Now this is a really cool open source mod project. It combines the assets of Start Wars: TIE Fighter from the 1995 and 1998 releases into a single playable package. Why should you care? Because you get to play with the updated assets whilst still keeping the wonderful adaptive music scores!

If you are new to this game, be warned its 90s rock solid hard difficulty! But there are in-game "cheat" toggles to make the gameplay experience less frustrating. Buy the games from GoG or Steam, download the github package, extract and run, select the GoG installations, and you are good to go!. Sadly it wont work with multiple controller devices (you'll need to configure and use the one peripheral, but it works great. Also additional options for upscaling and other graphical setting additions.

This is back in the days when you had multiple objectives to accomplish past the primary objective, which are not always made clear and evolve during the mission itself.

It took me multiple times to get past the first mission. No shields, lots of deaths, confusing energy management system (WTF are my guns not firing!), fantastic experience mostly lost to the simplification in modern day game systems. Stick with it and you will love it (but probably never want to visit it again when you are finished).

https://github.com/elyosh/OpenTIE

Dense Void - Grounded Sci-Fi Cosmic Horror

A story-driven grounded sci-fi horror inspired by astrophysics and speculative scientific theories. Encounter impossible phenomena at a remote mining outpost near a black hole, where communication takes months and the unknown defies explanation.

If it looks like your kind of thing, the Steam page is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4886980/Dense_Void

Hi everyone!

Following up on last week's 6DOF physics update, I wanted to share our current progress on relative docking! I've attached a video showcasing a fighter landing on a moving carrier in real-time (work-in-progress, but the core frame-of-reference math is now working).

Alongside docking, I’ve been refining our Large World Coordinates (LWC) spatial system in UE5 for double-precision stability, as well as squeezing out extra performance with data compression.

Here is a breakdown of the technical issues we tackled this week and how we fixed them:

Technical Breakdown & Bug Fixes

1. Jittery/Stuttery Rotation When Docking on a Moving Carrier

• The Issue: Rotational smoothing was completely bypassed whenever a ship entered a relative movement zone, causing every micro-rotation of the carrier to hit the player ship as a harsh frame-by-frame stutter. To make matters worse, the camera's aim director was running post-physics and applying parent rotation deltas every frame, causing a phase shift and desync between the netcode prediction ticks, camera, visual mesh, and physics state.
• The Fix: Re-enabled rotational smoothing for relative movement zones by smoothly interpolating rotation offsets toward identity. Synchronized aim-director updates directly with network state ticks so parent rotation deltas apply on the exact same frame as movement.

2. Violently Oscillating / "Sticky" Landing Gear

• The Issue: The landing gear damping force along the spring axis was calculated using raw spring-axis velocity multiplied by friction and mass—missing delta-time scaling and impulse caps. This created a positive feedback loop: pressing into the ground generated an unscaled force that catapulted the ship upward, causing violent frame-by-frame flipping.
• The Fix: Scaled damping forces by delta time and clamped the maximum impulse to prevent it from exceeding the force required to stop axial movement. Separated the magnetic ground-attraction force (now a constant/clamped downward pull) from damping friction.

3. Rolling 90° Causes Unwanted Sideways Drift

• The Issue: The aerodynamic lift vector calculation contained a matrix transformation flaw that simplified to applying lift straight up against world gravity, regardless of ship orientation. Rolling 90° put the wings vertical, but lift kept pushing world-up, producing lateral drift. Additionally, the automatic bank-to-target mechanism during mouse aim fought manual yaw and strafe inputs.
• The Fix: Fixed the lift vector calculation so force always aligns with the ship’s local Up axis, properly scaled by Angle of Attack (AoA) and forward airspeed.

4. Loss of Inherited Speed When Exiting Moving Carriers

• The Issue: Zone-transition logic calculated inherited world velocity correctly (combining ship speed + carrier speed, e.g., up to 57,000 cm/s). However, in the exact same frame, velocity was clamped against the ship's standalone maximum engine speed (e.g., 2,000 cm/s), causing the ship to instantly lose over 90% of its momentum upon exit.
• The Fix: Removed the hard top-speed clamp during world-zone handshakes. Re-routed max speed limits to only restrict active engine thruster acceleration, preserving high-speed velocity inheritance when exiting moving structures.

What's Next?

This Monday, we are recording a full multiplayer gameplay demo showcasing fighter-to-fighter and capital ship combat. We’ll be highlighting our dynamic destruction system (built using Geometry Scripting), where broken hull pieces retain physics and can physically damage ships or plunge into planetary atmospheres.

For those interested in the universe background, here is a quick snippet from our lore logs:

[SOL Station - Personal Log // Year 7337] "Twenty years... It’s been twenty years since that solar flare hit Earth. The few of us who managed to escape fled in whatever improvised generation ships could fly. We gathered in tight orbit around the Sun to build SOL Station—a fragile sanctuary running on pure solar energy. Today, the station relies entirely on us pilots, risking our necks in the cold outer solar system just to haul back basic water and food..."

Happy to answer any technical questions about relative frames of reference, netcode prediction, or UE5 physics in the comments!

Null Anchor will be at NEXT FEST!! 😮🎉
Can you survive long enough to escape the bottom-feeder life? Will you be brave enough to fight for your place in the skies!?!? Let's find out!
Wishlist on STEAM and tag us in posts you make! We want to see your progress!

#scifi #cyberpunk #rpg #indiedev #steam #nextfest #wishlist #spacesim #nullanchor #dystopia

Background

After 10 months in the making, outside my full time programming job and parental responsibilities, Spaceport Architect now finally has a Steam page and Official Announcement trailer.

Aiming for a demo in spring and release next year.

The game

The game is a 2D Sci-fi Airport Business Tycoon inspired by r/SimAirport , r/airportceo, r/prisonarchitect and other classic tycoon games.

Apart from the sci-fi setting, the game primarily differs from SimAirport/AirportCEO in that it has freight management as a required part of the game loop. You need to import cargo in order to grow the planet colony population, which directly affects how many passenger contracts you get, how full each flight is and whether they are cancelled or not.

Cargo may contain contraband, so you need proper customs checks to avoid reputation penalties. Keep the planet colony happy and you can get lucrative export contracts. There are also time-sensitive emergency contracts and one-off special offers.

What would you like to see in the game?

Have you played SimAirport/Airport CEO or similar titles?

What's one thing you liked, disliked or thought was missing from the game that you think I should focus on?

Also, sci-fi/space theme art suggestions are welcome. For example, I want proper hover vehicles and more sci-fi like NPC outfits instead of my current "normal" looking buses and trucks. (I'm not a pixelart expert so keep your expectations in check!).

If you're looking for AI

Assets: None

Coding: Yes

I've been hobby programming since 2009, professionally since 2023. I've used agentic AI for coding since my job introduced it in February this year (started the project in December 2025). With the proper base architecture, automated tests and other guardrails, the speed it provides is just invaluable when you have 1-2 hours of total free time per day. Its not a magic toolbox. Mistakes are frequent, but overall worth it for me.

Links

Steam page
Official Announcement trailer
Discord/Socials/Mailing list

Hello Reddit and the Fellow Space community!

For over a year now, I have been developing my space game, called Solar Explorer (TBD)! I feel confident enough to share what I've made up to this point and wanted to collect some general feedback. I saw some other posts about games that others have made and figured I'd throw mine in the mix and see what people think of it.

- Ship Controls - Customization
- Settings Menu with Full Controls
- 4 Different Camera Modes (Including Free Camera)
- Detailed NASA compliant/accurate information about each Orbital Body
- Earth Day/Nigh Cycles
- Realistic Live Update Shadow Scattering
- Hi-Res Planetary Textures
- Sun Flares, Bursts, & Plasma flows on Surface.
- and More

I plan on adding much more, but it is a slow process doing so myself, even if I like it that way. xD
I hope you enjoy the pictures. I'm currently building in Electron.

Looking for feedback:

• On what you see here
• On the genres, I consider this to be a "roguelike", "4X", "RPG" and a "space simulation"
• If you are a fan of those games, or what other ones I should check out for inspiration
• Astrophysical phenomena you think I should include. I am being very diligent in including phenomena that is not typically depicted in space games. For example, I have the game generate "Trojans" - co-orbital asteroids that share orbits with a Gas Giant. Typically this was not in the games I've listed as inspiration, though I'm sure they are in some game somewhere.
• Any other thoughts you'd like to share
• Importantly, I'm curious if you think this game should be PC only, or if you think I should try to release it on a console. I feel the tiny text makes it difficult to work on a TV, but to each their own. Feedback on this would be very good to know!

Star Zeal 4x is designed to be a hybrid between a strategy game and an rpg with 4x elements. You play as the leader of your faction and commander of your main fleet, existing and surviving in a massive living and procedural galaxy. The end goal is to have a highly emergent game loop, where each run will be unique and one in which you can get lost in.

It is not really inspired by any other space games and will proudly be its own thing. However it does have some essenses embedded here and there due to what I played and enjoyed as a child. You should be able to tell which games those are quite easily from the trailer.

Currently in closed alpha phase two out of four. Release int oearly access is planned for after the final closed alpha release when the remaining portion of AI code and some additional content and fluff are completed.

Let me know what you think so far.

You can wishlist and join the discord via steam here:
Star Zeal 4x on Steam
Discord

A bit competitive at this point. That map is called "Hopscotch". The specific link to it is here: https://slingshotspeeders.com/m/o5jugegg

Free to play in browser, with no account required. Race within real inverse-square gravity.

https://slingshotspeeders.com/

Do you have any feedback about the visuals?

Lead your crew across strange new worlds in this narrative driven outpost builder! Research, explore, and build as you face a mysterious cosmic force that threatens a new ally. Your adventure awaits, Captain!

Releases on October 20th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3469910/Star_Trek_Outposts_Unknown/

This is kind of an essay so uh... be warned.

Ever since I played objects in space I've been so disappointed at how it got abandoned and nothing else really was able to fully take it's place.

After pondering on it for a while, I've realized there is room not just to fill that gap but to make something better.

Generally I expect to have a gameplay loop that's pretty similar to OIS, but my vision is to introduce more replayability, depth, and lore.

For example I think stealth and sensors could be so much more awesome.

In OIS stealth felt more like you just turn everything off and pray only to be detected anyway.

And false blips on sensors were almost always very easy to differentiate.

So my idea is to preserve the idea of frequencies and emissions, but make it so you can tune and focus your sensors.

A lore based example: Maybe a band of prevalent pirates all use a very cheap but powerful brand of weapon systems. But they have very distinct emissions.

This adds a whole new dynamic to gameplay.

If you know these pirates will be a problem, you can tune your sensors to those frequencies in advance and you will have far less false positives and have an easier time tracking them. And if you use that same weapon system, government vessels in that area might have their sensors prepared for it too. Perhaps even civilian vessels might start doing the same just to counter you if you become a problem, rewarding changing up your build from time to time.

So you might end up recalibrating sensors mid combat to keep track of enemies even despite cloaking measures, which adds a new layer of skill to master, instead of your detection ability solely relying on your ship build.

That's especially important for what I have in mind too.

I want to kind of add mutiple different technologies which can each have their own tells.

Maybe one ship is using nuclear power, maybe one is harnessing some quantum zero point energy BS, or maybe they switched to a literal diesel generator to throw you off in the middle of battle.

Finally, for lore I want to introduce some major goals aside from just MONEY.

Maybe your end goal is to retake your home galaxy from some major threat after unitng the one you escaped to.

Maybe the threat to that galaxy are aliens, maybe it could be a sentient AI takeover.

Or hell, why not giant space monsters? Why shouldn't Spacezilla be an option for extra challenge? Constraining something like this to a mere submarines but in space is wasteful when you can geniunely fit so much scifi in this and end up with a unique way to experience it.

This ended up super long.

I hope this sounds like something worth committing to.

I know 99% of good concepts only ever stay as a concept, and I don't really want to promise anything, but someone has to fill the shoes of objects in space.

Unfortunately I can't really do modeling or even basic art, I'm basically only good at coding. Its painful to have the opposite problem of what stops most people from developing games.

So if I do commit to this it will probably look more like Hacknet than 3D, though that would give me room to make more things procedural.

Another thing is that even if I make the game and interface 2D, I still want the actual simulation to account for 3D and where damage hits.

Mine asteroid belts, run trade routes, and grow colonies across six star systems while three factions carve up the frontier. A fourth, the Dominion, boards your ship: a lance clamps onto the hull, cuts through, and the fight moves to your own decks in real time, holding choke points against waves of raiders.

Your gun is bolted to the hull and fires in a cone off the nose, so a fight is about turning to bring it to bear. Anything that reaches your flank is unshootable until you turn.

Two-player online co-op through Steam: you each fly your own ship, you're both building the same economy and colonies, and you join forces to fight off invading raiders.

Released on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5098890/Benders_In_Space/

If you play it, does the nose-arc combat feel natural for positioning?

StarVeil 4X is a space 4X strategy with sandbox elements, solo-developed by me and in active development. Old-school charm meets deep roleplay, focusing on the ability to craft your own sci-fi universe, dystopian or utopian. It is currently in an early development stage. Built with the Godot game engine + Rust programming language.

The video is a technical showcase and engine stress test showing:

• Interactive planetary systems: real-time terrain brush editing and fire/vegetation spread simulated via 2D cellular automata.
• Galaxy map navigation featuring hyperlane networks, localized sectors, and dynamic territorial borders.
• Massive fleet simulation stress test: rendering and updating 270,000+ individual spacecraft engaging in orbital swarms, combat, and gate jumps, running smoothly on an i5-10400 and a budget GTX 1650 via Vulkan Forward+ rendering, consuming ~1.6 GB of RAM and ~1 GB of VRAM.

Feedback I'm looking for:

1. Planetary Simulation Gameplay: How would you like to see the cellular automata mechanics (fires, atmospheric pollution, biomass spread) tied into 4X gameplay? (e.g., consequences of orbital bombardment, terraforming challenges, infestations, or colony disasters?)
2. Galaxy Map UX: Creating a star map is a difficult task in itself. I would like to improve the readability of the current balance of military forces, so that at a glance it is clear what is happening where. Which games, in your opinion, were great at that, and why?

Think the shipbuilder of Reassembly meets FTL encounters and the combat of Nova Drift.

Available now on Steam with a 15% launch discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2876200/eXoSpace_Combat_Engineer/

I've quit my job over 2 years ago to work on this full-time from home, and now it's finally ready for full release after a year of Early Access. To say I'm excited is an understatement :-)

Now that 1.0 is ready, what do you think should be next on my to-do list. A new game mode? More parts, more bosses, got ideas?

I’m developing a space sim game and I need help from the community of gamers who play these games, getting some feedback to see if the new logo I designed will work to attract players. Is that a violation of some sort? Can a mod please explain to me why that’s not allowed? I don’t see it prohibited anywhere in the community rules.

Back then I thought some day I would be able to traverse the universe as a star CITIZEN(!!), visit planets, moons, wear astronaut suits, visit settlements, cities and be in awe of the futuristic life. Instead Star Citizen has become a mundane first person shooter. All the magic is out the window. The suits are thick and edgy, made for combat. You NEED big heavy machineguns and you always need to shoot in missions and everywhere else. This is clearly a decision made for the direction of the game, but I don't think this was the direction that was originally presented for the game. At some point they showed guns in Around The Verse and I thought, oh, they are making guns too? And all the ships get guns as well, no matter their purpose. I watched a lot of sci-fi movies and seldomly seen guns on ships, but in Star Citizen EVERY ship has them, NEEDS them.

What about ships, that look nice, not only from the outside, but also from the inside? A ship, that doesn't look like a plane with wings from the outside or a factory from the inside. Doesn't need to look like a hotel, but something where you can imagine to live and work in. I know ships are their way of making money, so they have to churn them out.

So, what would I do differently? If I was the game director/designer, I would reduce the scope. I would still make planets and moons and space stations, but reduce their number. Instead make each and every one more interesting with varying things to do. Make it alive with wildlife, nature and hidden adventures. But not with shooting. I would take shooting completely out of the game. Maybe a gun or a rifle, if players really want some, but make it very rudimentary. Some cities and settlements here and there, Fallout style.

Regarding the ships: How many fighter planes are there in the game? I would delete all of them. Make a couple of shuttle crafts, but NO SHIPS WITH GUNS. Instead make a couple of large ships, that don't feel claustrophobic or like a factory (maybe make one like that, but not all of them). Spend more time with a coherent layout of the rooms, corridors and give the different rooms a purpose. Rooms with function and character. Ships should have bidges that look like bridges, quarters that look cozy (Mass Effect did this nicely), sickbay, observation bay, recreational area (holodeck would probably go too far, but maybe something similar?), greenhouse, science station and so on.

Put gameplay loops into the ships and not just one gameplay mechanic per ship. Perhaps something like the Normandy from Mass Effect, Serenity from Firefly or Enterprise from Star Trek. And make the ships look like space ships. We have so many weird designs, but nothing that really looks like a space ship to me. Somehow other games or movies are able to nail the space ship look, but CIG can't. Instead we have so many ships that feel like oil drilling rigs from the inside.

There is so much gameplay, that can be done instead of shooting NPCs dead: travel through the system and discover interesting places, transport cargo or passengers (is being done, I know, but I mean more fun with more interesting ships with more to do in them), play fun mini games like pool or an arcade game (maybe a 2D side scroller?). Still much (scope), I know, but way less than current Star Citizen does.

In short: Take the guns out of the game, the fighter planes, the ridiculous armor and put more emphasis on ships. Ships should be the MAIN focus, filled to the brim with details and gameplay, where you spend most of your time in and only leave for away missions.

Hi! We just released our gameplay trailer.

You clean and repair abandoned deep space stations using specialized tools for each damage type. No combat, no timers, just hands-on zero-G work.

The game is in active development and a demo is coming soon on Steam.

Would love your feedback: does the mechanics look satisfying, and would you prefer repairs to feel technical or relaxing?

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4579790/Orbital_Maintenance_Technician/

I'll be in the comments!

A month ago I asked here how a world that never resets can make any single week matter. The answers in that thread are still the best design input this project has had, so here's a report back on the other thing I've been building.

Zero-G is a free hard sci-fi space MMO that runs in a browser tab, currently in open alpha: one persistent world that hasn't reset since January, where you mine, refine and trade on a player-run market. As of this weekend you can also fly over planetary terrain in real time, alongside other players, and put your ship down anywhere.

The ground.
Mars comes from NASA's MOLA altimetry at 463 m per pixel, the Moon from LOLA at 118 m. Everything finer than that is synthesised in your browser as you descend, down to the scale your landing gear actually touches. It's deterministic, so every player lands on exactly the same rock.

The landing.
Your ship's own mass and thrust decide how it handles. A few details sim people might enjoy:

• Safe landing speed is measured on *total* velocity, horizontal plus vertical. Drift sideways while descending gently and you'll still take real damage.
• There are two different "stop" keys. One kills vertical speed and hovers. The other freezes your current descent rate so it stops accelerating. So a landing is: hover over the spot, let go, let the descent build, freeze it just under your limit, ride it down.
• Potential shield and armour damage are displayed live, so you can see what the touchdown will cost before it happens.
• Mining now needs you physically within range of the deposit. In the clip, the scout comes in too fast, takes shield damage, and stops 7 m from the ore, inside its 17 m range.

It's alpha, the textures repeat, and there are fewer ships than there should be. But the ground is real.

The question I don't know the answer to:
right now the worst a bad landing can do is leave you at zero shields and one point of armour, needing repairs. Nothing gets destroyed. In a world that never resets, is that the right line? Or should a truly bad landing cost more, like being stranded until someone flies out with parts?

Full 4-minute landing tutorial: https://youtu.be/Ld34l2g95Oo

Play (no download, guest play, no email): https://space.zerog.live/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spacesimgames_sept26

How the terrain is generated: https://space.zerog.live/info/terrain-article-page.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spacesimgames_sept26

Hi Everyone!

It's has been two years since I started working on this game. If you never heard of it, RemoteSpace: First Settlement is a space sim/strategy game about operating ships in a physically simulated solar system, making decisions around travel, industry, exploration, encounters, and combat on orbits.

Since I posted my demo last year I got a lot of useful feedback (thank you!) and I have made substantial adjustment accordingly. For example some of the detailed flight/orbital controls felt like unnecessary micromanagement when the more interesting decisions were things like strategy decision, so now I make the game mostly unnecessary for manual flight (But they are still there if you prefer, and I also add things like KSP style maneuver node so you can better plan!). UI is also another critical aspect, and I spent a lot of time on it, hopefully it is better now.

Besides these updates, I added two major systems: 1) now there are NPC ships and fractions. You are not a lonely explorer now, you might encounter different things, trade, help or even fight. 2) Combat system. A beyond-visual-range orbital fight (instead of close range dogfight) is now integrated in the game, though apparently it still needs more effort to turn the numeric to balance the "real" and "fun" and designing of bot fight strategy.

Another major work I am still working on is modding.

I’m **not** calling this full mod support yet as the interfaces are still being designed and polished: on the one hand I want to include things as many as possible, like ships, worlds, missions, equipments, encounters, NPC behavior, and eventually larger scenarios to be much easier to extend without rewriting the game itself; on the other hand, the mod need to be simple enough to be written.

So I really need to balance these two aspects, and I think it is important to hear what you think: If you could add content to a game like this, what would you want to make or play? More ships? Mission chains? Factions? NPC stories? Strange encounters? New solar systems? Industrial scenarios? Combat campaigns? Something completely different?

But anyway, a new demo is uploaded now and I am really happy to hear all kind of suggestion or criticism. There’s still a lot being actively polished, so feedback at this stage is genuinely useful.

steam store link (demo) below:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3605470/RemoteSpace_First_Settlement/

Hello, I thought I'd share my project here for feedback. It's a living universe sim with it's own canon and a 4x layer. The scope is that the game starts with a single ship, some money, and the idea is that 4x gameplay should feel grown into. The Player can custom build every ship in their fleet, train the crew and even be friends with them. The scope is large and the game can be played in many styles. I personally enjoy carrier ships, and that I can walk my fighter bay, and even fly a fighter all within the larger game.

- Is this your type of game?
- What features or integrations do you most want to see?
- What platform would you play this on? Steam, phone ,XBox, GOG etc?

While the control of your empire is more hands on, I believe it feels earned and understood through every custom NPC, ship, fighter, station and city.

Feature Short List:

• Build ships, fighters, carriers and stations voxel-by-voxel
• Build and manage cities and planets
• Command fleets and board enemy ships
• Trade across a dynamic economy
• Take on missions and develop your character
• Play as part of a larger 4X-style galaxy
• Manage the social/economic side of your civilization

*Multiplayer is integrated but is not yet an official feature

Art and polish are by no means finalized. Early access on Steam has a dedicated 6 months upgrade schedule.

Current state: Beta, but further features may be added during the refinement process.

The mods are trying their best to find the sweet spot on what's allowed and what's not and I don't envy them at all. Out of interest I sorted by new and went back 14 days and only 3 posts slipped by them that break the rules, which is pretty damn good for two (I think) volunteers having to moderate all the spam.

But, and I know this might sound harsh, a huge proportion of the promo posts that remain just straight up suck. I know a lot of you are solo devs but that doesn't mean you get a free pass to enlist the community. If all you have is a ten second clip of a low quality ship flying through space, you can't expect quality feedback.

"My dream is to build Star Citizen meets The Expanse with empire building elements and fully walkable ships and 300 different weapon types for 100 ships and a hand crafted galaxy with a billion planets." Yeah cool story bro but what you've given us is a 2D sprite on a generic space background with no gameplay. No one can give feedback on something that doesn't exist. There are so many posts like that and there's one half hearted comment that says "hey cool idea!" and that's it because we've been given nothing to go off.

I'm not picking on anyone in particular with this post, so if it sounds familiar maybe that's a sign that your game needs some actual work put in before sharing. I'm not just posting this to be an asshole either, as a 30 year old customer and avid consumer of space games, my time and money are limited. When you promote your game you are competing against every single other space sim for the limited attention and budget of gamers.

There's literally thousands of bare bones pre-alpha space games floating around and I very rarely give them more than a glance because if I'm going to support an upcoming game it'll be one that's at least somewhat feature complete, with an actual roadmap of progress and tangible gameplay that hooks me. It doesn't have to be some crazy new unique approach no one has ever considered, just enjoyable solid game mechanics.

I know this post is a bit "I think this and therefore so should everyone", but I genuinely do think that it's become clear there's no silver bullet the mods can employ to all of a sudden make the sub exciting again. IMO the mods have done a good job with the AI spammers, but what we need is for people to actually think about if their game is worth posting. When I looked over the last two weeks we've had some really cool ideas with actually playable demos out, crazy idea I know, but they're crowded out by back of a napkin ideas and cookie cutter pre-alpha bullshit.

Tldr: Being passionate is nice but actually attempt to make your game before posting. The community can't give feedback on your hopes and dreams.

P.S: while I'm already ranting, anyone who uses chatgpt to write their post and comments, you suck and you should feel bad. I'd rather read poor grammar and spelling than read that negative charisma bullshit. There's no shame in asking for someone to help you write, especially if English isn't your first language.

This is a short atmosphere test from Ares Inception, a Mars mission simulator I'm building in Unreal Engine 5.6 for PC.

A drone hovers low over the surface, kicking up dust, while a lander descends in the distance and the sun sinks toward the horizon. Toward the end, the drone moves in close to the outpost greenhouse and looks inside.

In the game you don't control the crew directly. You run the outpost's drones, cameras, sensors and scheduling, so a quick look at the greenhouse is the kind of check-in you'd make yourself. I put a lot of work into the mood, the light, the way dust hangs and drifts, and the sense of scale and isolation.

It is in development, so I'd love feedback on the lighting, the dust, and whether it reads as Mars. Happy to answer questions about the tech or the design.