Into The Stars Is A Space Captain Sim On Kickstarter

The space game genre seemed to vanish around ten years ago. It returned in 2013, flourished last year, and is now reaching the point where it's hard to continue describing "space" as a genre. Just like "forest" isn't a genre, space is a setting, and one in which all kinds of games are now being made. Today's take on inky blackness: Into The Stars, a Kickstarter project from former DICE and Capcom developers that aims to mix Oregon Trail and FTL to form a first-person space captain game.

Here's the pitch video, scored with new music from Mass Effect's composer:

For those who prefer written words: you're the captain of a space ship on the run from aliens who destroyed your home world. From your bay of computer screens, you manage your ship's resources, crew, exploration and combat, occasionally switching out to a third-person ship view to deal with the latter. Although first-person and open-world, it doesn't seem like you'll be getting up from your Captain's chair and adventuring like Picard - it's a game about the decisions you make from that chair, with permadeath one of the reasons to make them carefully.

It's got 29 days to go and has promptly raised $25,507 of its $85,000 target, which sounds small for the kind of game they're making. My hopes are buoyed by the above trailer and the other screenshots through on the Kickstarter page, which suggest a substantial amount of the game already exists.

$25/£16.38 will get you a digital copy of the game with a projected delivery date of July 2015.