I recently got the chance to spend some time at a press event and got to play a new game from a new studio. The game is called Habitat and the studio is 4gency. Now this game was unique in a lot of ways as the studio and I got to spend a lot of time one on one with the main man behind the company, as he walked me through the paces and specs of his new game. He said he got the idea while visiting the Air and Space Museum in DC, from there it just kinda took on a life of its own.

Habitat is a successfully funded Kickstarter game from indie developer 4gency. It is a real-time, physics-driven orbital strategy game where you build, fly, and fight with the unique space stations that you create out of space debris orbiting earth. In its simplest terms it is a strategic space survival game. During our discussion I mentioned that one of the things that most space games and even television shows set in space seem to forget is that it is a three dimensional space. Meaning it is not just a flat plane there is a x,y,z axis and why this wasn’t included in the game. He said it was originally but it was horribly boring and they found that on a flat plane the game suddenly came alive with possibilities.

Now as with all alpha builds it is still in early development so the usual things apply. This version of the game is “not feature complete” and represents just a portion of what the final game will offer, both in features and in polish. It is however awesomely fun on one particular playthrough I picked up a giant drill attached two tanks to the side and shot the cannons on the tanks to steer, slapped a booster rocket on the back of the drill and turned it on and sent it flying toward an enemy base activated the drill and watched it chew it up like it was nothing. The game is pretty awesome and inventive. The only real limit to what you can build is your imagination really.

The game is  available on Steam, Amazon, Humble Store, GameFly, Gamer’s Gate, GreenMan Gaming and Nuuvem priced at $14.99, £10.99 and €14.99. An additional value ‘buddy-code’ bundle, where gamers have the option of buying one code for themselves and one for their friend at a reduced rate, is also available for $19.99, £14.99 and €19.99.

After being able to explore a little bit of what the game has to offer, I really like what I have played so far and when the full version comes out I look forward to playing the finished build. With all the feedback from users and with some tweaks this is a AAA title in the making from an indie dev and I look forward to seeing more from them in the future.