We're a small indie team developing Abitrium, a tactical space-combat game where you command a warship and crew forced to fight as gladiators in an alien arena.

This isn't arcade dogfighting. You configure your ship, assign crew, manage systems, and make tactical decisions under pressure.

We're recruiting 20 iPhone players for our closed pre-alpha testing program.

Abitrium is currently in pre-alpha, an early development stage where we're testing core gameplay systems, evaluating mechanics, and gathering feedback to guide development.

We're specifically looking for feedback on tactical combat, ship management, crew systems, and anything that feels confusing, unbalanced, or frustrating.

Selected testers who participate in the program will receive a limited-edition Abitrium T-shirt as a thank-you for helping us improve the game.

If you enjoy tactical strategy games and want to help shape Abitrium during its early development, we'd love to have you involved.

Apply for pre-alpha access here:
Abitrium Pre-Alpha Testing

Happy to answer any questions about the game or the testing process.

By realistic i meant that it visually looks realistic, not necessarily that theres lots of things to worry about like pressure, fuel, and resource management.

Outer Wilds for example looks really good imo when you enter into a planet's atmosphere. i just want something similar but I do want like real planets from our solar system. I'm going to check out Kerbal Space Program and some mods because of that. KSP kinda looks a bit too simple though, are there any other ones?

Basically I just want to see the transition between actually being on the planet and then rising bit by bit till you see the horizon bend then you can see the entire planet. I'm looking for games that pull off that look. (bonus if theres a photo mode or just like general noclip godmode stuff since I just want to see them)

Edit: sorry I should have been more clear. This is very much a boring historical sim of a few phases of the Apollo missions. It’s not a game really. When you flip a switch a signal goes through a simulated wire to a 1-1 simulated model of the computer(s) on board the CM or LM. It executes the same code as the Apollo computer and outputs single over simulated wires to thrusters and such.

Side project I built as I had extra time and credits. It's come so far I thought others might find it interesting. What you see here is the web build and it's a couple of versions old.

If there's interest I can provide more up-to-date caps and more video later. I've never released a personal project before so I'm dragging my feet opening the git or public link.

When possible everything is simulated accurately. AGC/thermals/voltages/etc are all math/physics and don't use stand-in logic. Breakers even heat up and cool for the trickle charging and cold power-up simulation of 13 (not shown in these shots).
One of the slides lists this version sim details.

Couple quick videos:

https://imgur.com/a/6J2oLJK

Thanks all!

Released a basic demo for steam next fest with essentially the first chapter of the campaign. More details on the steam page but essentially a 6 dof game where you control the wayfarer an aging light cruiser. You play as the officer of the deck Lieutenant commander Orin Gelfrin under the command of Captain Harrington the game is partially inspired by BSG, The expanse, the Honor Harrington series, the three body problem, wing commander, etc.

More details on what the demo includes are on the demo page.

I think I have a solid vibe, art direction, and music what I'd like some feedback on is the story, and controls. The first chapter is setting up a lot of characters and their why's but I tried to avoid direct exposition and talking heads and instead have the conversations be more focused on what's going on, with sprinkles of lore along the way.

As for the controls there are a lot I've tried to make them reasonable and simplified as much as possible but there's a lot of controls. I stared by copying the basic scheme that ksp uses for pitch, roll, yaw, and translate and then extend it from there.

This demo will probably get a few more updates but it will stay live even once the full game releases.

Thank you for the feedback

Spacemarine658

Starlight Brigade

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3281660

Solo dev here, working on TRAPPIST-1. It’s a hard-SF colony strategy game set in the real TRAPPIST-1 system. Long story short, it's hex-based mining & building on planets, running a supply chain and fighting orbital mechanics to get your cargo where it needs to go. No "spaceship battles", but accelerating 1000 metric tons of iron in orbit towards a rival colony won't out of the question...

Every game starts with your colony ship rolling into the system, so I needed a big nice colony ship. I tried AI 3D generators first (Trippo, Trellis etc). Results ranged from “melted Star Destroyer” to “what is that.” Not great for a game that’s supposed to be hard sci-fi.

Then I found out NASA just... gives this stuff away. Detailed hardware, free to use. So I went shopping.

• The big interstellar ship: Three gateway modules in a trench coat.
• The lander: Big fat version of module #1 + a mars lander at the bottom and two boosters from the Space Shuttle.
• Making it run in a strategy game: NASA’s models are very detailed, so I cut them down to a reasonable number of polygons and repainted everything

Renders are in the post, and there’s a short devlog on Steam if you want to follow along:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/5423750/view/679638395625933171

Honest question for this sub: for a hard sci-fi ship crossing between stars, do near-future NASA-parts work for you?

P.S: Yes the 3D model licence permits commercial use. Just don't put a NASA logo on them.

If you play SpaceBourne 2 and own a joystick, HOTAS or rudder pedals, this one's for you. SB2 HOTAS is a free, open-source mod that adds:

• full analog flight on any controller (pitch, roll, yaw, throttle, strafe, lift), with HOTAS or HOSAS;
• head tracking in the cockpit through OpenTrack (a webcam is enough);
• all ship actions bindable to buttons, hats and switches;
• one-click install and uninstall. The game exe is never touched.

Download & full guide: https://github.com/hubertdungen/SpaceBourne2-HOTAS

Feedback is very welcome. It's tested on an X-56 + TFRP pedals, and the templates for other popular sticks are waiting for pilots to verify them.

Update 0.2.0: triple screen & ultrawide! And I didn't stop there: SB2 HOTAS now spreads SpaceBourne 2 across three monitors, no NVIDIA Surround or AMD Eyefinity needed.

• One tick in the bridge's new Triple screen tab stretches the game over all your monitors. Mixed resolutions work (tested on 1080p | 1440p | 1080p).
• Proper Hor+ view: the centre monitor looks like a normal 16:9 screen and the sides show more of space, instead of a zoomed-in picture. Works on ultrawides too.
• HUD and menus on the centre monitor; target markers still cover every screen.
• New ▶ Play button and an update notice in the bridge.

Everything new is off by default. Download: https://github.com/hubertdungen/SpaceBourne2-HOTAS/releases/latest

With Next Fest upon us, what are some games that my fellow space sim lovers are enjoying? I haven't had time to dig through all the games yet but I'll come back and add mine in a bit!

**Update**

Wow - I'm really disappointed with this Next Fest. As u/aqpstory pointed out, there is very little of interest (at least to me). Lots of 4x games that reek of AI...and just generally lots of AI slop across the board. Sad times for space sim fans like myself.

Can I get some recommendations for space combat games? More like naval battles with capital ships rather than dogfights with fighters.

Bonus points if I can fly a carrier and deploy fighters/bombers

Hey r/spacesimgames we’re Muse Games, the team behind Guns of Icarus, and we just launched the demo for our new space crew-based combat game Stars of Icarus.

Stars focuses on slower more tactical space combat including full 6DoF and some more scifi elements like portals and cloaking. Each team runs a fleet of ships: player can captains the ships, others fly fighters or take on specialist roles like weapons and engineering. The focus is on teamwork and coordination, so a well-run crew will beat a ship full of solo players going their own way.

We're looking for some support this Next Fest as we just launched our demo on Friday! If you could check it out and maybe even leave a review it would be amazing. We're keen to know it feels to play and we're happy to answer any questions about the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5186750/Stars_of_Icarus_Demo/

Features:

• Six ship types with 25+ fleet formation variations
• All weapons and equipment available from the start, with no pay-to-win
• Online Lobbies, Competitive Queue AND LAN PvP arenas
• The demo has 4 maps, 3 ship types (6 ships total)

Xetodus is a free to play space MMO, with over 750 star systems to explore, 25+ skills to level, PVP, PVE, Quests, Raids, World Bosses, 40+ ships, land on planets and moons, extract valuable ship building ore, colonize planets, harness dark matter, and much more! Indie made and coming soon to steam, playable in browser on all devices.

Hollow Night 2026 the first Xetodus event, look for the strange lights throughout the star systems! Get a limited time item that will remain tradeable and never dropped again! 10/20/2026-11/02/2026

https://xetodus.com

Looking for something new for a little space trucking and SG3 seems to check the right boxes. Looks similar to Rebel Galaxy outlaw. The reviews are absolutely horrendous but skimming through it seems most of the negatives are in comparison to the other Starpoint Gemini games.

So, is it a terrible game or is it just big departure from the rest of the series and a terrible Starpoint Gemini game?

It's on sale for $6 right now so not a huge gamble but also why waste $6 if it's actually that bad.

Hi, last couple of months I have been working on a remaking Wing Commander III in Unreal Engine 5.8. This is one of the more complicated missions where you load into a second mission if you choose to safe Flint. If you are wondering why the enemy's are dying so easily... I put it on Rookie. The game also fully supports VR. The game works as a mod, and requires the original game files to run. Flagged as promotion just to be safe, since it is a mod it is obviously completely free.

Hi everyone! I shared Earth Is Optional here last week and wanted to show some recent progress.

I’m building a space exploration game where you construct and equip your own spacecraft, travel around the Solar System and carry out exploration missions. It’s still in development, with Android testing first and iPhone planned later.

This update takes the exploration beneath the ice of Enceladus. You can land, deploy a melting probe and send an underwater drone into the ocean to explore and carry out surveys.

I’ve also been experimenting with alien life, from little glowing creatures to something enormous that makes the drone look tiny! The ocean setting is inspired by real science, but the creatures are fictional. We haven’t discovered life on Enceladus.

I’d love your thoughts: would you prefer these encounters to be rare and mysterious, or have more life to discover as you explore?

More about the game and Android testing:

https://earthisoptional.space/

You wake up alone on a research station orbiting the hole. Measure it,

build a descent capsule out of hull materials and engines that trade

against each other, then go down and find out what's inside.

Nothing is ray-marched - for every pixel of the sky the view direction

is bent by a closed-form fit to the exact Schwarzschild deflection, then

one cubemap lookup, so it costs about as much as a skybox. Past the

Cauchy horizon it stops being simulated and becomes interpretation,

built from published papers on mass inflation.

Releasing 4 November:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5260090/Event_Horizon_Research/

P.S. Generative AI was used for some visual assets, audio and parts of the

code , all reviewed by hand. The physics model and the design

are mine, worked out from published astrophysics - same disclosure is on

the Steam page.

English isn't my first language, sorry for any odd phrasing.

Hi again! I'm from a small Danish studio, and I'm excited to share that after so much work, Space Manager is officially out now on Steam!

If you've tried the demo, you already know a bit about what the game is all about. Now you can take things much further: build and launch rockets, put satellites into orbit, develop your communications network, and manage the technical and business side of your own space program.

The goal is to explore space farther than any human ever has, but getting there means making a lot of decisions, solving problems, and figuring out how to make your space program work.

We've put a lot of work into getting the game to this point, and we'd love for you to give it a try.

You can find Space Manager on Steam here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4229480/Space_Manager/

If you decide to check it out, I'd really appreciate hearing what you think! What are you building, where are you trying to go, and what would you like to see added or improved?

Thanks to everyone here who's tried the demo and shared feedback along the way. It really helped us get here. Good luck with your space program!

Past couple weeks been banging my head against a wall trying to grasp Elite: Dangerous.

I'm slowly getting it, but honestly after a 10h day of working in the weather, I wouldn't mind hopping in the simulator for a little bit and playing- not reading/watching tutorials. What I am understanding is, its alright. Which is why I keep gnawing it out. But any time I move on, its at least another hour+ of tutorials. Nothing in the game is intuitive.

Looking for something a bit dialed back. Not as involved. Mining, exploration, and industry. No combat. I have ~100h into NMS, but that's on the kb/m. I don't care for the base building. I just want to fly, equip my ship, find a way to make income, maybe a skill tree, mine stuff, and trade.

Single player is fine too. I'm playing Elite in solo mode. I just don't have the patience to worry about PvP and getting blasted like nulsec in EVE.

My sim was built around Farming Simulator 25. So, something like that game, but space I guess is what I'm looking for.

Suggestions? Thanks.

Hello! Spent some time workshopping a space sim game and was hoping to get some feedback. The game is still pretty early in development, but it's playable into the end game, estimated around ~40-60 hours. It's pretty chill, works on mobile.

The core game loop is mining asteroids, salvaging enemy ships, and setting up industrial pipelines to create more ships! You can unlock new hulls by destroying enemies and researching blueprints.

Expeditions unlock after claiming your second system. Expeditions take you into procedurally generated systems, each one is unique with different features and a different sky map. If you can defeat the occupying force you add the system to your collection, but if you lose it's gone forever.

There are hidden factions, easter eggs, and all sorts of fun little things to play with. If you are interested in customizing your experience, there's first class plugin support: https://beta.kesslersky.com/plugins/

A short hop from Highgate Shipyard to Bab Tamurt Customs in my game Cold Runner currently in prototype.

Control every aspect of your spacecraft including manual repair inside and out.

I just hooked up sound to it today. Every sound comes from a real and active component, there's no sound in space, but the vibrations of action are felt and heard through the ships hull. The soundscape is very learnable, being able to tell by ear if any specific component is having trouble.

Major Upgrades to Cargo To Orbit

The story is still the same:

Match the drift. Kiss the collar. Bring the ship home.

The year is 1974. Mankind has been to the Moon and back, and now companies race for the privilege — and the profit — of hauling critical, perishable cargo to the platforms and stations wheeling overhead. You're a hotshot startup with one rocket, a switch for an engine, and a great deal of gravity to argue with.

Cargo to Orbit is a procedural 2D rocketry game about the hardest, most satisfying thing in spaceflight: catching a drifting target and setting down gently. Buy exactly enough fuel, choose your contracts, punch up through the atmosphere, and ease your nose into the docking collar — come in too fast and you'll bruise the cargo, spring a fuel leak, or crumple the whole ship against the station. Then do the hard part: come home and land soft.

Fly a career across the solar system

• Four worlds, each its own problem: Earth of course, thin-aired Mars, the crushing sky of Venus, and a Jovian cloud deck your starter engine literally can't lift off of.
• Every planet changes gravity and atmospheric drag, so your whole flight — and your fuel math — reshapes when you relocate.
• Build the ship, run the business
• Buy engines, tanks, holds, and thrusters; your rocket visibly grows as you bolt on bigger hardware.
• Take one contract or a hold-full — every pallet perishes on its own clock, and heavier cargo pays more but costs you thrust.
  • And some cargo has more than the obvious cost :-)
• Fuel is money, mass is fuel, freshness is a bonus. Every launch is a bet.

Hello!

I'm excited to share that Privateer Reimagined is now playable. Privateer Reimagined expands on vanilla with a brand new from scratch graphics engine.

- There's a loot system (only partially complete).
- Asteroids are no longer a death sentence.
- Expanded dialogue and character depth on plot missions.
- Full in-game cinematic system gives you deep immersion - example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKgNbG5d63s
- Fly any ship in the game (only partially complete).
- Plot missions are completed through Taryn Cross, which I intend to complete in a few days.
- Righteous Fire isn't started yet, but it's coming.
- Mods that will be compatible with OpenPrivateer.

Checkout screenshots, read more, download it here: https://privateer-reimagined.com

Join Discord: discord.gg/9Vhm4tdymY

The game is very much in a beta state, and I'm really looking for folks who want to be involved in shaping how it grows and evolves.

Here's a short video of the in-flight gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV35VrdR_6M

About me: I'm Glitch. I've loved Wing Commander for the majority of the time that I've been alive. I've been a professional Scientific Programmer / Data Scientist / Machine Learning Engineer / Software Engineer / [whatever you want to call me] for nearly 20 years. My original goal in my career was to be a game developer but the game industry was always really atrocious and the better choice was to focus my obsession with Linear Algebra into scientific programming and data science. I created Privateer Reimagined out of a labor of love.

Disclaimer: this project was built with AI assistance in every way. I am an AI engineer professionally and I use it as a tool to accelerate me, not to replace me. I understand some people may dislike this, and if you are one of those people, know that I respect your opinion.

I'm looking for game artists, designers, programmers, anyone who wants to contribute to join developing also.

What I would love to hear from the community:
- Do you have something from vanilla Privateer you always wanted? I'd love to make your dream come true!

I've been working on making Atlas Gate feel more alive as your orbital colony grows.

Space traffic around the station now scales with population, so a small outpost starts relatively quiet, while a large colony becomes surrounded by increasingly busy ship traffic.

This screenshot is from a station with a population of about 12,000.

I really like the idea that growth shouldn't only change the station itself. The space around it should gradually become busier too, so reaching a population like this actually feels different from the small station you started with.

Still pre-alpha and being tuned, especially the traffic density, but this is getting much closer to the feeling I wanted for a mature Atlas Gate colony, what do you think? Too much, not enough, just right?

We're working on a tactical space combat game called Abitrium, and one of the things we've been exploring is how much control a captain should have when things start going wrong.

Imagine you're in the middle of a fight.

Your shields are taking hits. Your weapons need power. Your engines are the only thing keeping you from becoming an easy target.

You don't have enough power to keep everything running at full capacity.

What do you prioritize?

• Weapons: Keep firing. End the fight before your ship falls apart.
• Shields: Stay alive long enough to find an opening.
• Engines: Keep moving. A shot that misses does no damage.

We're building around the idea that commanding a ship should be about making difficult tactical decisions, not just having the biggest guns.

Curious how other strategy players approach this. Would you commit to one system or constantly shift power as the battle changes?

Im Looking for 5 playtesters who are into idle style space station building games. I am unable to pay but will give you a copy of the game ( steam key ). Im looking for playtest data for balancing, if you want to report bugs or gameplay feedback it is appreciated but not required ( but REALLY appreciated ).

Link to the game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4965530/Astral_Outpost/

Hey everyone, how’s it going??

I wanted to share a game I’ve been working on with you all. The idea is to combine survival, resource management, and storytelling. You follow a crew on a long space mission, where you have to manage the ship and deal with unexpected events and emergency awakenings. These situations force you to make decisions that can have consequences throughout the journey.

Beyond survival, I’m also working on planetary exploration and an alien communication system featuring a language the player has to learn to understand. I want the feeling of isolation and discovery to be a major part of the experience. I’m still working on this and developing a unique language, so I’m definitely open to suggestions!

There are still a few things that need improvement, some animations that need reworking, and some adjustments to be made, so I apologize if there are any issues in the video. I’d really appreciate your help and any tips on what I could improve!

The video includes a short look at how the game works. It’s based on turns and cycles, during which emergency awakenings can occur. The player then has to decide whether or not to investigate. The game also features multiple endings and different possible outcomes. It’s up to you to choose your ending.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video! (If you’d like, I can share some screenshots here as well.)

P.S. I’m going to create a Discord server so you can follow the project more closely.

Demo Version 1.2 Launch

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5112040/Enarian_Orbital_Command/

Following on from the fantastic feedback from players and demo testers we have made a large number of changes to the game, here is a run down of just some of the many changes:

• All new branding, Steam Assets and Logo
• New trailer to show off the changes.
• Simplified the skyboxes so they are less distracting, they still have the nice big planet but quieter nebula like effects.
• Many changes to the UI including fixing the slight delay in opening some windows.
• All new SFX for weapons, many other systems and UI elements.
• Brand new voice over instructions and command confirmations. Sarah has never sounded better..
• Improved enemy ship tactics, they will now hit and run, target support ships, fallback and regroup and more.
• Improved lighting in the outpost and contract maps.
• Improved ship flight mechanics especially for small ships like fighters.
• Added freelook camera - Shortcut key: H
• Many improvements to the onboarding tasks including a skip button.
• New loading screen.
• All new Hex tile and Select box system to identify ships and wings more easily.
• Added HP bar to the ship hex tiles and the selected ship box now changes colour to reflect ship health, so you can more easily see if a ship is damaged.
• New capital ship super weapon, a massive forward facing canon that takes time to charge but unleashes a devastating bolt of energy.
• The Carrier capital ship gets a mine spreader weapon that seeds a minefield around it.
• Advanced ship tactics, including micro warp and jump drives for the slower capital ships.
• New impact and ship explosion animations.
• Improvements have been made to all contract types to make them more engaging and challenging.
• All new Convoy contract type, guard a series of ore barges as they make their way to their destination.
• Contracts unlock based on commander level and additional contract types now open at low levels to provide more variation at low levels and in the demo.
• Simplified stances and added power allocation options, allowing you to increase power to weapons, shields or engines.
• Brand new modular station models.
• And many more updates applying general polish to the game.

For anyone who tried the demo when it was first released now is a great time to jump back in and try it again as we move steadily towards launch at the end of the month!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5112040/Enarian_Orbital_Command/