Space Station Designer · published
Welcome to the fifteenth Dev Diary entry of 'Space Station Designer'. In the previous entry (Dev Diary #14), we discussed some of the influences behind the game, including NASA's Space Station Freedom and various technical and history books we used for reference. In this entry, we'll expand on some of the games that inspired the design and aesthetics behind 'Space Station Designer'.
'Project Space Station' front cover of the Commodore 64 version (source: MobyGames).'Project Space Station' is a simulation game originally released for the Commodore 64 back in 1985. It puts the player in charge of NASA, and the main goal is building a functional space station using a fleet of space shuttles while keeping a positive cash flow.'Project Space Station' intro screen (source: MobyGames).
The game was very advanced for its time in terms of UI/UX design, and featured a wide variety of interesting mechanics, including outlining the layout of the station, providing commercial services, and managing crews.
'Project Space Station' station design screen (source: MobyGames).'Project Space Station' crew management screen (source: MobyGames).Moreover, it also sprinkled some 'arcade' elements on top, where players had to use their joysticks to keep the shuttles correctly centered during the launch, guide them back to Earth through the re-entry and landing phases, and move around astronauts conducting Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) in pods to perform installation and maintenance duties.'Project Space Station' space shuttle launch minigame (source: MobyGames).'Project Space Station' space shuttle landing minigame (source: MobyGames).'Project Space Station' is a game that perfectly captures the optimism and the possibilities opened by space exploration in general, and setting a permanent presence in orbit in particular. Unfortunately, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster -which took place the year after the game's release- had a negative impact that greatly affected the public perception on crewed space exploration and the risks associated with it. Regardless, 'Project Space Station' was one of the main sources of inspiration for 'Space Station Designer' and its mechanics, including station design, crew management, and the launch of resupply spacecraft.'Project Space Station' space shuttle launch preparations (source: MobyGames).
There's plenty of great information online about 'Project Space Station', including the original game manuals and extensive playthrough videos. Its MobyGames entry has screenshots for all the platforms where it was originally available, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS. Lastly, 'The Digital Antiquarian' blog has a three-part series of articles about the game (Part I, Part II, and Part III) that are well worth a read.
'Space Station Manager' is a game made by solo developer Kai-Peter Backman back in the early '00s. Unfortunately, his website www.mistaril.com is now defunct, and a lot of information about the game is now lost. You can find an announcement in the flipcode.com forums from March 2003, shortly after the game was released.'Space Station Manager' gameplay, featuring a station with large solar panels.Just like 'Project Space Station' back in the 1980s, 'Space Station Manager' was very unique for its time. Before writing this article, we thought it was the first game that allowed players to build plausible space stations in Earth orbit in 3D, but we found out that this other game that came out in 1998 did it first!'Space Station Manager' was rebranded as 'Shorthike' a few years later, and it was eventually discontinued. Luckily, the developer made the last build available online for free.'Space Station Manager' gameplay, featuring the Skylab station and the Apollo CSM.It can be a bit difficult to run 'Space Station Manager' on a modern system, so if you're curious to learn more about it, there's this very nice gameplay demo video available on YouTube.
'Shuttle' front cover of the DOS version (source: MobyGames).
'Shuttle' is a space flight simulator released in 1992 for DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST. Being a 30+ year old game, its graphics look quite simple by today's standards, but it was a very impressive technical achievement back in the day that fit in two floppy disks. The game box came with a very chunky manual and it was an absolute treat for those who wanted to have a taste of what realistic spaceflight feels like, including going through extensive checklists and conducting lengthy maneuvers.'Shuttle' gameplay: external view of the launch pad (source: MobyGames).'Shuttle' gameplay: the pilot area (source: MobyGames).Although 'Space Station Designer' is more focused on space station construction and management, the aesthetics behind 'Shuttle' certainly provided an inspiration for us during development. Just like 'Project Space Station', there's also a wide range of material for this game available online, which is well worth checking out if you're interested in this spacecraft.'Shuttle' gameplay: technical information of the Space Shuttle Main Engines (source: MobyGames).
The three games covered earlier provided the main sources of inspiration for 'Space Station Designer'. However, there are three more that we recommend you check out if you're interested in the subject of space stations.The first one is 'Space M+A+X', which originally came out for DOS in 1986. Its text-heavy UI was then remade for DOS and Amiga in 1992. Unfortunately, there isn't that much information available about its gameplay online. Luckily, Ignacio managed to hunt down a used copy of the 1986 edition on eBay more than 10 years ago. Its printed manual was definitely helpful in order to get a good overview of the game.'Space M+A+X' front cover of the DOS version from 1986 (source: MobyGames).
The second one is 'Earth Orbit Stations' or EOS. This game came out in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and the Apple II, and it shares some similarities with 'Project Space Station'. Although the game looks quite dated (understandably so, as it came out nearly 40 years ago!), we encourage you to check the playthrough videos available online.'Earth Orbit Stations' front cover of the Commodore 64 version (source: MobyGames).Lastly, there's 'SpaceStationSim', which came out back in 2005. The game can be described as 'The Sims in a space station environment', and it provides a very deep level of control of the crews' activities. For 'Space Station Designer', we decided to put the focus on higher-level mechanics, but 'SpaceStationSim' certainly inspired some of our visuals.'SpaceStationSim' front cover of the Windows version (source: MobyGames).
This blog post provided an overview of the games that inspired the initial development stages of 'Space Station Designer'. This will be the last Dev Diary entry for 2025. Early next year, we'll be publishing a series of articles on the topic that makes 'Space Station Designer' unique among other games in the genre: the construction of the Lunar Space Elevator Megaproject.Don't forget that our closed beta is still active (more information here). A few weeks ago we published another large update (version 0.5.90), which includes several Quality of Life (QoL) improvements and loads of polish. The game is shaping up nicely, and we definitely encourage you to join the beta so that you can help us refine the game during the last leg of development.Merry XMas and Happy New Year! See you in our next Dev Diary in 2026!
--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)