Hello and welcome to the Fortified Space community! The game just entered closed beta on June 8, 2025, so I'd like to introduce myself and my vision for this game. I hope you enjoy following along.
Nightsail Game Studios
Nightsail Game Studios is just me. I started teaching myself game development for a very simple reason: I was frustrated that the games I always dreamt about didn't exist. That's it. I'm not here to make a name for myself, and I'm not here to rake in a ton of profit. I just want to keep developing games until I gain the skills and feedback necessary to create the games I've always dreamed of but rarely found. I want you all to be a part of this journey, not just because I think you'll have fun, but because I also want to learn from all of you. Nobody gets better without reviews and feedback.
Below are the principles that I want to focus on at Nightsail Game Studios:
The spaceship as a cozy mobile base. I always loved the idea of living and working on a naval starship. In my games, I will always push for players to have the ability to walk around their ship, interact with it, fly it, and fight with it. There's a certain coziness associated with this that I want to capture the best I can. It's actually why the studio is called Nightsail; imagine being out on the water in pitch darkness, with your sailboat being the only source of warm light. I want spaceships to feel like ships, not static stations or loading screens.
Planetary landings. Who doesn't like a good planetary landing? I love the idea of connecting your ship/home to the outside environment in this way. I want to allow players to go from their ship to planetary surfaces as naturally as possible.
Rich, populated environments. Some of my favorite locations of my favorite sci-fi games are the densely populated capital cities or stations. I think it's inherent to the genre, but oftentimes a lot of sci-fi players find themselves alone in a vast universe. I don't really enjoy that feeling. I like the warmth and hum of a busy world. In my games, I want to try my hardest to ensure that there are plenty of friendly NPC characters around. Players will always feel like they are part of something bigger.
Fortified Space
Fortified Space is currently feature-complete and in closed beta, which is a great place to be. It's all about polish now. Play-tester feedback is driving a lot of the work, so you might see some improvements to the mechanics and graphics compared to what is in the trailer and screenshots. After the game is polished and the bugs are squashed, I will be free to add all kinds of fun little additions to flesh out the world. I have quite a few ideas, all designed to push the game toward the three driving principles I listed above. Right now, it is a space combat and tower defense game. I want to see if I can push it further. I hope you're as excited as I am!