FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the overall point of the game?

Your primary mission objective is to explore space beyond Earth and attempt to make as many successful first contacts as possible, while managing the ongoing health of the ship and her crew.  You will encounter a wide array of scenarios as you explore the galaxy, with each offering their own particular challenge. Your mission will be classed as a success if you return back home to Earth in approximately one piece.

How much will the game cost?

The base sandbox (full galaxy, ship, and all procedural content) will be completely free, no strings attached. No micro-transactions, no content gated behind a paywall, just completely free. My loving gift to the space sim community.

Are you insane!? Why do this amount of work for free!?

Aside from simply loving what I do, we’re a new studio and this is our first title. I want to build up a solid community around the game, and the best way to do that is to remove all barriers to entry. Of course that absolutely wouldn’t be possible without our backer community, so really it’s them you have to thank. Our backers on Patreon, Paypal, and Ko-fi help us keep the lights on, and ensure I’m able to devote all my time to building the game.

We’re also acutely aware of the living crisis we are living in. We want our studio to help bring this game to people who cannot afford to purchase games right now.

Will anything have a cost associated with it?

To help fund ongoing development (because game dev costs a lot of money), I’m planning to release some extra ships after the v1.0 sandbox release. The cost will depend on just how much work was involved in making the ship, but as a ballpark figure I’m thinking around £10 or so. These ships will be designed around solo play or small multiplayer groups, so they won’t have an NPC crew etc. We also have 3 full single player campaigns planned in a fair amount of detail, and each of these will likely have a cost comparable to a typical AA indie title.

When and where will I be able to get Starship Simulator?

As of the time of writing, we are releasing exclusively on Steam for Windows PC. A more fleshed-out Early Access release is planned for some point in 2025. When it’s ready, essentially.

We have a tech demo currently on Steam.

We do not currently have plans to release on any other platform, however, that might change if we get sufficient funding to expand the team.

What is the minimum PC spec required to run the game?

CPU: A relatively recent Intel i5 system (or equivalent).
RAM: At least 8GB.
GPU: An nVidia 1050ti (or equivalent) with at least 4GB VRAM
DirectX: DirectX 12, with support for Shader Model 6.6 and DirectX Agility.
Install Size: 3.2GB.
O/S: Windows 10 or later. The game will also run on most Linux installs under Proton, but we do not officially support that option.

Will it also be in VR

Yes, we’ll be putting out a basic VR concept in the next few months.

Is it multiplayer only?

First and foremost the game is single-player, the player will choose the crew role that they wish to play when they start the game ( this can be changed mid-game) and the NPC will play all other crew roles.
We also have multiplayer accessible from the main menu. We don’t know yet how many people can join a game but we regularly run 14-16 player games with no issues ( other than regular alpha bugs).

Are you planning to release on any other O/S or consoles?

Right now we are focusing on Windows PC until the game is finished, but once all major content milestones have been achieved, we will look into other platforms.

Is this game based on an existing sci-fi IP or franchise?

No, everything in this game is based on real or theoretical science. Any named characters or places are of our own design, as is the game’s lore and any future story missions.
Any similarity between our game and any other well-known sci-fi property is purely due to working from similar source material.

Will you support modding, either directly or via the Steam workshop?

At some point in the future, we would like to build a mission/story creation tool that would likely be attached to the Steam workshop, but that is currently a distant target.
In the short term, we do expect modders to create mods for the game, and while this isn’t officially supported, we don’t have any problem with it, as long as it’s tasteful and doesn’t infringe on any intellectual property.

Will you be adding controller support, particularly for HOTAS?

Yes, full controller support is being added soon, and that will include HOTAS devices when you are sitting in the Helm chair on the bridge.

Can we build our own ships?

Right now the process of building ships is extremely complicated, with literally hundreds of miles of cables and other infrastructure all over the vessel, which all connect together to form simulated systems. We are also still in the process of designing some of those systems.
Once all core game systems are polished, our intention is to create a modular building tool based on various bare-bones chassis designs. This won’t be happening any time soon, however, and will likely take the form of a “Shipyards” expansion.

Are you planning to add AI language models to the game for NPC interaction?

We are watching the technology grow, and we’re continually assessing its safety and viability. Right now there are still a lot of questions surrounding training data, and the cost of deploying an LLM on a large scale is still very high.
Once LLMs are able to run locally with a small resource footprint and low GPU impact, then we will definitely look at powering our NPC crew with LLM logic.
Given that we are creating an entire galaxy filled with alien civilisations, we will also look at using AI to generate truly unique alien cultures once the technology has matured more.

Can we colonise other planets?

This game is more about exploring space than staying in one location, so we have no plans to include player settlements anytime soon. That being said, our planned third expansion will focus on humanity colonising beyond Sol, and while players will not be building settlements directly, they will have a hand in determining how successful NPC settlements are.

Will you add support for dedicated servers?

Yes, this is something we have planned. There will be a separate headless client you can launch as a dedicated server for a group of players to join/leave as desired.

Will there be space stations or other structures you can explore?

Yes, along with the Sol system eventually being fleshed out with explorable stations and settlements, alien cultures will also have their own orbital facilities you can explore on foot.
In addition to this, we plan to procedurally generate derelict alien ships/stations that players can board and loot, having dealt with any lingering defences or engineering challenges.

Is there a self-destruct button? Can I destroy my ship?

All ships will eventually have a self-destruct system because sometimes it’s better to go out in a blaze of glory rather than freeze and starve to death in the cold darkness of space.
The destruction of your ship constitutes a Game Over scenario. A new ship and crew will need to be launched to continue exploring the galaxy.

Will we have other ships, or a fleet of ships?

Given the technical resource demands of a single large starship, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to support multiple large cruisers in a single game. However, several smaller ships should be quite viable, so at some point, you will be able to create a small fleet of small vessels with friends.
In addition to this, we are planning to create a MySQL data handling system so that player groups can manage their own shared galaxy with friends. Groups will need to host their own MySQL database online, and then all participating player ships will be visible on the in-game galaxy map, in addition to being able to share science data and initiate text communication in-game.
You will also be able to see participating player’s ships physically in 3D space, but you won’t be able to interact with them directly, and their position will only update when the online database is queried.

Can we play the game offline and/or outside of Steam?

Yes, you only need to launch the game from Steam if you intend to play in multiplayer, because we use Steam as a matchmaking service.
If you want to play the game offline or solo, then you can launch it outside of Steam as it is DRM free. You can make copies of the game’s install folder and run it from any location.