Main menu: illustrated hex tiles in two staggered, scrolling rows

About this game

Developer: Haemimont Games · Publisher: Paradox Interactive · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Stylized 3D · Screen type: Settings / System

More Surviving Mars screens in the Gallery

What to study

Surviving Mars's front door is a filmstrip, not a list. Nine modes are painted hex tiles in two staggered rows, labels alternating above and below so the artwork never has text laid over it, and the strip runs off both edges of the screen, the menu admits it is wider than the display and invites a scroll rather than shrinking to fit. The hex is not decoration for its own sake: it is the game's building-grid shape, so the first screen teaches the geometry the colony will be built from, and the same tile returns as the building picker in play. Nothing else competes, no logo lockup, no news panel, no version string; Mars at sunrise fills the rest of the frame. Frame at about 0:11 in Beyond Surviving Mars (Steam).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

card-row overlay-menu

Components

Parts on screen.

Menu Button prompts

Screen inventory

• the menu is a horizontal carousel of illustrated hexagonal tiles in two staggered rows, wider than the screen: both edges cut tiles mid-picture, so the strip plainly scrolls
• top-row labels sit above their tiles, TUTORIAL, CREATIVE MODE, LOAD GAME, MOD EDITOR, and a fifth cut off at the right edge as 'PARADOX A…'; bottom-row labels sit below theirs, NEW GAME, CHALLENGE MODE, MOD MANAGER, OPTIONS
• every tile carries a small painting instead of an icon: a helmet visor reflecting the colony for NEW GAME, a colonist's back for CREATIVE MODE, a domed colony for LOAD GAME, a robotic arm for OPTIONS
• the strip rides on a dark honeycomb-textured band across the lower third, over a backdrop of Mars seen from orbit at sunrise, no logo, version text or button prompts anywhere

Top 3 colors

#080708 26%#351714 22%#a26033 15%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Haemimont Games / Paradox Interactive, Surviving Mars screenshot: Beyond Surviving Mars (Steam), Paradox Interactive, shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Paradox Interactive.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-25. verified 2026-10-25: scene-change extraction candidates/v1_0010.png @ 11.0s in Beyond Surviving Mars, MD5 782874336c8cfb85d84954dfb588de7c, from the Steam HLS download (20,683,716 B, MD5 0de047394d386c08e78d76b978aa5163; full decode to filmstrip exit 0, zero error lines), inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080 native); the labels TUTORIAL / CREATIVE MODE / LOAD GAME / MOD EDITOR and NEW GAME / CHALLENGE MODE / MOD MANAGER / OPTIONS all legible, the rightmost tile's label cut off as 'PARADOX A…' by the frame edge, and only a faint remnant of the trailer section header at top centre

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-25); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.