Mac
- A Mac with an Apple chip (M1 or later). Intel Macs cannot run it.
- macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer.
- About 4 GB of free disk space.
Sign in with your Terraformation Google account to download.
Signed in.
Windows PC
- A PC with 64-bit Windows 10 or 11.
- A graphics card that supports DirectX 11 or newer.
- About 5 GB of free disk space.
The Windows version of this build is not out yet. Check again later.
Sign in with your Terraformation Google account to download.
Signed in.
iPhone
Send your Apple ID email to Yishan on Slack or by email.
Android phone
Send the Google account email on your phone to Yishan on Slack or by email.
iPad
Send your Apple ID email to Yishan on Slack or by email.
Android tablet
Send the Google account email on your tablet to Yishan on Slack or by email.
Terraformation: The Game
A restoration game set at real Terraformation project sites in Hawaiʻi. Explore the globe, plant native species, build fences against goats, collect seeds, and manage a seed bank.
This is the internal development build for Mac and Windows. It changes often and can have bugs.
The phone and tablet versions are not out yet. When they are, we invite everyone who sent their email.
Loading the build details…
Install and play
Install
- Click Download for Mac in the Mac box above.
- Open your Downloads folder. If you see the zip file, double-click it to unzip it. You now have a folder named Terraformation-Dev.
- Open the Terminal app (in Applications › Utilities). Paste this line, then press Return:
The game is an internal build that Apple has not checked. This command tells macOS that you trust it. Without it, macOS says the app “can’t be opened” or “is damaged”. Run it once for each new download.
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/Terraformation-Dev - Optional: drag the Terraformation-Dev folder into your Applications folder.
Play
Double-click Terraformation in the Terraformation-Dev folder. The game opens after a few seconds. It runs its own small world server in the background. The server will stop whenever you quit the game.
Your saved world
We save your world in ~/Library/Application Support/Terraformation Dev.
To start over, quit the game and move the folder to the Trash.
To open that folder in Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder…, then paste
~/Library/Application Support/Terraformation Dev.
Update
- Quit the game.
- Download and unzip the new build, as in steps 1 to 3 above.
- Replace your old Terraformation-Dev folder with the new one.
World data is stored elsewhere, so it will persist across updates.
Install
- Click Download for Windows in the Windows box above.
- Open your Downloads folder. Right-click Terraformation-Windows.zip, choose Properties, tick Unblock at the bottom, and choose OK. Then Windows does not ask about each part of the game.
- Right-click the zip again, choose Extract All, and extract it to a folder of your choice, for example your Documents folder.
Play
Open the folder you extracted, then the Terraformation-Windows folder in it, and double-click Terraformation (Terraformation.exe). A small window says that Terraformation is starting while the world loads; the first start after an update can take a minute. It runs its own small world server in the background. The server will stop whenever you quit the game.
If Windows says “Windows protected your PC”, choose More info, then Run anyway. Terraformation is signed by its publisher, Yishan Wong, but Windows shows this for new programs until enough PCs have run them. If a security warning asks whether to run the file, choose Run.
Your saved world
We save your world in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Terraformation Dev. To open that folder, press
Windows+R, paste the path, and press Enter. To start over, quit the game and delete the
world folder there.
Update
- Quit the game.
- Download, unblock and extract the new build, as in steps 1 to 3 above, into a new folder.
- Delete the old folder.
World data is stored elsewhere, so it will persist across updates.
If something goes wrong
- “Can’t be opened” or “is damaged”: run the Terminal command in step 3 again, for the folder where the game is.
- The game doesn’t open, or a dialog says the world server didn’t start: quit the game if it is open, then open Terraformation again. It clears away a server left over from an earlier launch.
- It still doesn’t start: a stray world server may still be running. To stop it:
- Quit Terraformation.
- Open Activity Monitor (in Applications › Utilities).
- Type
nodein the search box at the top right. - Double-click each
noderow and open the Open Files and Ports tab. The game’s server showsTerraformationin its file paths. - Select that row, click the Stop button (✕) in the toolbar, then click Force Quit.
- Open Terraformation again.
- Other problems: the logs are in
~/Library/Logs/Terraformation Dev. Send them to the project lead. To open that folder in Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder…, then paste the path.
If something goes wrong
- The game doesn’t open, or a message says the world server didn’t start: quit the game if it is open, then open Terraformation again. It waits for a server left over from an earlier launch, then stops it.
- A message says that running scripts is disabled: your PC’s administrator has blocked PowerShell scripts. Ask them to allow this one, or tell the project lead.
- Other problems: the logs are in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Terraformation Dev\Logs. Send them to the project lead.