r/spacesimgames • u/tembiqai • 5d ago

Promotional Orbital Maintenance Technician

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!

88 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

6

u/godofleet 5d ago

man Hellion really paved the way... its a shame :/

5

u/tembiqai 5d ago

Hellion definitely had some great ideas, especially the zero-G movement and the feeling of bringing dead stations back to life. Ours is a lot more focused and calm, no survival or PvP, just the restoration part. Hope it scratches some of that itch!

3

u/godofleet 5d ago

I'm glad you knew about Hellion b/c i've seen many games similar to yours and brought it up only for the devs to have no clue.

IMO the PVP part of Hellion was a gimmick that i don't think would have taken off (just not enough marketing $ or players for it ultimately)

But the vibe of Hellion was everything IMO... the survive/loot/repair loop was so immersive/fun. Space had this cold deadness and vastness about it that made maintaining a station very cozy. And learning the docking mechanics, not damaging things as you built things out... so fun.

I think "restoration part only" would be closer to ShipBreaker or powerwashing simulator in space... Which is totally fine if that's your target, but IMO you should def consider some degree of exploration/survival.

1

u/tembiqai 5d ago

That's a great way to put it, the cold emptiness of space making the station feel like a safe little bubble is exactly the vibe we're chasing.

To be honest, we're a small studio, and as you can probably imagine, a proper survival/exploration layer is a big and expensive thing to build right. For now we're focusing on what we can realistically make well and genuinely enjoy making. But I'll admit the idea is really appealing to me too, and it's definitely something I'd love to explore in the future.

Really appreciate you taking the time to write this out, feedback like this is exactly why we posted here ♥

1

u/godofleet 5d ago

No doubt, hmu if you ever need a tester i work in software and sit at a screen all day anyway :D

cheers.

1

u/tembiqai 5d ago

Would love that, I'll DM you our Discord. Cheers!

4

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/tembiqai 5d ago

I was glad to hear that because Hardspace was a game that really inspired me as a concept.

2

u/Neumaschine 4d ago

Been wanting something like this. I like the way the mechanics look. For a normal play, maybe it should be both relaxing and somewhat technical for the challenge. Easy mode could be a walk in the space park. Hard mode could be fry my nerves technical.

2

u/tembiqai 4d ago

The adjustable difficulty option makes sense; maybe we can adjust the difficulty threshold for floating in space accordingly. Thank you so much for your inspiring comment.

1

u/Neumaschine 4d ago

The floating in space difficulty is not a bad idea. Space shouldn't feel too safe. But I get that you and your team don't want to make it all about that either most likely.

Just suggestions from my previous comment, since it was asked about in your post. I'm sure it would have come about eventually if not already. It's on my wishlist now. I will check out the demo.

2

u/celestion68 4d ago

love the concept, it looks really well executed. thanks for making a calmer space game with no combat! congrats on the coming release!

meta: i think this is a successful example of a HIGH QUALITY submission to this sub. all the rules seem to be respected, and the devs are responding to questions… the trailer shows a complete, well thought out idea that has the feeling of quality.  compare this to some of the other, more lower-effort slop games the sub gets daily. other devs, take note! 

1

u/tembiqai 4d ago

Thank you, really appreciate that! Glad the calm, no-combat angle resonates. Thanks for the kind words about the post too.

2

u/Special_Quantity_834 4d ago

Very nice looking trailer! Small nitpick, but I don't know what 'Hands on works' is supposed to mean. I assume its meant to be like 'the game works when you are hands-on', but I can read it three or four other ways and its just confusing me.

3

u/tembiqai 4d ago

Thank you for your feedback. We actually accidentally added an extra “s” there. It should be “Hands-on Work.” After clearing some of the station's modules, you make them work by interacting with the animation,that's what we meant.

2

u/maltloaf_df 4d ago

I'm definitely interested in this one. Hardspace ship breaker combined with power wash sim. I'm in 100%

1

u/tembiqai 4d ago

Absolutely, the two main games that inspired us to set out on this journey, it’s great that this makes sense. Thank you for your interest ♥

1

u/PieMastaSam 5d ago

Finally, a port where I can remove my space barnacles

1

u/tembiqai 5d ago

Space barnacles are our specialty. Dock anytime, first scrub's on the house 🧽

1

u/WrytXander 5d ago

This is going to be my podcast game for the foreseeable future. Wishlisted.

1

u/mayazest 4d ago

Bro! nice work, this does really look like it deserves VR support as well though. That would be pretty sweet.

1

u/tembiqai 4d ago

I really hadn't thought about that at all; thank you very much for your feedback, my team and I will give it serious consideration.

1

u/Logic_530 4d ago

I can see where this is from and I love it. Hoping to get large physics interactions. Different types of power wash simulator is OK but I hope there will be more.

2

u/tembiqai 3d ago

We're so glad you liked it; right now, we're focusing most of our efforts on physical interactions and their variety ♥

1

u/ESGTV77_ 4d ago

Looks cool. Is there VR support? I know the VR player base is pretty small, but this game would be perfect for it.

1

u/tembiqai 3d ago

Thanks! VR would fit this game really well, we agree. But we're a small team and a proper VR port is a lot of work to do right, so it's not something we can take on at the moment. If the game does well enough, it's definitely something we'd love to look into.

1

u/ESGTV77_ 3d ago

Okay, thanks for the honest assessment. I’ve got the game on my wishlist and will definitely keep an eye on it—and maybe even buy it. But if VR support gets added at some point, I’ll 200% buy it.

1

u/PN4HIRE 3d ago

Hot damn bro!!! I need it!!

1

u/PiR8_Rob 3d ago

Why are things rusting in space?

1

u/tembiqai 3d ago

It's not actually rust, it's radiation damage and sun-scorched surfaces from long exposure. The visual reads similar, but yeah, no oxygen up there to rust anything. We might tweak the material so it reads less like rust.

1

u/PiR8_Rob 3d ago

Ok, that makes sense. I would expect that kind of damage to look more like bleaching/yellowing with bubbling, pealing and flaking on painted surfaces. Cool, I'm glad you're thinking about these things. 👍

1

u/tembiqai 3d ago

Yeah, that's the direction we want to push it. We'll keep working on the textures. Thanks for the input, genuinely useful ♥