The year is 2034 and you have been tasked with building a successor to the International Space Station.
In its debut game Stable Orbit, one-man studio Codalyn will send players into space on a mission of building, earning, and survival. The simulation will not only include the development of a station but will also require management of contracts, resources, and a variety of unexpected obstacles. Successful missions will lead to even greater challenges like the creation of an orbiting city.
Codalyn graciously provided me with an Alpha build of Stable Orbit so I could try my hand at station building in its current state. While it’s too early to get a strong sense of the gameplay, construction already has all the ingredients for serious fun. The game was very wisely designed with a Sandbox Mode, allowing for total freedom of construction. I may have quickly resorted to silly nonsense with my own bases but I was seriously impressed by the foundation that has been built for the rest of the experience. Tinkering to learn what’s possible got me very interested following the game’s development.
Stable Orbit was designed and developed by Codalyn founder Jim Offerman. Offerman has over a decade of professional game industry experience, and contributed to Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011), Tomb Raider (2013), and Thief (2014). Stable Orbit is scheduled for full release in Q3 2016.
Todd Mitchell is a US Midwest-based comedy writer and game developer with bylines at Weekly Humorist, Fanbyte, Slackjaw, End of the Bench Sports, and more. He’s the author of Inside Video Game Creation, the founder of CodeWritePlay, and host of the GameDev Breakdown podcast. Follow him on Twitter @Mechatodzilla.