to enjoy Aground Zero.
As you unlock and upgrade new technologies and improve your base, you’ll be able to take on projects like returning to space, finding survivors across the galaxy and even confronting the threat that destroyed Earth in the first place. And if that wasn’t cool enough, you can even learn the secrets of magic and ride your own dragon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZBzHsZscfo
We entered Early Access a little over a year ago, after finishing the core gameplay concept (base building and reaching the surface). During that year, we added a ton of content and features, including:

• Multiplayer (couch, local and online)
  
• 2 story endings
  
• Spaceships! 2 types to build, customize and fly
  
• Dragons! Raise, evolve and fly them
  
• Magic path - spellbooks, magic lab and more
  
• Science path - auto-builder, fleet battle, and more
  
• The Shattered Moon - moon base anyone?
  
• Space stations & new planets to visit, explore, and build on

You can see a bunch of these features and updates highlighted in this video playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcopWutJE4txCWk3PwS_MPsFZLp6patQe
Obviously I think it's a great buy, especially if you enjoy colony simulation, automation and base building type games. There's lots of areas to explore, secrets to find, and ample opportunity to flex your creativity. It's also really fun to play multiplayer with family or friends.
If you’re undecided, try the free Demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2255750/Aground_Zero_Demo/
The demo has about an hour of content and includes a lot of the underground base building elements - including waking up and managing survivors.
Maybe! I’ve finished what I wanted to do story-wise, and I’m not currently planning any major content updates, but feel free to make suggestions on our discord!

[discord.gg]We’ve made a lot of improvements and taken a lot of fan suggestions while in Early Access, and we’re always willing to hear you out!

This update includes a Russian translation, improves text overflow and issues with other translations, and adds concrete and asphalt ramps (you unlock them with the ramp blueprint).

With the full launch date around the corner, we're releasing version 1.0! This includes 5 new languages: Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Simplified Chinese. We also made some last minute improvements:

• Added Large O2 Generator - get it from the vending machine
  
• Added clean road paints (no cracks), they unlock when you get the Surface Paint Blueprint
  
• Lowered resources need to build a colony spaceship
  
• Reduced time to mine chromium
  
• Increased NPC leveling speed
  
• Added support for multiple languages, including using , or . as a decimal separator.

We've also been uploading a video every Tuesday, and today's is pretty special:
I know a lot of you are always struggling to have enough workers for all your mining rigs, so I decided it would be best if everyone works! While this addition was mostly for fun, I uploaded it as a mod if you want to try it out:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3455858716

In case you missed them, here were the previous two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGgIaah1FHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3wvMamn68

I hope everyone's excited for the full launch on Friday! This was a large project, taking 4 years to make (if you can believe it, it took even longer than the original Aground). But, I think it came out really fun and special, and I hope you'll give it a try!

After a successful year in Steam Early Access, tons of community driven updates, and a host of new features (including multiplayer), new areas and new content, Aground Zero is ready for players to get the full experience! We'll be leaving Early Access in one month - on April 4th 2025, and to celebrate we've made a new launch trailer:
We've also been making a video every week showcasing a different part of Aground Zero, and will continue to do so until our launch. Check our Youtube Channel for them all, and here's last week's video:
We've also localizing the game into 6 languages: French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish. All of the localizations should be ready by the launch date.

Finally, the minor update today was mainly for language support, fixing a bug with font loading. It also fixed a bug with the auto-builder not completing quests.

I hope you're looking forward to the full launch, and keep an eye on our Youtube Channel as we'll be continuing to post weekly videos this month!

This is another small update with some bugfixes and minor improvements.

Changelog:

• Added Large Generator (get blueprint from the printer after unlocking the interstellar drive)
  
• Changed icons for com device, locator, mass miner
  
• Edges of the map will show a red forcefield when you hit them (so you know you can't go through them)
  
• Fixed block of flood next to glass bug
  
• Fixed memory leak
  
• Fixed issue where you could ride dragon through teleportal into a vehicle

I'm also planning on doing a video each week from now until our launch April 4th, showcasing different parts of the game I think are interesting. This week's video is about the Mass Miner:
My kid really likes playing around with this and mining huge chunks of the world, and it makes it easy to manipulate and create large bases.

There's nothing exciting here, but I did fix a bug that greatly increases performance if your world has a large number of items laying on the ground.

Changelog:

• Optimized for areas with large numbers of items
  
• Added option to disable warnings on structures
  
• Added warning when get the dishonored one quest that it locks the science path ending (if you haven't already done so)

The Magic Path ending is here, and it includes the only planned boss battle in Aground Zero! I hope you bring lots of burgers!

The Dishonored One was one of the more disappointing boss fights in the original Aground. He was from the race of original magic users (who taught the enemy everything they knew), and after a big setup, the fight itself was pretty easy. So, for Aground Zero's magic path, I wanted to give him another chance!

You can complete the Magic Path ending after the Science Path one, but not the other way around. However, the dialogue and feel of the ending changes if you complete the Magic Path ending first.

This is the last major planned content update (although we'll continue to make bugfix and quality of life updates), which is really exciting. We also set a date for our full launch:


I hope you're all looking forward to that! We'll be translating the game into other languages, and working on the console port (which will, unfortunately, not be ready by April 4th), so there's a lot to come.

Changelog (Update 0.4.8):

• Added Magic Path ending
  
• You can now land on Seuden 999b
  
• Added achievements
  
• Mass Miners can now be upgraded to use less power per block
  
• Changed bedrock between layers on Earth to a mineable (but hard) material. This does allow you to flood your base, or let Wyrms fall into it, but hopefully by the time you unlock enough mine power, you know what you're doing.
  
• When placing lots of forcefields/glass, it'll refill the selected stack with other stacks in your inventory (if available).
  
• Added option to disable to prompt asking if you want to dismantle structures
  
• Added power to CaptAIn's Colony after upgrading the teleportal (so it doesn't run out)
  
• Increased pause menu open speed

While I'm still waiting for the assets needed for the final ending, I thought it was a good time to do some quality of life updates. Some of these are quite nice, including an overpriced, but super powerful mass miner tool!

Changelog:

• Added Mass Miner tool - buy in the vending machine for an outrageous amount (it's worth it).
  
• Added Bank structure (can sell items sent to it, and allows you to transfer credits between players).
  
• Added Block of Flood (craft in Magic Lab, endlessly floods water)
  
• Added Com Bot side quest on CaptAIn's Station
  
• Added achievements
  
• Can now revive Bats from meat, and Wyrms from dragonblood
  
• Allowed crafting of nutrient bars before assembler quest
  
• Increased gold ore generated around starting area for new games
  
• Fixed auto builder bug

At this point, I think I'm going to start work on the final ending with placeholders, and I hope to have that done sometime next month (hopefully with the final models done then too)!

Right now, I'm waiting for the final assets needed for the second ending - I'm hoping they will be done soon. But in the meantime, there's still bugfixes, minor improvements and quality of life changes to add!

Changelog:

• Added skip tutorial quests option (for those starting lots of new games)
  
• PAI will now give the interstellar drive quest if the peacemaker has left and you still haven't gotten it
  
• Added limit of 100 ships dispatched into Seuden Orbit
  
• Stacks of boring machine blueprints now unlock the correct amount.
  
• You can now buy boring machine blueprints in the vending machine if you missed them in the subways.
  
• Labelled the feed slot so it's more clear.
  
• Auto builders wont both try to build the same blueprint anymore (this caused both of them to request ingredients for the blueprint, and ended up with some resources left unused in the auto builder).
  
• Transmutation now clears water from blocks (so no accidental infinite water spawners are made).
  
• Turrets now heal slowly over time when powered - so they don't slowly lose health in battle until they die (they can theoretically win a battle and heal before the next one).
  
• Incinerators will no longer accept items from belts with priority none (it wouldn't request them, but could still destroy items if they were forced that way).
  
• Enemies now die if they fall off the edge of the world.
  
• When setting priority/accepted food, it now shows all craftable and seen items, not just seen items (as you might want to set priority of items you are going to craft, or have never been in your inventory or storehouse).

I'm still hoping for an early 2025 release, but I want to finish the second ending and get started on translations/publishing tasks before setting a firm launch date.