Pioneer dev forum

Coming in May for Windows PC. There's a demo available to download now on Steam.

https://flight-of-nova.com/

Looks awesome. I'll be trying the demo later; I have a sim-race to do in a few minutes.

Here's a 22-minute long gameplay video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO15f42is88

It sure has some nice UI/HUD things going on.

The little graphical orbit display is nice. It's odd that you can't use RCS thrusters in atmospheric flight, so when you're in VTOL mode to land you have to pitch or roll to make adjustments, like a Harrier, even though the ship is perfectly capable of translating left/right/forward/back. I'll see if the developer (this is made by a single person) would be willing to add the ability of using RCS controls in VTOL mode as well as in non-cruise spaceflight.

In spaceflight (which I haven't done yet -- only watched videos -- but plan to do today) it seems like RCS becomes available when you exit "cruise mode" which is where your main engines and roll/pitch/yaw are active. Then all RCS controls activate (separate control inputs are bindable for RCS roll/pitch/yaw as well as up/down/left/right/forward/backward) and your main engines are off as you're in a fine-control situation.

He says there will be no economy in the game. You'll just be taking up various cargo missions, picking up lost cargo, and whatnot. He is considering a credit system where successful missions earn you credits for repair and refuel, but there will not be an economy system with buying ship upgrades etc. There were be other ships (one larger cargo carrier has been seen flown by him in videos).

As well as the three missions in the demo, there is a place to refuel in space and other stations then one can reach and dock with, including with the docking collar on top of the ship, rather than the simpler landing pads of the demo missions.

Livestreamed it just now.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1424895465

There's a very very long lull in which I'm waiting to come around my orbit to begin re-entry after failing to chase down a different station. Skip ahead to the re-entry itself. An adventure! So, when you get to 1 hour 10 minutes in, jump ahead to the re-entry at 1 hour 55 minutes.

Really nice vibes and great music in this game. Too bad it's Windows only as of this writing.

Space games make me think along these lines: way back when, perhaps it was difficult for people to conceive of how they would navigate or handle atmospheric flight. These days, because we are collectively so familiar with the act, it's like nothing for most people to think about. The real difficulty is in the nuances of the procedures and doing actual "pilot stuff," which is reserved for whatever flavor of "initiate" you happen to be. With space, it's probably a lot harder for the majority of people to wrap their heads around. Ultimately, however, I think we are going to be so acclimated to the concepts that it won't be any tougher for people in the future than it is for people now to imagine going place-to-place in any given aircraft. The zeitgeist is just going to take a bit to get there!

...Also concerning space games, they are a great playground with which to explore new UI and instrument concepts that might just make those peeps in the future so much more intuitive about space flight than we are now! Kinda tapping nozmajner's thunder on that point, but it's only because it's true. :D