In-game event19 Aug 2026Crashing Craters | Update 36.3Collision craters form and combine together more realistically. You can also duplicate objects, watch black holes evaporate, and explore a simulation of a newly discovered exosatellite. Creating Craters Craters from collisions with moons and small rock fragments alike are more realistic, blending naturally and better respecting an object’s elevation range and topography. Larger impacts now leav…
Artemis II Mission The recent Artemis II mission swept around the far side of the Moon, taking humanity farther than they’ve ever been from Earth. Experience it yourself in our new simulation, Artemis II: Humanity's Farthest Journey . Earthset created in Universe Sandbox. Check out the original Earthset image captured by the Artemis II astronauts. Orion Spacecraft The Orion Integrity spacecraft…
Blast apart rings with lasers, deform moons as they become tidally locked, vaporize meteors, and more! We’ve reconstructed the physics simulation architecture of Universe Sandbox to provide a new base for improving performance, finding and fixing issues faster, and more easily adding new physics features. “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to pre…
Our first planned major release of 2026 is our physics architecture overhaul that will simulate meteors (atmospheric drag) and improve lasers. We’re also continuing development on life simulation, bringing Universe Sandbox to mobile devices, and other grand plans. But before we get into those projects, let’s look back at some highlights from last year. Work in Progress: Objects changing color b…
For the last four years, we’ve been working on a major overhaul of Universe Sandbox to utilize the Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) from Unity, the game engine we use to build Universe Sandbox, to · Improve performance now and in the future. · Add new physics simulation, like visually deformed objects and atmospheric drag to simulate meteors. · Make our game code easier to maintain and bui…
Every year, Steam gives the “Labor of Love” award to games that have been out for a while and continue to receive new content and support year after year. If you feel we are worthy, please nominate Universe Sandbox for the "Labor of Love" award! This year, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Universe Sandbox’s Early Access launch on Steam. We're proud of what we've accomplished in the last…
Learn about the recently discovered sednoid 2023 KQ14 and why it challenges the Planet Nine hypothesis. Enjoy a handful of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements like the ability to quickly fly to planets just by selecting an already selected object. We’ve also updated our game engine and improved support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays. A New Sednoid In the Outer Solar System The rec…
The 10-year anniversary of Universe Sandbox’s Early Access launch on Steam is this Sunday, August 24, 2025! To celebrate this milestone, Universe Sandbox will be on sale now until August 28. Over the last 10 years, we’ve added so many new features to make Universe Sandbox better than ever, from simulating liquids and gases flowing over planet surfaces and lasers in 2019, to realistically simula…
Watch the third-ever discovered visitor from outside our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, fly past the Sun and see how it compares it to other known interstellar interlopers. We’ve also improved the view that shows what parts of the surface of a planet are illuminated, updated our scientific notation, and more! In the Light of Day The Daylight view now shows surface illumination of a planet in real-time…
Watch the boiling surface of a star, then set off a supernova and light up your worlds (before your planets are vaporized anyways). Massive stars now leave behind a neutron star or black hole when they end their life with a bang, and much more! Super(nova) Lighting Supernovas now brilliantly light up space as they explode and boil away your planets. Be careful looking at them without your Space…
Describe Your Worlds Add rich details to any object and the simulation itself with the new description properties. Include your favorite facts about each planet in the Solar System, or give a detailed backstory to your custom Tatooine! Add them under · Object Properties > Overview > Description · Simulation > Description Choose Your Startup Simulation Pick up where you left off and have Univers…
We started 2025 by releasing our major graphics overhaul , but we have much more planned for the year, including allowing meteors to burn up in an atmosphere, simulating basic life, and getting Universe Sandbox on mobile devices so you can create and destroy on the go. Before diving into details, let’s look back on some highlights from 2024. Highlights from 2024 The Moon’s shadow passing over E…
Immerse yourself in a universe more awe-inspiring and realistic than ever before with our next-generation graphics update! We've also added many interface improvements to make controlling the universe easier and more intuitive. You need to see it to believe it. A More Realistic Graphics Engine We’ve completely replaced our 10-year-old graphics technology with a state-of-the-art system to make U…
Since our last sneak peek of the Universe Sandbox graphics update, we’ve put out a preview version of our new state-of-the-art graphics system that you can test now on Steam to immerse yourself in a universe more awe-inspiring and realistic than ever before. We've also made many interface improvements to make controlling the universe easier and more intuitive. There's still more to do before th…
Immerse yourself in a universe more awe-inspiring and realistic than ever before with our next-generation Universe Sandbox graphics update. We’ve spent the last two years completely replacing our 10-year-old graphics technology with a state-of-the-art system in our biggest update in years and our biggest visual update ever! · Our new graphics engine is a vastly improved realistic rendering syst…
Prepare to immerse yourself in a universe more awe-inspiring and realistic than ever before with our next-generation Universe Sandbox graphics update. Over the past year and a half, we've been replacing our decade-old graphics technology with a state-of-the-art system that sets the stage for future enhancements. While there's still more to be done before it's ready for release, we're excited to…
Our new graphics renderer will make hot spots, like those lasered into this planet. This graphics overhaul is a work in progress. This year's plans include a major graphics overhaul, more realistic collisions & craters, and putting Universe Sandbox on mobile devices so you can create and destroy on the go. Before getting into the details, here’s a brief recap of last year. Highlights from 2023…
2024 Total Solar Eclipse Watch the Moon completely block out the Sun across parts of Mexico, the United States, and Canada in our simulation of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. Check it out under: Home > Open > Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 Learn more about this eclipse. Chaotic Collisional Aftermath Immerse yourself in chaos as gas clouds expand and rock fragments collide in the a…
We’ve got a lot planned for 2024, including a massive graphics upgrade, collision and cratering improvements, getting Universe Sandbox on mobile devices (iOS & Android), and more! We’ll go into more exciting details in our upcoming 2024 Roadmap post , but first, let’s reflect on some achievements from 2023. 1 Spherical cow We added one new human-scale object last year - a spherical cow . A sphe…
Universe Sandbox is now available to play on GeForce NOW , NVIDIA’s cloud-based game streaming service! GeForce NOW connects to digital PC game stores like Steam and Epic Games so you can play games you already own in the cloud and stream them to any compatible device in real time. Bend the laws of gravity, collide planets, boil away oceans, fire epic space lasers, and customize your universe i…
Simulate, construct, and terraform planets and atmospheres more realistically than ever before with new materials! Planet sizes, atmospheric heating, gas and liquid colors, and more are now simulated based on the mass and phase of each material in a planet’s composition. Learn more about how we simulate materials in two new guides Home > Guides > Tutorials > Playing with Materials Home > Guides…
The Moon is bombarded with asteroids made of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, and water. These materials are transferred to the Moon's surface, forming lakes that flow together and eventually evaporate to create an atmosphere. Our new composition system, including eight new materials, like oxygen and methane, is still in active development and has not been released, but you can opt-in t…
Collisions and surface simulation already run smoothly in Universe Sandbox on mobile devices. Bringing the complete Universe Sandbox experience to mobile is an exciting and challenging project, and while development was stalled while hiring a new user interface engineer, we are back on track! While we still don’t have a release date for Universe Sandbox on mobile, we want to share our recent pr…
Gravity Simulation We've completely overhauled our gravity simulation to increase accuracy, stability, and overall performance. Run simulations at higher speeds than ever before while maintaining gravitational accuracy. Many simulations can now be run at noticeably higher simulation speeds. Try increasing the simulation speed of the Solar System simulation or your own custom simulation. Before…
We’ve combined our two previously separate collision methods improving collisions so shockwaves now realistically eject fragments as they spread across gas giants during collisions. Interface panels, such as graphs, data maps, and object properties, are now remembered when you open saved simulations. We’ve also added new astronomical discoveries to explore, like the galaxy-sized detector used t…
The Milky Way galaxy with a trail for every nebula in the galaxy using our upcoming physics architecture improvements. Currently, trails are only shown for some nebulae due to performance limitations. The colors show how many times the orbit of a nebula must be computed to maintain physical accuracy. Blue means fewer computations, while red means more. We're working to give you more power to un…
Watch a green comet pass by Earth for the first time in 50,000 years, see an asteroid swing by Earth in one of the closest ever encounters, and explore a hypothetical planet from the 1800s disproven by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Speaking of comets, asteroids, and planets… A comet, an asteroid, and a hypothetical planet walk into the Solar System. The hypothetical planet says to the comet,…
We’re excited about our plans for 2023, including adding more materials to planets as well as improvements for our physics simulation, but we’ll dive into our roadmap in an upcoming post. First, let’s reflect on some of our accomplishments from 2022. 1 New team member Last year, Conrad joined the team as our User Interface Engineer. Since then, Conrad has been adding interface controls for obje…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.