Over the past year, a number of things

have been changing in the simulation

space. And if you've been paying

attention to the games coming through

Steam NextFest, the indie showcases, and

the early access titles, you probably

have noticed all of this. So, there's a

new wave of titles that aren't at all

focused on simplifying things for you.

They don't want to automate the

complexity of these games. They don't

want to reduce everything to a single

button presses, all these things that

generally simplify games. Instead,

what's happening here is they want you

to engage with the title's systems, to

understand why your ship handles the way

it does, to feel the consequences of why

your colony's budget doesn't balance,

and to maintain the machine that's

keeping you alive rather than just

pointing in a direction. And this is

quite a change actually. It's somewhat

of a rebellion against the arcade

approach that we've seen that's been

developing. And all of this is happening

across multiple games from multiple

studios all at roughly at the same time.

Some of these are hardcore command sims,

others are survival games or action RPGs

with an unusual amount of mechanical

depth. But they'll stay roughly on the

same spectrum. And that's a refusal to

simplify. So today I want to look at

five titles that are really focusing on

complexity over simplicity and why I

feel this is a great direction for the

genre. And this really because if the

big studios are moving towards

simplification then the developers here

are moving in the total opposite

direction and this is very good news

indeed. So let's start with Seabbeams.

This is easily one of my most

anticipated space games in the upcoming

list of games. And yeah, the reason I'm

covering this again, I've spoken about

it before, is because it very much fits

in with this theme, this ideology of

complexity over simplicity. And it very

much is the right direction for this

type of game. So, this is a top- down

space action RPG or perhaps a little bit

isometric depending on how you're

looking at that. So, the game has

combat, it has loot, and it has

progression. But underneath all of this

is a structure that's all about physics.

And this is physics in the way that you

can't really ignore. The title is

developed by Distant Light Games,

someone that you'll likely know if you

watch any amount of YouTube on space

related titles because uh yeah, that's

YouTuber Level Cap. So whilst Sebeams is

kind of framed and put out there as a

action RPG, it's not really a typical

action RPG. And that's because your

ship, well, it's actually a physical

object. It's not an avatar with stats.

It means it's got retro burns for

deceleration. You've got engines that

you have to cut for silent drifting. You

got cargo that has mass, and this

genuinely changes how your ship

responds. Overload your hold, and you'll

feel it in every maneuver. Docet

Stations isn't automated either. If it's

well, it's a skill you're going to have

to develop if you want to do it right.

So, what's nice about Cbeams and it's

not out yet. It's still in development,

but it does have a lot of active ongoing

dev logs, YouTube videos that discuss

where the game is and where it's going.

And in these videos, you also find that

combat follows the same logic of all

this complexity and it's quite involved.

So, you got subsystems. Subsystem

typing. This lets you disable an enemy's

engines, weapons, or radar all

individually, which means that every

engagement you undertake can be really a

tactical decision. It's can be kind of

focus on how you want to achieve your

objective. In other words, it's not just

about a damage race to the top or to the

bottom. Instead, you can actually

a ship. You can dock with it and

raid its cargo. And all of this is

balanced against a range of different

weapons. And yeah, you got close quarter

Gatling turrets and requireless cannons

all the way to through to longrange rail

guns and guided missiles. Now, there's

no confirmed release date on this just

yet, but the pace of development is

definitely visible and it's pretty

consistent. We can see a lot of that

unfolding over on YouTube. And yeah, I'm

looking forward to getting hands-on with

this one. Perhaps one of my more

anticipated titles, space game titles

for a very long time. And then we have

Spacecraft. This is a new game from

Shirro games. It's a studio behind

Northgard, Doom Spice Wars, and War

Towers, and it's actually a common

thread here amongst these games because

as a player, you genuinely have to

understand what's going on in these

systems mechanics, ready for all

handholding. And so, it seems that

spacecraft actually has that philosophy

applied to it. Although, that said, it

also appears that it sits at perhaps the

more slightly easier end of that

spectrum, but nonetheless, it does have

complexity layered there. So, a real

good example of where this game takes

that approach is the ship design. So,

whilst you might usually be used to

loadout screens that you optimize

between missions in a lot of games, what

happens here is quite different. Every

component that you fit to your ship,

whether that's weapons, mining

equipment, cargo modules, or anything

else, it physically changes how the ship

handles. Add too much weight and the

ship will start to feel sluggish in

every turn. Strip it back and you're

nimbled but then exposed. So, the game

recently confirmed a cockpit view. I

know a lot of people have been asking

about that because right now the uh

camera is from outside the ship from the

rear, but a cockpit view will actually

take things quite a bit further because

it will actually feel like more of a

genuine sim. Now, the interesting thing

here is that the game is about far more

than just piloting. spacecraft really

lead you into building automated mining

operations, managing interplanetary

supply chains, and participating in what

could be considered a playerdriven

economy. And that means there's a lot of

complexity here, layers of it, in fact,

and all interlinking together. Your ship

effectively builds what resources you

can gather and then that in turn affects

what and where you can automate and that

in turn affects what you can trade. So

ultimately, there's a lot of potential

here. If you want to get hands-on with

it, there is a demo available right now

over on Steam and I highly recommend you

download that and check it out. After

all, why not? Because these demos are

completely free.

Now, moving on, we come to a possible

one Luna Industries. So where spacecraft

really applies a whole uh kind of

systems thinking approach to the space

sandbox. What happens here with this

game is that you've got conley

management and this is built entirely on

a real world proven technology. So not

plausible technology not near future

speculation but technology that exists

right now or is genuinely feasible with

current engineering. Now, I have spoken

about this a couple of times before, but

it bears bringing up again because it

very much fits into the theme of this

video, which is space themed games,

which are focused on complexity rather

than simplicity.

So, Impossible One, you're running a

Luna mining operation. And the focus

here isn't between you and an alien

threat or anything like that. It's

actually about having a balance between

the survival needs of your colonists

there on the moon and the financial

demands of a board of directors back on

Earth who ultimately are funding the

entire venture. So that means you've

really got to focus on housing,

radiation shielding, as well as the

psychological effects of low gravity and

isolation of being up there on the moon

away from anyone. And of course, this

all costs money and resources. But if

the board back on Earth doesn't see the

returns that they demand that they're

funding here, then they're going to cut

your funding and shut you down.

Ultimately, then what you end up with

here is a game that is fun, but it's

also a game that's built on the idea of

the real world actually being

complicated. Again, there is a demo

available for this one. Do check out

that over on Steam.

Now, next up, we've got Atmosphere. And

this one is well it's not a genuine

space game but it does have a very heavy

sci-fi and spacele leveled theme and

well ultimately approves that it's not

just about space either this developing

levels of complexity in their upcoming

titles. So Amosphere is a survival game.

It's set on Tyos which is an planet of

floating islands. And at first glance,

it might seem like a bit of an odd fit

alongside Colony Sims and Physicsdriven

Combat and other such titles that we got

in this video, but what's going on here

is that well, the title was developed by

Apoch Labs, which is a Swedish studio.

And this is important because yeah, it

underpins their entire focus because

their previous game is called Airport

CEO and it's a tycoon game that sold

over 330,000 copies and it's built on

the entire experience around

interconnected systems and driven

management. In other words, it seems

that they may be taking that learned

complexity and applying it to a sci-fi

themed game. So here your primary

vehicle is a cloud cruiser. It's mobile

air base that isn't a static home you

actually teleport back to. Instead, you

pilot it. You manage its fuel,

electricity, and oxygen, upgrade its

sections, and use it to support

expeditions that grow more demanding as

you push further across the planet. You

also have some smaller craft known as

wasps. And these each handle differently

depending on which engine parts, hover

sections, and whole configurations that

you've actually fitted. Now, in most

survival games, your vehicle is

transport obviously, but here, your

vehicles are machines that you have to

maintain and configure, and the way

you've built them determines what you

can actually do in the rest of the game.

Thankfully, this also has a demo

available right now. So, if it sounds

interesting to you, do take a look and

perhaps check it out. And finally, we

come to the game at the real far end of

this spectrum. It's called Iron Nest.

It's not a space game, but it's

definitely a sci-fi inspired. This is a

firstp person diesel punk artillery

simulator and it's set in an alternate

history 1920s Spain. Now here you

operate a colossal walkin turret

battleship caliber weapon and it's on

well it looks like it's on spider legs

really and this one really goes for the

heavy simulation because every

interaction with the turret with this

mech is actually manual. You've got to

decode radio transmissions. You've got

to plot coordinates. H you've then

physically got to align the turret as

well and then fire. So if you really

like heavy simulated games then this

could be something worth keeping an eye

on and primarily because this is a pure

uncompromising machine operation. So

yeah, we've got five games here that

come from different studios, different

countries, even different genres as

well, but they all share a similar

conviction that players are certainly

ready for more that that we want more

depth, that we're tired of the

simplicity in games, that we want more

consequence, more systems to learn and

master. And that to me appears to be a

trend. Let me know what you think about

this in the comment section below. As

always, thanks for watching. Do take a

look at the other video on the screen

right here. Take care and I catch you

next time.