Starship Simulator is a true work of passion, born of many a childhood dream to experience what it would truly be like to live and work on a massive deep space exploration vessel, just like the ones you see depicted in classic science fiction. A dream of walking among the stars, exploring distant worlds, and answering one of mankind's oldest questions... what awaits us in the great unknown?
You will serve as a crewmember on the maiden voyage of mankind's first-ever deep space exploration vessel - the Magellan Class. The ship has been designed and built from the ground up with an unprecedented level of detail. From the bare structural framework to the miles of cables and conduits, every part of the ship is fully simulated and designed to be scientifically plausible. Nothing is mere surface detail. Every button does something, and every piece of hardware serves a real purpose.
The bare titanium that defines the physical structure of the ship has been designed in line with the latest manufacturing techniques used in the real world today, projected forward 200 years with advances in 3D Printing and AI-driven automation in mind. Unlike typical games where nothing exists behind walls and under floors, our ship exists as a completely solid and physical vessel.
Every system on the ship has simulated hardware driving it, and these systems are connected together by a complex network of pipes, cables, and conduits that exist in real-time. As an Engineer, you can follow every cable from source to destination while it passes through various pieces of hardware along the way.
With over 200 rooms spread over 7 decks, you are free to explore the entire ship on foot without barriers or loading screens. Gaze out of the panoramic lounge windows while the action outside of the ship is taking place in real-time, or hop in a shuttle and take it out for a quick spin. Our goal is to create a truly immersive sci-fi experience.
Our procedural algorithms are based on real-world astrophysics in order to generate not only believable but also scientifically plausible star systems. If you want to find Earth-like worlds, then you will need to seek out a star's habitable zone where liquid water can exist. This is based on not only the distance from the star but also the planet's albedo and atmospheric makeup.
When you find a planet that's capable of supporting life, your scans will reveal the nature of that life and how advanced it is. It could be anything from simple bacteria to ancient alien civilizations that are millions of years more advanced than you. How will they react to your presence, and do you attempt to contact them?
A NASA astronaut once said that without exception, every person to have ever looked down upon the Earth from aboard the ISS has shed a tear over its sheer beauty. We find that incredibly inspiring, and we're leveraging all the latest technologies and pushing Unreal Engine to its limits in order to achieve the most stunning visual experience possible. Entering orbit around a distant exoplanet should take your breath away.
Born to be in command, as the Captain, you will be making the big decisions such as which star systems the ship should explore, whether or not an alien species should be contacted, or whether or not to stand your ground or retreat in a hostile situation. How well you handle first contact situations will have a very real impact on how the mission plays out.
Taking the Helm, as the ship's Pilot, you will be responsible for safely navigating the ship through space. You will also pilot the shuttles and other support craft as required by the current mission objectives.
Working on the Bridge and in the Science Labs, as a Scientist, you will be responsible for performing scans of stellar objects and analysing any gathered data. You'll also be performing tests on samples and artefacts acquired by the ship on its travels.
Working on the Bridge and around the ship, as a Tactical Officer you will be responsible for defending the ship and her crew. You'll man the tactical Bridge station during combat, and serve as the security detail on any away missions.
Working in Engineering and around the ship, as an Engineer, you will be responsible for maintaining and repairing the ship's many systems. Keeping everything in tip-top condition will ensure the ship is always ready to meet any new challenge, but neglect your daily maintenance duties and critical systems will begin to fail.
Working in the Medical Facility, the Doctor is responsible for the crew's physical wellbeing. You will be dealing with everything from simple cuts and bruises to strange alien pathogens that could infect the entire crew.
Working in the Mess Hall as the ship's Chef you will be responsible for preparing healthy meals for the crew, but also as their Bartender, you will perform the important role of listening to their concerns and offering helpful advice. It's up to you to look after their mental health.
As a guest aboard the ship, you will have no duties to perform, allowing you to simply relax and explore the ship at your leisure.
Over the course of about a month, I built our new galactic travel system, which allows you to target any star system within range and travel there in real-time. You can even warp directly to a specific planet, pilot the ship arbitrarily while at warp, or disengage the engines at any point to arrive in a unique spatial location. The galaxy is split into cubes of 10 million km, which gives you approximately 3,375 navigable locations per cubic astronomical unit. That's a mind-blowing 853,630,576,784,508,000 or so navigable locations per cubic lightyear.
Most of that is empty space of course because space by its very nature is a whole lot of empty, but as the procedural systems are fleshed out those locations will start to fill with interesting things to discover. The key thing for us is giving the player complete freedom of movement in the galaxy, so you can literally go anywhere at any time, and you're not limited to only travelling to star systems.
In this week's video, we take a tour of our new real-world scale solar system planets in a multiplayer session.
I'm happy to say you can now customise quite a few individual things. Here are a few examples...
It feels like you need only blink and a whole week has gone by these days. I've been hard at work cutting out wall panels for the VIP Lounge (which has...
This is our 3rd development update on our Youtube channel. If you would like to see the daily content, please come to our Discord, which is in the comments...
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.
Looks pretty cool.
Thanks! :)
may I correct your English in the upper summary? "born from many a childhood dreams" or "born from many-a-childhood's dreams", "born from many a dreams". Make it different from renowned leading games like Starship Citizen, Elite Dangerous, X4...as I saw it quite reminded me 2001: A Space Odissey.
Thank you for your comment. It is actually correct as it is but we truly appreciate your help :)
it's me, right...sorry xD I discovered that "many a" with singular nouns it's more idiomatic, and "born of" it's more formal...well carry on!
Looks awesome!
Would love to play!
Big fan of the idea, and I have a question that may or may not have an answer at this point: is this going to be a multiplayer experience, or will there be a single player component as well? What I mean is: is this more similar to the Pulsar: The Lost Colony game that's on Steam, or the old Star Trek Bridge Commander from way back in the day?
The initial free sandbox release will be both but the planned DLC's will be single-player campaigns. You'll be able to choose from eight roles to play, with plenty of story and gameplay. Each DLC will bring a new ship and further expand the story in a unique way.
This is a very ambitious concept, but one that has a massive market that it can tap into. I want to keep tabs on this, but it seems you are still at a very early stage of development. Perhaps we'll chat once you've gotten further along
Hello, it is very ambitious but doable ( the lead dev has previous experience in both Stage9 and The Orville interactive fan experience), and we already have designs and ideas for 5 DLC.
We are at very early alpha but a demo will be coming out very soon for both an event we are due at in August and for our Kickstarter.
Hope to speak soon :)
That's very encouraging to hear. I'll be keeping track of you here and once your demo comes out, I would like to write a nice preview for the community as SSC, (they would absolutely love a game like this).
Good luck.
Thank you :)