Deskape

Deskape is a base-building game that runs along the bottom of your desktop, so you can build and manage your base while working, browsing or watching something else on the same monitor. You make strategic decisions and can also take direct control of a laser-shooting, resource-collecting character. After crashing onto a dark planet, the character must repair their ship and find a way to leave.

Build on the planet

Starting among the ship’s ruins, you construct infrastructure to escape and expand your base. Facilities include factories, research labs, alien technology and mystical crops; storage creatures and aliens can settle around the base. You can leave the base to gather resources and find crashed resource pods, then research strange creatures and use them to produce new resources.

Defend your base

Dangerous blood hives are drawn to your industry, while dark creatures try to steal your light. You can build droids, level them up, give them new skills and take them out to collect resources and destroy the hives. Research also unlocks new weapon types for use against the dark creatures.

Play at your pace

Deskape has a high-power active mode, where resources are plentiful but enemies are plentiful too, and a low-power idle mode for when your attention is elsewhere. You can level up the playable character and jump into the action whenever you want. The planet is circular, so walking in one direction eventually brings you back home.

Desktop interface

The game is designed to share a single monitor with other PC activities. Resizable pop-out windows, including a radar, log and build menu, can be arranged anywhere on the screen. The game also features weather, lighting and mystical effects.