Hey Pioneers! Welcome to the first Q&A with our development team that will give you an exclusive look into the SpaceCraft universe, its development history, the game’s future, and some stunning concept art! In this Q&A, Shiro Games CEO Nicolas Cannasse answers some of the most frequently asked questions since SpaceCraft was revealed during the PC Gaming Show a couple of weeks ago.
What is SpaceCraft?
"SpaceCraft is an online space exploration and building game.
Roam in a vast galaxy, move seamlessly from systems to planets in order to discover and mine resources. Establish yourself, improve your base and optimize your experience by building new advanced parts for your ships. Create corporations with friends and start trading with other players. Travel, discover and talk to NPCs to uncover the secrets of a story-rich world. Choose your gameplay in a persistent universe."
What about the setting?
"In the struggle against the Tripods, mankind found a way to escape eradication thanks to the discovery of a mysterious portal leading to a distant part of the universe. You are left stranded, lost and deprived of what used to be the cradle of humanity.
It is now time to rebuild and found a new home."
Is SpaceCraft going to be PvP or PvE focused? Maybe both?
“The game is primarily crafting and production oriented, we would like players to cooperate with one another. Forming groups of players will impact your productivity and your ability to rise above your competition.
There will also be some PvE combat elements against the fauna populated the various planets. Encounters with space pirates will also force you to engage in space combat.
As for PvP encounters, the game will not be highly PvP focused, but will revolve more around player cooperation and indirect economic competition. That said, it is an aspect that we will adjust as the development progresses.”
Is it a live service game?
“At Shiro, we have also provided long time support for our titles, for SpaceCraft we are also planning to release multiple updates per year. But not necessarily weekly/monthly updates. (like most live service games). Instead, the SpaceCraft universe is being built to support constant evolution influenced by players.”
To which other title is SpaceCraft similar?
“SpaceCraft is a unique title, but of course you will see some similarities with other titles like Elite Dangerous, Satisfactory, Space Engineers, Eve Online, Star Citizen among others…”
Is SpaceCraft playable in first person or third-person perspective?
“A bit of both, actually: As a character, you will be able to play in first person within buildings and while on the surface of planets.
At the moment, while flying around in your spaceship, the camera will be in third-person only. But we’ve seen a lot of demand for first person cockpit view and it is still an open question for the time being.”
What does MMO mean for SpaceCraft?
“While SpaceCraft is an online multiplayer game, it is not a traditional MMO, we would rather avoid being defined as a MMO. Our goal is to offer an online experience where you will be able to create your ship, your base and thrive alone or in groups against other players or groups of players.
There will be places to meet other players and you will encounter other people in space or on planets. The game will also be enjoyable and viable for solo players, who just want to discover new areas and create their own base wherever they want. We want SpaceCraft to be a seamless persistent experience.”
Does the game need to be online?
“Yes, it’s a multiplayer game, but we made sure that while the game is very fun with other players, it can also be fully played alone. It is a persistent universe where your factories are producing while you are offline and market prices change.”
How is the server infrastructure going to work, will I be able to host a local dedicated server?
“The whole game will be hosted on official servers and while we appreciate the interest of the flexibility offered by privately owned servers, major features of the game and the experience wouldn’t be functional. We are aiming to support several thousand players per server. At the moment, our system doesn’t allow the creation of private dedicated servers, but we’ve seen a lot of demand for the feature.”
Will it be possible to play with a controller or other peripherals?
“At the moment our teams are focused on creating a comprehensive control scheme tailored to the various gameplay elements for the PC audience. Controller support poses quite a number of challenges and is unlikely to be available at earlier stages of the development.”
When can we expect actual gameplay?
“Our goal is to have a Private Alpha in the first half of 2025. But of course we still have a lot of work to do. We want to make sure that the first hands-on experience is enjoyable with several systems in place and that the game looks good.”
Could we be more accurate than 2025?
“There is still a lot of work to be done, we will continue assessing our progress and evaluate what would be the ideal date for the early access. The main goal remains to have an early access phase in 2025, probably in the second half of the year.”
Does Shiro Games plan to release SpaceCraft on consoles, if yes which ones?
“We do not plan on releasing SpaceCraft on consoles for the time being. Our teams are focused on delivering a playable PC version of the game at the moment. We also want to keep our options open, we will reassess based on player demand.”
What languages will be supported?
"SpaceCraft is going to be available in the following languages upon early access launch:
- English
- French
- Spanish - Spain
- German
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- Portuguese - Brazil
- Polish
Additional languages may be added in later stages of the development process and based on the needs of the project."
Thanks for joining us and don't hesitate to leave us a question on any of our social channels, Discord, or on our Steam forums, and we'll see if we can get it answered in one of our future articles! Thanks again Pioneers for all of your support and feedback so far, you have been amazing and we can't wait to share the game with you all. - Shiro Games