[h3]This blog is part of a series that will cover the core gameplay, features and systems that are present in the tutorial. Each blog will focus on a specific step in the tutorial, giving you a better understanding of what you can expect to see first-hand later on this year.
With this series, we want to take a similar approach to how you would play a typical video game: start off with the basics and then move on to more advanced systems and principles as you progress. Which is why we have chosen the tutorial as a starting point. This will, hopefully, allow you to better understand and appreciate the universe we are building.
The tutorial is currently a work in progress, so please bear in mind that in-game footage, content and dialogues are subject to change.[/h3]
The tutorial begins on Babylon 7, a space station owned by The Company.

Space stations serve as the primary place to refine resources, trade goods as well as upgrade and repair ships. While the first station in the tutorial is a single-player instance, they act as key locations for multiplayer and cooperative interactions. We’ll leave this topic for now and get back to it in another blog at a later date.
A dialogue pops up, Controller U456B introduces themselves as our trainer. We are employee #115-C, an ex-convict who has just been released from prison and has earned the right to reintegrate society. Or in other words: work for The Company.
A quick side node regarding character creation. It's still being worked on, the team are currently debating whether or not you will have the option to choose a different backstory for your character.
When creating your character you won’t have to choose your stats or gameplay style, the option to do so will arrive later in the game because we want you to have enough time to discover how you prefer to play the game.
Cosmetic character creation, choosing your character's gender, face, skin colour, facial hair and hair, will be possible.

Back to the tutorial. Controller U456B gives us good, bad and worse news:
- We have been assigned our very own Spacecraft called “Scrappy Pioneer”
- We must take good care of it, otherwise we will have to pay for any damage done to the vessel
- We don’t have any money
We are assinged a contract (otherwise known as mission), telling us to reach the nearby planet Solar Alpha I and enter its atmosphere.
We make our way over to Scrappy, conveniently docked right behind us. After pressing E to enter the ship a prompt pops up asking us if we’re ready to take off.

An automatically piloted undocking sequence helps us take off from the space station before we are given full control of Scrappy.
We can pilot our spacecraft by using our mouse to control the flight path (or direction) and W + S to increase or decrease throttle respectively. We want piloting to be intuitive and easy to learn while trying to avoid it being overly simplistic.
Once outside of the hangar the piloting interface appears:

- Skill Slots = Skills are linked to modules. Not all modules give skills and some can even give multiple skills.
- Thrust bar = Indicates how much your engines are being pushed rather than indicating speed
- Hull bar = The spacecraft’s health bar
- Battery bar = Drains when using skills, automatically recharges when the spacecraft’s solar panels are in direct sunlight
- Mag-Plasma tank = Magnetic-Plasma, used to do Faster Than Light jumps
Think of our spacecraft as another main character. Upgrading it, by changing or adding new modules, will improve its stats and change its skills, leading to different gameplay but also allowing us to explore previously unattainable areas in space. We can also own multiple spacecraft, but this will come later on.
Using the Shift key activates after-burners, this will help us reach our objective faster but will consume energy stored in our battery.
As we approach Solar Alpha I, our orientation begins to change and we seamlessly transition from space to the atmosphere and begin our descent to the surface.
We have posted an extended video of the GIF that includes exclusive, pre-Alpha, in-game footage over on Discord in the "Videos" channel. Go and check it out!In real life, gravity naturally defines up and down, but in video games, this has to be manually decided. Most games use a fixed up direction, but games set in space are trickier since planets have their own gravitational pull.
In SpaceCraft, space has a universal up and down to help navigate and avoid disorientation. However, when entering a planet’s atmosphere, the ship’s orientation must shift to match the planet’s gravity. To make this transition smooth, a buffer zone gradually adjusts the up direction. When leaving a planet, the shift is even more seamless, as the ship is already facing the sky, allowing for a natural transition back to space orientation.
We have reached the end of the first part of the first contract in the tutorial, which represents a mere couple of minutes worth of gameplay in the current pre-Alpha build.
This series serves as a sneak peek into the game, rest assured more in-depth topics will be explored at a later date and in a different format to the current one.
The team hopes you have enjoyed reading and would love to read your thoughts on the contents and format of this blog. You can do so here in the comments section or by joining our
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