Starship Simulator - Dev Progress

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Hey everyone! I only discovered Epic For Indies today, so I thought I’d introduce myself and share the game I’ve been working on for the past 3 years.

My name’s Dan Govier, and I’ve been working with Unreal Engine across various hobby projects for the past 6-7 years. I spent most of my working career as an IT manager, but redundancy and a small mid-life crisis gave me the opportunity and drive I needed to fulfill my childhood dream of being a full-time game developer.

But enough about me, what is Starship Simulator? Well, quite simply it’s a first-person space exploration sandbox where you serve as a crewmember aboard mankind’s first-ever deep space exploration vessel. Your ship and crew are tasked with exploring the galaxy beyond Sol, with standing orders to discover Earthlike worlds for human colonisation, all while attempting to make peaceful first contact with any new alien species you encounter along the way.

The game’s development focuses on two main areas;

  • A massive starship with a highly detailed interior, built from the ground up as if it were a real vessel, complete with fully simulated ship systems right down to individual cables.
  • A scientifically accurate 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy to explore, driven by real astrophysics, and navigable in real-time without any transitions or loading screens.

If you’d like to know more, I’d recommend checking out these videos on our YouTube channel:

Sound interesting? We have a demo on Steam if you fancy checking it out yourself:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1332100/Starship_Simulator/

I also live stream the game’s development twice per week, so if you’re interested in watching me build this thing in real-time, then please do join the streams!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWT7pQD7yFblewl0qzXwX-2Kd6MD7IYip

We’re also actively recruiting new talent here at Fleetyard Studios, so if you think you’ve got something to bring to the table, please do get in touch. In particular we’re looking for a shader artist that specialises in volumetrics, and a developer that can build a new character system based on UE5’s new motion matching feature, with support for variable gravity direction.

Ok that’s it from me, happy devving :slight_smile:

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Hello @Dan_Govier !

As someone who has hours and hours on No Man’s Sky, this is right up my alley! I love the idea of making a team of friends and going about on a space adventure with what you offer! Will there be the opportunity to meet other teams as you explore?

I also saw that you offer ship customization on the inside and I was curious if you offer customization on the outside as well.

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Our multiplayer is session based, so the only other players in the game will be those you take with you. Essentially online coop, with each player fulfilling a particular role aboard the ship.

We’re definitely planning external cosmetic customisation in the near term, but long term we’ll be looking at modular ships built around a set of prebuilt chassis. All the pipes and wires have to line up :slight_smile:

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Hello again @Dan_Govier !

That makes sense, thank you so much for answering. I’m very much excited to see how this moves forward in the future with the design.

Also, if I may ask, do you plan on controller support to allow for more accessibility?

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Yep, we’re planning to implement full controller support during the next patch cycle, which will also include the Steam Deck.

To be honest we’d have it already, but there’s a lingering bug with controller dead zones which is messing with the mouse in menus.

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Hello again @Dan_Govier !

That’s awesome. Thank you so much for answering all my questions! I can’t wait to see Starship Simulator’s next step in progress!