Dev Diary #1 - Introduction to Space Station Designer - Part I

Welcome to the first Dev Diary entry of 'Space Station Designer'. In this article, we'll provide an overview of the game and discuss some of the details behind the'Campaign' mode. Whether you've just found out about 'Space Station Designer' or you have been following its development for a while, this post, and the upcoming part II, are a perfect entry point to learn more about the game.

What is Space Station Designer?

'Space Station Designer' is a construction and management game for PC where you are in charge of leading a private space company that works closely with one of four partner governments. Your job is to set up a network of space stations in Earth and Lunar orbits, with the ultimate goal of assembling and operating an ambitious megaproject: the 'Lunar Space Elevator'.

'Space Station Designer' follows the footsteps of our previous strategy game 'Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager' (BASPM), also published by Slitherine. For this new game, we decided to move slightly away from the historical angle that made BASPM so successful, and create something that starts around the turn of the millennium and extends into the near future. While some of the elements found in the game don't exist yet, the overall setting of the game is closer to the realm of possibility than it is to science fiction, and we strongly believe this makes 'Space Station Designer' unique.

Our main sources of inspiration for the game were the visions for a permanent human presence in Earth orbit, including NASA's Space Station Freedom, which ultimately became the International Space Station (ISS). We'll go into details regarding our inspirations, which includes technical books and computer games from the 1980s and 1990s, in a future diary entry.

The 'Campaign' Game Mode

'Space Station Designer' features three game modes:'Campaign', 'Sandbox', and 'Free Builder', and all of them include modding support (more on this later). The 'Campaign' mode starts with the selection of a Partner Government and a Core Module for the first station, which is located in Low Earth Orbit or 'LEO'.

As shown in the screenshots above, all Partner Governments and Core Module variants provide a series of bonuses and special attributes. Once the initial selections have been made, the Core Module is launched and deployed to LEO:

Which marks the proper start of the 'Campaign':

As you can see from the screenshot above, there are quite a lot of options on this screen. We'll be covering the details behind them in subsequent entries but, for now, here's a non-comprehensive list of activities that you'll be able to perform while playing 'Space Station Designer':

• Purchasing and installing a wide range of modules.

• Keeping the station operational by balancing a diverse range of stats, such as electricity, cooling, orbit and attitude control, overall maintenance, etc.

• Hiring and managing astronauts.

• Launching crewed and uncrewed resupply spacecraft to the station, dispatching them back to Earth, and even transferring them to stations in other orbits.

• Unlocking research technologies from a vast tech tree, which includes over 60 unique technologies.

• Installing manufacturing modules and setting up production lines that create valuable commercial goods, which can be sold in a dynamic commercial market.

• Opening stations in higher orbits and even around the Moon, and making them all interact and work in sync as part of a large network.

• Acquiring Industrial R&D technologies from a second tech tree featuring over 20 entries, which