“Jumplight Odyssey marries the aesthetic of iconic science-fiction anime with colony management sims and roguelite sensibilities to create a charming and challenging experience,” said co-founder and director Trent Kusters. “Whether you’re interested in space opera melodrama between crew members, careful resource management, colony building systems, or ‘just one more run’ action, Jumplight Odyssey has something for everyone, and we’re thrilled to recruit captains for our Early Access launch in 2023!”

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Since before time, whenever our explorers were lost, they would look to The Forever Star to find their way home…

Lead your crew on a daring, star-flung escape to the sanctuary of the Forever Star in this roguelite starship colony sim.

Escape the clutches of Admiral Voltan and the warmongering Zutopans, as you build, repair, promote, defend, and grow, across multiple decks of your starship. With your home planet destroyed and your people lost, it’s up to you to keep Hope alive on a perilous adventure across the galaxy!

Also… There’s a pig. You can pet the pig. That’s all you really need to know.

Key Features

• The Starship Stacked with Stories
  • As captain, you are responsible for taking care of the human needs of everyone on your ship. Everything from socializing, sleep, food, to water and air. Wifi not included in this hierarchy of needs.
  • A delightful and charming starship dollhouse experience, filled with a living crew going about their lives; eating, sleeping, working, and surviving. Your crew interact with each other as brothers, sisters, lovers, friends and rivals. Hopefully a little less of the latter, but we’re not making any promises.
  • Moods and ideas are contagious. On this floating melodrama, emergent relationships and incidents have a direct impact on the crew. Keep the Hope of your crew high, or suffer the consequences!
• Get Comfy in Chaos, Captain!
  • Explore different star systems with different biomes that have varying effects on your ship and crew.
  • Manage emergent systems: fire, electrical strikes, radiation, loss of oxygen. Nothing runs smoothly forever.
  • Promote everyday crew members to division officers, and then negotiate their differing management quirks as they run a tight ship, or burn it to the ground.
  • Battle against hostile boarding parties and scramble your starfighters to defend against intergalactic invaders!
• If at First You Don’t Succeed…
  • Your journey is a treacherous one. Take lessons from each previous voyage, and retool your ship for new circumstances. Then try, try again.
  • Keep exploring the galaxy. Rerun your daring escape and discover new encounters, events, characters and challenges each time.
• Build. Repair. Optimize. Overcome.
  • Scratch your naval ship building itch: lay out optimum corridors, build efficient management processes, and decorate the spaces to your specifications.
  • Efficiently manage your resource production. From your water supply, to the ship’s gardens and farming spaces. You’ll need to optimize your systems to keep your ship and crew alive for as long as possible.
  • Inventory management in space: keep the hangar deck organized and warp core humming. Can your crew stock fridges and shelves in zero gravity? Actually we’re not sure if they can either. Good luck.
• A Galactic Love Letter to Nostalgia
  • Inspired by epic 1970s star-spanning anime adventure—the likes of Star Blazers and more. Add some smooth 70s Tokyo late night disco to keep the mood? You got it.
  • Experience a dynamic toylike sandbox inspired by the Incredible Cross-Sections and What Do People Do All Day? series of books.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery

Announce Trailer