Low Earth Orbit Adventures

Low Earth Orbit Adventures is a space simulation set in the near future in a very specific place and time! Floating above our beautiful world just as it is becoming a bustling frontier of science, commerce and diplomacy.Have you ever wanted to rescue the Hubble? Ferry a diplomat from one space station to another? Or refuel a stranded flight on its way to the Moon? Low Earth Orbit Adventures (LEO Adventures) puts you in the hot seat piloting your very own craft as you travel between orbits to perform a variety of helpful missions - from search and rescue to repairs and demolishing.In the near future, the population above Earth has grown past just a few astronauts. It's still not a large number but now they need other services such as police, doctors, mechanics... and you.

Demo

For the First Look demo I have included one scenario from the game:

• Rescue astronauts from a damaged space plane

I expect to add two more missions for Steam NextFest (but no promises):

• Assemble an inflatable hotel in space
• Deflect an asteroid using nuclear detonations

If you play the demo I would really love your thoughts and suggestions in the Steam forum. I am aiming for much more realism in LEO Adventures than in my other space game, Liberation, and love feedback! I really want it to be a game you can relax on the couch and play.

Gameplay

In LEO Adventures you start as the sole employee of your own space company. You only have one asset,  a standard Friendly Low Earth Orbit Tug (FLEOT). Your FLEOT is a hardy, versatile, dependable, overpowered little ship (rated to operate 400km - 800km above Earth but as low as 280km and as high as 1800km). A FLEOT is specially designed to travel short distances and perform complex manoeuvres with a variety of attachments.It's the Swiss Army Knife of space.Take on a mission, manoeuvre with Newtonian controls into position, attach the appropriate tool to your International docking adapter and then complete the scenario, whether it's a rescue, orbital boost, delivery, an inspection, diplomatic incident, a demolishing job... and many more!Build up your company (and buy out your competitors) so you can build your own space station for retirement!No guns, no sky beams, no magical warp gates... just our amazing planet from orbit and helping people. That's LEO Adventures.

Research

All the designs in the game, from the stations to the space planes to the docking adapters, are inspired or evolved from real world designs. Whether it's the International Space Station, SpaceX's Starship, Buran, James Webb, Orbital Reef, the X-33, Concorde or the many, many, MANY proposals for "Shuttle 2", I have endeavoured to make the game a delight for people who know their space industry history and to make it as plausible as possible with a focus on orbital tech and reusability.

Realistic, Accessible, Fun

With LEO Adventures I want to make an accessible and fun game that is as realistic as possible but still "pick up and play".I call it "realism-lite". It's Newtonian physics in the local theatre and the stations follow basic orbital mechanics but the distances are compressed and humans have discovered almost unlimited propulsion.You don't have to worry about running out of fuel and your Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters will maintain your spacecraft's orientation (unless you turn them off!).Potter around orbit! Rescue people! Dock with the Hubble! LEO Adventures is the ultimate relaxing space sim.PLEASE NOTE: LEO Adventures is under heavy development and all gameplay footage is from the alpha version and may not match the final version!Wishlist to follow LEO Adventures.

Inspirations

I love hard sci-fi, from Forbidden Planet to Project Hail Mary. I am particularly taken with an obscure 1986 BBC sci-fi show called "Star Cops" made by some of the people involved with Blakes 7 and Doctor Who. It's sort of like a prequel to The Expanse. I also really enjoyed the Sandra Bullock film, Gravity, which I feel is underrated!