Untethered is a space survival sandbox game (a triple-S game, if you will). Stranded in our cosmic backyard, you have to survive against all odds by scavenging materials and building your own space station. You’ll have to explore the cosmos for resources, manage your electrical systems, and balance your resources to stay alive. There’s no combat, just you, your engineering prowess, and the unforgiving expanse around you. Untethered is aiming to capture the automation crowd from titles like Factorio, as well as the survival crowd from games Subnautica.
The game is being developed by Melbourne-based solo developer Luna Verratti, who also has a background in composition and sound design. I had the chance to chat to her at the Untethered PAX AUS booth, and ask where her main points of inspiration for the game came from. She said that films like Apollo 13, Gravity, and The Martian have helped her inform the atmosphere of her game. “That’s what I hope will really come through for players – that feeling of surviving in impossible circumstances.”
When asked about what drew her towards a space survival game in the first place, she responded “I’ve just been obsessed with space for so long… maybe that was an influence on why I picked the name Luna.” Luna is a trans woman, and we chatted about her experience as a solo developer in the community. “At PAX, I’ve had a fantastic experience. Everyone is just awesome – there’s so many other trans people here that I’ve met, it’s a great community.” Flying solo, she gets to be her own boss, “so I avoid a lot of the issues I hear from other people working in studios”.
Her love of space is apparent from the demo. The vast expanse feels uncaring, indifferent to your plight, and the systems that you have to wrangle feel complex and tactile. Movement in space always feels (pardon the pun) alien, forcing you to manage your inertia and rotation in a completely different way to when under gravity. Untethered’s demo does a great job of capturing that feeling, as you struggle to position yourself to open hatches, read computer terminals, and search for drinkable water. And of course, that’s just the beginning of the whole experience. You’ll also have to build modules for your station, manage your electrical and science systems, mine asteroids while conserving your fuel, and find a way to survive and thrive.
Untethered is currently slated to launch on Steam early access in early 2025, and you can play the demo on Steam now. We’re excited to see how this atmospheric adventure shapes up!
About the Author
Douglas Rintoul
he/him
Douglas is a writer, comedian, performer, and software developer who enjoys procrastinating any and all responsibilities by playing and replaying games. You can find him performing at the arts festivals around Australia, both solo and with his sketch comedy group Bits Akimbo.
