We’re still a few years (or centuries) away from colonizing other planets, but that’s why we have video games.
Developer System Era Softworks released a reveal trailer for its upcoming planet-exploration game Astroneer today, and it looks like a beautiful experience. Astroneer puts players in the role of an interplanetary explore in the 25th century who is harvesting worlds for their most precious resources. Your lonely astronaut is capable of doing this thanks to a set of tools that enable you to form and deform the terrain of worlds with the swipe of a button. You can also quickly build tools and vehicles to help you perform certain tasks and get around.
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In the trailer, which you can watch below, you can see hints of Minecraft’s building and the solitude of the marooned-on-Mars story The Martian, which director Ridley Scott recently adapted for the screen.
Check it out:
Astroneer is another game that is potentially infinite. System Era Softworks notes that its procedural-content generation can manufacture world after world for as long as anyone could possibly play the game. And at the same time, the studio — like No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games — is relatively tiny. But what System Era lacks in size, it makes up for with experience. The company boasts industry veterans from Halo developer 343 Industries, Disney, Valve, and Ubisoft.
Finally, in its press release, the studio touched briefly on its inspiration for Astroneer.
“For us, this game is a culmination of our deep passion and affection for the beauty of our universe,” reads the release. “While we dream of space travel and colonization, it will be future generations who will finally realize that desire. We are creating Astroneer as a means to experience a piece of that journey ourselves and to inspire in others the wonderment of voyaging to the stars.”