Solar Expanse News

The Demo of Solar Expanse has finally come!

Explore the Solar System and reap its riches, set up your bases on Luna and Mars, send your brave astronauts there, and write a new page in the history of humankind!

See the gameplay
Have a glimpse at the gameplay and see a small chunk of what the game will have to offer. Listen to our devs talking about various features, and challenging themselves with a great task of pioneering in the space race!

Play the Demo
While it's fun to watch pros play, why not launch yourself into the Solar System? During the Demo Next Fest, visit our store page and click the 'DOWNLOAD' button to get the Demo. Download it, and face the space beyond the Earthen skies! See for yourself what it means to hold the reins of a space agency!

Explore and Expand
The gameplay in the demo lasts until the year 2040, or until finishing main contracts. You can always replay it to optimize your flights even further, and set a better final score!

Space Explorers! We’re coming back to you with a bunch of exciting news! New rocket division, improved mission planning, asteroids, and DEMO!

Space Exploration

You’re not flying there blind! We’ve added new functions of exploration and discovery, which will give you information about what you can find on a chosen object. While it is not as accurate as sending a probe, the cost is significantly lower. At this point, you may ask: Why would I need resources on a different object?

Launch Vehicles and Spacecrafts


To experience as realistic space travels as possible, we have introduced the division of our rockets into:

• Spacecrafts (that travel through space, obviously).
  
• Launch Vehicles (that just deliver stuff to orbit). It can be a rocket, but also a spin launch system or electric catapult too. Or in the future - a space elevator.
  

Now you can adjust the cargo load and fuel necessary for your missions more efficiently, and be well prepared for any kind of space voyage!

Porkchop plot and updated mission planning panel


Speaking of missions - planning is now more detailed than ever before. It has been divided into convenient and intuitive sections to ensure easy setup. Moreover, we added a porkchop plot! This chart, used in actual space mission planning, will help you to choose a perfect launch window for your flight. The Axis represents the departure and arrival date, while the color represents the cost. Green line represents the Orbital Transfer Trajectory.


Don’t worry if you don’t get it - at the beginning, we didn’t either. Just click “Optimal” and the game will do the rest.

FINAL DEMO RELEASE
We are extremely excited to announce that you will soon be able to experience our game yourselves, as a demo version is finally coming in February 2024! Stay tuned!

See you in space,
SolEx dev team @ Jutsu Games

[h3]Greetings space enthusiasts![/h3]
The last couple months might have been quiet but I can promise you, we’ve been busy behind the scenes, and are coming with some news.

[h2]Limited tests sign up[/h2]
First of, and likely of most interest to you, we’re opening up our playtest sign up form! Fill it out, answer a couple questions, and we’ll be sure to notify you when the time comes.
If that’s all you’re interested in, FOLLOW THIS LINK to sign-up and receive an access to the early build of our game in the future.



[h2]In other news[/h2]

We’ve been busy. Our team has grown and we’re hard at work making the game better. You might remember our last announcement where we showed off mission planning. While it’s not completely unrecognizable, we’ve iterated and improved it accounting for some design changes in the project. We might be doing rocket science here to make sure everything checks out, but we don’t want our user experience to be similar to the sometimes confusing calculations we deal with! Sadly there’s not much to show yet so you’ll have to go off my word.

We’ve also worked hard on the various contracts and jobs you will encounter during your playthrough. You’ll start off with simple tasks of flying to the Moon and beyond, and advance into interesting challenges of paving the road to stars through the construction of bases and propellant depots out in space.The early contracts will organically and non-intrusively teach you how to play, while the mid- and late-game contracts will leave plenty of freedom in how to approach your objectives. Make sure to plan out your expansion well so you can quickly respond to various tasks!


By the way, here are a couple of space-exploration games that we would recommend checking:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/

Space explorers!
This time we will talk about the basic interactions within the game

[h3]Plan Mission[/h3]


Planning missions is a very important part of our game. In this window, you will be able to:

• Decide which rocket is going to be sent,
  
• Type and ammount of cargo (resources, modules, telesopes, probes etc.),
  
• Select randevous type, for example: flyby, land or impact.
  
• Decide whether rocket start will be optimal or unoptimal, which means less or more fuel will be needed and spacecraft will reach its destination slower/faster,
  
• Pick unique name for your mission for easier navigation through missions list.
  
• Check start & arrival date and mission length.
  

[h3]Find Object[/h3]

Find Object panel is another singificant element of gameplay in Solar Expanse. In this panel, you will switch between objects and its moons, search for destinations for your missons, but it will also serve as a tool to easily track down any spacecraft that is situated on low/high orbit of its parent object or any spacecraft that has been succesively launched. Sorting objects by type (terrestrial planets, gas giants, artificial satellites, asteroid belt objects etc.) will help you find these objects faster and more efficiently.

[h3]Graphic Improvements[/h3]
There is a number of other visual improvements that we are developing at the moment - layers, lines, labels, planets textures, clouds, spacecraft models, lights, rocket fumes... more will come :)


Best,
SolEx dev team @ Jutsu Games

[h3]Greetings astronauts & colonizers![/h3]
The time has come to present you Solar Expanse major development update!
Thank you all for your patience - we are doing some literal Rocket Science here!

[h3]Flights Trajectories[/h3]
Our primary goal is to create a realistic game about space travels. Therefore we are working hard to simulate the orbital transfers. Here you can see a classic Hohmann transfer:



Later in the game, for a much larger fuel and technological cost, you will be able to expedite the transfers too




How do you feel about that? Let us know in the comments!

Best,
SolEx dev team @ Jutsu Games