Voidspace

Voidspace is a 2D top-down sci-fi MMORPG built around players shaping a shared society. Everyone plays in one enormous, seamless world on the same server, and every man-made object is crafted by a player. There are no NPCs, so players create the infrastructure they need and determine how technology, trade and communities develop.

A shared world

You can explore player outposts, join groups for security, and find abandoned player-made civilizations to research, acquire or dismantle and recycle. The world is effectively infinite, so you can choose to spawn far from others for a more solitary experience. There are no zones or seams dividing the world.

Research and invention

Crafting and invention are central to the game. As your character carries out activities, they may develop ideas for skills or inventions. These ideas are influenced by factors including intelligence, the character’s needs, available materials and experience with them, and existing skills or inventions. Focused research in a lab or research facility can also lead to discoveries: you begin by experimenting with materials, then use what you learn to develop ideas for working inventions.

You use a lab to try to turn an idea into a reproducible skill or invention. Prototyping may take many attempts, with the difficulty affected by intelligence, knowledge of the relevant category and materials, and the complexity of the skill. Once you have successfully created a skill or invention, you can perform or make it whenever you have the necessary materials. Results from character-performed skills can vary, but practice improves their quality and consistency; for example, repeated attempts at hacking a type of equipment make the character faster and more accurate, with fewer failures.

You can prototype again to try for a better result. Attributes are mostly random, but are also influenced by the factors that affect prototyping. Ideas, skills and inventions can be shared freely or sold to other characters. You can also research concepts to open up further skills and inventions. For example, studying The Void—where physics differ from those of the natural universe—can unlock concepts for inventions that use those discoveries.

Player-built society

Players build and manufacture the structures and goods needed for their own progress, including buildings, outposts, bases, cities, ships, ship upgrades, equipment and ammunition. Large projects can require contributions from multiple characters. There is no centralized auction house, so local resources and production shape what is available and valuable in each area.

Rather than providing explicit buildings such as manufacturing plants or businesses, the game gives players general tools. You can build a structure, place equipment inside it, provide a way to generate or acquire power, and use its inventory to make goods. Players can use these tools to create businesses and services, including renting out infrastructure for inventions, supplying defence or maintenance, transporting people and ships, guarding bases, delivering packages or messages, and providing storage, banking, loans, credit or insurance. The possibilities also include spying on other players’ bases and selling intelligence.