At Gamescom, we sat down with Shiro Games for a deep dive into SpaceCraft, a multiplayer survival game that sets itself apart from titles like Eve Online and Starfield. The game’s focus is on pure exploration, with a design that eliminates the immersion-breaking loading screens found in other games. In general, you can pilot and customize starships across solar systems, explore unique planets, and descend to various landscapes.
In this game, you’ll mine resources, craft ship parts, and automate planetary bases with drones and cargo ships to create interplanetary logistics networks. The modular ship design lets you add thrusters, turrets, or shields, while base-building involves managing energy and production lines. As an MMO, SpaceCraft supports co-op play where players can form Corporations for trade, diplomacy, or combat. Galactic marketplaces evolve based on your transactions, and rogue Space Pirates add combat challenges with three stages: Detection, Pursuit, and Engagement.
Shiro Games plans a minimum six-month to one year Early Access phase, with adjustments based on player feedback. They will use Discord, Steam forums, surveys, and events to refine gameplay mechanics. Also, SpaceCraft currently has over 200,000 Steam wishlists.
Tell us about SpaceCraft. What kind of game is it?
SpaceCraft is a multiplayer survival game focused on exploring a handcrafted galaxy. You start by piloting a ship to find and gather various resources. The goal is to use these resources to craft better tools, improve your ship, and eventually build a base on different planets. You’ll be able to automate the entire gathering and crafting process. It’s a game where you can build a corporation with other players, aiming to become one of the best in the galaxy.
How big are the planets and how much variety is there?
We think that every planet will be a bit different from the next to provide more diversity. The planets themselves aren’t realistically huge, but they are still pretty big. A full lap around one could take about half an hour. Each planet has a single biome, but we have different landmarks on them with unique resources. You’ll find some resources that are very basic, but later on, you’ll need better lasers or other tools to collect more rare and complex ones. For example, some resources can only be broken with an incinerator. The idea is that you’ll have to choose which planets to visit based on the specific resources you need.
Are there enemies on these planets?
Yes, there will be some PvE combat. We have space pirates in space, and they will also be present on some planets. This combat will come a bit later in the game. At the beginning, you won’t encounter any combat, but we’re also considering different factions, not just pirates, for narrative quests. Our goal is to make the game playable for hundreds of hours, and that includes facing different challenges.
You can craft and customize your ship. How big can the ships get?
Each part of the ship is modular. You can change the shape and add different modules like engines, solar panels, and cargo holds to improve its stats. The only limitation on ship size is its integrity. As you add more parts, the integrity percentage will drop. As long as you are above 100%, your ship is at peak performance. If you go below that, the ship will be less and less resistant. To build a bigger ship, you will need to improve the materials you use. For Early Access, we are limiting the ships to a smaller class, but we plan to add more options later.
Is there a shared market for resources and materials?
Yes, it’s a player-driven market. It’s a persistent world, so when you log out, your automated factories will continue to produce resources. You can sell these items to other players or to an NPC. Selling to an NPC is less efficient but faster, as you won’t have to wait for another player to buy them.
How do you plan to expand the game? Do you have a roadmap?
We’re planning for about a year of Early Access. This allows us to start with a solid gameplay loop based on our ideas and then work with the players. We want to gather their feedback and incorporate their ideas. Right now, we don’t have plans for paid DLC, as it would be hard to balance a multiplayer game where some players have DLC content and others don’t. We will be focusing on the Early Access content, and we’ll see what we do after that.
When can we expect the first public release or demo?
Early Access is planned for this year. We’ll be organizing private and possibly public playtests before the end of the year. This will help us balance the player scale per server. We’re aiming for about 1,000 players per server. We want the game to be viable for solo players who want to build a base in their own corner of the galaxy, but also to encourage players to find and work with others if they want to.
What games would you compare SpaceCraft to?
SpaceCraft is similar to a few games. It has elements of automation, factory building, exploration, and piloting. We’re fans of a lot of games in this genre. We’ve taken inspiration from titles like Space Engineers and Starfield. We want SpaceCraft to be more accessible than some of the more complex games, so flying and base building will be streamlined, but with enough depth to be engaging.
Are you considering adding environmental hazards like black holes or asteroids?
We are definitely thinking about things like asteroids since they are a big part of space. We have ideas based on reality, and we’re always thinking about how to turn them into fun and enjoyable gameplay for the players. It might not be in the initial Early Access release, but it could be a combat feature or an event that we add later on.
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