EDIT: Steam Early Access (aka an Alpha launch) is scheduled to be October 23rd, 2013.
Finally, some actual Video Game news and a reason for this blog to exist! On Monday, Keen Software House (the developers of Miner Wars 2081) have unveiled a brand new game called “Space Engineers“.
The title pretty much sets the game. There is no plot. It’s a giant Sandbox in space, based off of the Miner Wars 2081 universe (asteroids instead of planets). It will be a 1st/3rd player game.
Based off of games like Garry’s Mod and Little Big Planet 1 and 2, you’re a engineer in Space, who can build stuff like ships and space stations. There is currently no limit of how big a ship can be.
The main developer, strives for realism. Everything you build, will have a purpose. Engines, Lighting, and Thrusters won’t be powered by a magical source; you’ll have to actually wire your ship up to do so, to a Reactor of some kind. That reactor is going to need something to keep it going, which you have to provide. There will be no fake interiors or anything like that.
It’s like imagining Kerbal Space Program, in realistic mode, where you really have to do your homework to get off the ground. But since you’re already in space, you don’t have to worry about that.
To build ships and stuff, there is no separate world builder. As soon as you start playing, you can build stuff.
You can have a network of Space Stations, or even build up a fleet of interplanetary ships with actual interiors. You decide.
And the best thing of all? Realistic collisions like Rigs of Rods. And you can have cockpits that can go into 1st person. And you don’t live in a ship anymore. You can get out and jetpack around. It literally is, the ultimate Sandbox.
A Steam Early Access release is scheduled to be on October 23rd this year, but unknown of the price. The full version of the game won’t be anytime soon. I just wonder if there’s going to be Solar Flares, where you got to put reinforced armor to protect your ships and stations from solar wind.
If you’re asking for that awaited sequel for Miner Wars 2081, sorry to say that the wait continues. The reason the developers are doing this, to show they’re getting better at making games.