Space Station Designer · published
Welcome to the fourteenth Dev Diary entry of 'Space Station Designer'. In the two previous entries (Dev Diary #12 and Dev Diary #13), we went deep into the details of the Lunar Orbit station. In this entry and the next, we'll take a small break from covering game mechanics and discuss some of the influences behind Space Station Designer.
When we set out to create 'Space Station Designer' (or 'Space Station Manager', as it was originally called), we had a few guiding principles that we adhered to:
The guiding principles above were our North Star during the first years of development and, initially, our goal was to create a game featuring a single space station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Once we reached that point, we realised that managing a single station was too limiting, and we made the decision to add support for stations in higher orbits. These stations were originally meant to be uncrewed orbital platforms, but once the implementation was complete we realised during internal playtesting that there was so much to gain from turning these uncrewed platforms into full-fledged stations, so we went ahead and made changes in the codebase to make it happen.The Lunar Space Elevator was only introduced about a year ago. Among all the elements in Space Station Designer, the Lunar Space Elevator is the one that is probably the farthest from the current state of the art in space exploration. That being said, the in-game requirements behind its construction and deployment fall well within the realm of "plausible technology" from the guiding principles laid out above. The Lunar Space Elevator will have its own dedicated series of Dev Diaries in early 2026, which will cover all these requirements in detail.
As mentioned earlier, one of our guiding principles is to make 'Space Station Designer' evoke the sense of wonder and optimism behind the American Space Program from the early 1980s. In case you've never heard of it before, 'Space Station Freedom' was an international effort led by NASA in the 1980s with the goal of establishing a permanent human presence in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).The proposal went through several iterations throughout that decade and the early 1990s, including the 'Power Tower' in 1984, and the 'Revised Baseline Configuration' in 1987. In 1993, the whole project was renamed as the 'International Space Station' (ISS) by the Clinton administration.Fig 1: The 'Power Tower' configuration.
Fig 2: The 'Revised Baseline' configuration.
Fig 3: The 'Dual Keel' design from 1986.
Fig 4: 'Space Station Freedom' design as of 1991.We made extensive use of artwork and technical documentation from this era when designing some of the modules included in the game, including the shape and texture of the solar panels, radiators, trusses, and laboratory modules.Fig 5: 'Space Station Freedom' modules breakdown.Fig 6: Another 'Dual Keel' concept illustration.
Fig 7: Concept art of 'Space Station Freedom' from the mid 1980s.
In addition to the visual references and NASA's documentation, we relied on a series of technical and history books to inform the design of 'Space Station Designer' and ensure that we stick to our guiding principle of basing it in reality. Sadly, many of these books have been out of print for years, but used copies for some of them are still available in online stores. We highly recommend them if you want to go deeper into the background of 'Space Station Designer'.Fig 8: 'Space Stations and Platforms', by Gordon R. Woodcock (1986)Fig 9: 'Space Stations: Base Camps to the Stars', by Roger D. Launius (2003).Fig 10: 'Project Space Station: Plans for a Permanent Manned Space Station', by Brian O'Leary (1983, reprinted in 2017).Fig 11: 'Island in the Sky: Building the International Space Station', by Piers Bizony (1996).Fig 12: 'Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir', by Jerry M. Linenger (2000).Fig 13: 'Space Elevator Systems Architecture', by Peter Swan and Cathy Swan (2007).Fig 14: 'Before Lift–off: The Making of a Space Shuttle Crew', by Henry Cooper (1987).Fig 15: 'The Space Station Decision: Incremental Politics and Technological Choice', by Howard E. McCurdy (1990).Fig 16: 'The Space Station', by Kent Alexander (1990).
Fig 17: 'The Story of Manned Space Stations: An Introduction', by Philip Baker (2007).
This blog post provided an overview on the influences that shaped the design of 'Space Station Designer', including artwork and books. In the next Dev Diary entry, we'll cover some of the computer games that provided an inspiration for the game's mechanics.Our closed beta is still active (more information here). We're hard at work wrapping up the upcoming update (version 0.5.90), which we're planning to release in mid-to-late November. This update includes several Quality of Life (QoL) improvements and loads of polish, so if you haven't tried 'Space Station Designer' yet, we think this will be the ideal time to do so!See you in the next Dev Diary!--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)