Meltwater After the Great Thaw

A colony strategy game · In development

The frontier is open

A new world.
A life to build.

Meltwater is a single-player, turn-based colony strategy game set in an Arctic world after the great thaw. Explore the coast, establish a settlement and make a living from the land and sea.

Turn-basedColony strategySingle-player
Open the field notes

From the captain's journal

Field notes

Open a note to explore the game, its mechanics and the art direction.

The game · Alpha 1

01Find a place to begin

Take an expedition into an unfamiliar world. Explore by ship, read the coastline and choose where to make landfall. The game is built around a colony-first loop: reaching a new shore is only the start of the work.

Alpha 1 · Exploration and landfall

02Turn a settlement into an economy

Build up a colony through production, food management, construction and storage. Assign people to work, move goods where they are needed, and balance what the settlement consumes against what it can produce.

Alpha 1 · Colony economy

03Carry your trade by sea

Load and move cargo manually between colony and ship, then trade through the external market. The current game is an economic sandbox: market prices are fixed, not a simulated rival economy.

Alpha 1 · Shipping and trade

04Meet the other powers

Alpha 1 includes four factions and a limited AI presence. Its behaviour is deliberately modest: the AI freezes after founding one colony. This is not yet a contest against a full rival economy.

Alpha 1 · Four factions · Limited AI

05Choose how far to take the design

The v0.2.0 overhaul explored an eight-tile workforce, linked production, food-driven population and a fixed-price market. That overhaul was deferred before release. These are design notes, not promises about the current Alpha 1 build.

Design study · v0.2.0 deferred

The art · Design studies

ATitle screen · A northern harbour
Meltwater title-screen design concept showing an Arctic harbour and framed menu
Owner-approved title-screen concept. Design reference, not a screenshot of the current game.

v0.2.0 art study · Title and main menu

BA colony taking shape
Meltwater growing-colony loading-screen design concept
Growing-colony scene concept. It illustrates the intended atmosphere; it is not current gameplay footage.

v0.2.0 art study · Loading scene

CLand, water and settlement studies
Meltwater terrain and map asset review sheet with square tiles and overlays
Terrain review sheet: square ground tiles, coast edges and overlays. Review art, not final runtime tiles.
Meltwater colony settlement and work-grid concept sheet
Settlement and colony-workspace design sheet. A concept reference, not a captured game screen.

v0.2.0 art studies · Terrain and settlements

DParchment, sea-blue and brass
Meltwater shared interface design sheet with brass-edged sea-blue panels and parchment
Shared-UI style study: framed sea-blue panels, parchment surfaces and brass details. Concept sheet, not the installed interface.

v0.2.0 art study · Shared interface

A work in progress

The expedition is underway.

Meltwater Alpha 1 is an accepted source milestone, not a packaged public release. There is no Windows or Steam download yet. The v0.2.0 overhaul shown in these design notes was deferred; its art and mechanics are not integrated into Alpha 1.