By Adam Smith on December 15th, 2011 at 3:38 pm.
It is a day, in part, for talking about old things made new. Lunar Flight is a modern take on Lunar Lander, which allows aspiring astropilots to undertake a full career, transporting cargo from moonbase to moonbase and gathering beacons scattered across the surface of the moon. Essentially, it’s a game that simulates using thrusters to control a tin-can in unfamiliar gravity, attempting to befriend the laws of physics even as they repeatedly plant your face in the lunar dust. All that would be just peachy if every slight nudge of the thrusters didn’t cause your dwindling fuel supply to…dwindle. Gaze at the trailer below.
I’ve always wanted to go to the moon and am hoping Lord British will invite me to live with him there one day, but until then this is a beautifully atmospheric depiction. There’s something quite haunting about it, all barren and empty as it is, with that evocative music playing in the background. In fact, the atmosphere is unnerving enough that when the alarms started to go off I had a genuine sense of panic. Imagine when I’m actually playing the blasted thing! When I was a wee lad I remember jollying about with Thrust and Lunar Lander, but becoming so tense during trickier levels that a therapist would probably trace my several anxiety issues back to those rotating death-plunges.
While it looks to maintain some of the arcade qualities of its forefathers, Lunar Flight also aims to be a proper simulator, with Newtonian physics and realistic low gravity flight. It is the work of Australian indie team Shovsoft, which is the kind of team I had to form when no one picked me during sports classes at school, being made up of one person. He has a little help from his friends, with that ominous music in particular, but mostly it’s just Sean Edwards, a ten-year industry veteran.
I should be able to try the beta shortly and will have plenty more to say then. If you want to try an early version too, a $5 donation gives access to all upcoming builds and the final release once it’s complete.
15/12/2011 at 15:42 staberas says:
The thing soundtrack?
Do we shoot aliens in this game !!!?!?!
15/12/2011 at 15:44 n0rwegian says:
in space nobody can see you asplode.
15/12/2011 at 15:45 Kohlrabi says:
Does this game feature John Madden?
15/12/2011 at 15:58 mss2 says:
Part of me loves seeing the classic Apollo LM… and part of me can’t help but ask how it’s taking off using its descent stage. :-) (Never mind the idea of it transporting cargo.)
15/12/2011 at 17:57 Zenicetus says:
It does require a little suspension of disbelief, yeah. Maybe it’s because there are existing 3D models of the LEM, plus specs to work with for the flight model? Something like the Moon Bus from the 2001 movie would fit the premise better, but then there would be licensing issues.
Anyway, looks interesting. And it supports proper Translate, Pitch/Roll, Yaw and Thrust on a joystick (Yes! but also gamepad support), so I want to try it. I’ll support any PC game that remembers what a joystick is for, and gives me something interesting to do with it..
15/12/2011 at 16:00 Nyst says:
This needs to be combined with Kerbal Space Program and Moonbase Alpha.
15/12/2011 at 16:06 staberas says:
Agree .
15/12/2011 at 16:15 wccrawford says:
Haha, yes!
15/12/2011 at 16:31 DigitalSignalX says:
With music by Clint Mansell.
15/12/2011 at 16:17 db1331 says:
Fake. This was done on a sound stage.
15/12/2011 at 16:30 The Tupper says:
Whatever happened to James Brolin and why did he not get Harrison Ford’s career? He was there first.
15/12/2011 at 16:28 JB says:
As I got to the end of the line with Sean’s name on it I thought for a moment it was going to say he was a ten year-old!
Even though he’s probably a smidge over 10, it’s still bloody good work from the look of it. =)
15/12/2011 at 16:33 The Tupper says:
That video is rather exciting, possibly a result of me being a child of the early 70s, possibly because I’ve been awake for thirty four hours.
15/12/2011 at 16:34 Ginger Yellow says:
Ah, crap. I saw that shot of the cockpit and started to have flashbacks to Shuttle.
15/12/2011 at 16:37 MonolithicTentacledAbomination says:
I can tell this is fake because the Earth and the Sun are way too huge in the sky.
15/12/2011 at 16:44 minerwilly says:
The shadows clearly don’t fade away when the jet is fired from the lander. Worst. Fake. Ever.
15/12/2011 at 16:46 db1331 says:
A little off topic, but did anyone see the movie Moon with Sam Rockwell? I caught it the other day, thought it was brilliant.
15/12/2011 at 17:04 The Tupper says:
Yeah it’s a wee gem that film. Lovely old-school miniature effects as well (a particular fascination of mine since the days of Gerry Anderson’s Space:1999).
15/12/2011 at 19:54 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Oh, yes. That’s a splendid movie to watch.
15/12/2011 at 20:08 westyfield says:
Moon is pretty much my favourite film. Get and see it, everyone!
15/12/2011 at 20:21 squareking says:
Wonderful soundtrack by the aforementioned Clint Mansell, too.
16/12/2011 at 05:24 Urthman says:
The same director did the recent movie Source Code, the very best review of which was this:
“That’s no Moon.”
16/12/2011 at 02:20 fhfghf says:
Happy 2012 new year,Merry Christmas ,Christmas top gift
http://is.gd/yj9vRG
16/12/2011 at 10:23 roryok says:
There to be a fair few missing from that sentence, and am adam to fix it one day.
16/12/2011 at 10:25 Adam Smith says:
This could day fix it.
16/12/2011 at 10:36 roryok says:
Thank
16/12/2011 at 10:40 Adam Smith says:
problem at all.
06/01/2012 at 06:59 sh0v0r says:
Looking forward to seeing your experience with the Lunar Flight Beta Build Adam… :)