Spaced is work in progress and looks phenomenally ugly right now.

A video says more than a thousand words

Ships

  • Ships are NOT restricted to a grid! They can be any shape you like.
  • Place individual components like guns, shield generators or engines freely on your ship.
  • Ships can go inside of other ships! Build a carrier for your ships, and a carrier for all your carriers.

Physics

  • The entire world is a procedurally generated, physically simulated sandbox. The possibilities (and problems :D) are endless:
  • If your ship doesn’t have engines in the right places it might not be able turn.
  • Throw rocks at people by finding some asteroid, and accelerating it toward them real fast. Then watch as they get yeeted into deep space.
  • Out of fuel? No problem, just throw a crewmember out of the airlock and Newton will move your ship in the opposite direction! Or fire a gun and propell yourself by recoil.

Components

  • There are vast numbers of components. Equip your ships with guns, engines, gravity generators, shields, logic components, (remote-) doors, steering AIs, lasers, tractor beams, measurement devices, railguns, energy storage, generators and more
  • Each component is different. Buy a bigger laser or shield that recharges quicker for your ship. Or scavange your enemy ships for their components. Build the best ship out of what you can find!
  • Components have more than one use: A laser can damage a ship, recharge a shield or transmit information. An engine propells you, but the exhaust can also melt another ships hull. Some shields keep things out, some keep things in.
  • Connect components to create complex interactions. For example, tie a tractor beam to a distance sensor to start pulling your cargo when you get close. Or build traps that automatically fire if your tripwire(-laser) gets interrupted. Logic components allow for complex conditions, and each component can be connected to any other.

Combat

  • Ships take procedural damage! You can blow holes in the hull and depressurise the interior. Or maybe chip away at it until the entire ship breaks in two.
  • Aim at specific components of the enemy ship to destroy them.
  • Board the enemy and take their ship without damaging it!
  • You can damage other ships with projectiles, lasers, plasma, or by bumping into them really hard.
  • Shields, guns, lasers and plasma interact in interesting ways, that allow for strategizing and tradeoffs, not just simple button mashing.
  • Dodge projectiles by hiding behind an asteroid, or lure your enemy into a dead end

World

  • The world is procedurally generated
  • Explore space stations and talk to or trade with the inhabitants. Find your favourite space-bar.
  • Fly through dense asteroid fields and mine for resources or search for wrecks to salvage.
  • Build relationships with individuals and factions, and get entangled in their stories.
  • Get stuck in other peoples fleet battles and make it out unscathed.
  • Claim your own realm and build your own space stations.
  • Hop abort the travelling merchants giant ship and enjoy the ride.

Multiplayer

  • there is multiplayer
  • it works (mostly)
  • it’s super slow right now
  • I know how to fix it

Release Date

I have no idea, lol.

Current State

The features above are in various stages of completion: Ships, physics and components mostly work as described, but variety is currently missing. Combat is still missing shields and plasma, and world generation, storytelling and meta level gameplay basically non-existent yet. And if you couldn’t tell, the game currently looks like shit and is missing multiple years of polish.

Scope

This game is very ambitious and might not be doable as planned. If it needed to be small, it could become a small multiplayer arena game with intriguing combat and damage mechanics. If it was allowed to be somewhat big, it could become an open world game that lets you express your creativity and experiment with all kinds of crazy gameplay, while having fun fighting space pirates. And if it was allowed to be really big, it could tell amazing stories, immerse you in an optimistic and wacky science fiction universe, and be a reason for you and your friends to spent hours and hours together on your own server.

Who is behind this?

I am Simon van Bernem, a crazy person from Aachen, Germany, who thought making a multiplayer game on your own, in your free time, in your own engine, from scratch, right after leaving university was a good idea. And to my own surprise it actually is, so far.

Contact: