ASTERRA

Play Asterra free in your browser, or buy the downloadable build for $15 to support development.

Asterra is an experimental universe game built around one ridiculous idea:

What if you could play with everything from a single living cell to the structure of the cosmos?

Start small. Life grows, changes, competes, forms societies, builds cities, reaches the stars, colonizes other worlds, and eventually becomes part of something much larger.

You are not following a fixed campaign.

You are playing with a living universe.

PLAY FREE

The browser version is completely free to play.

Jump in, explore Asterra, experiment with its systems, build things, break things, watch civilizations develop, and see what the project is becoming.

If you enjoy it and want to support continued development, you can purchase the $15 downloadable Windows version.

Your support directly helps me continue building Asterra.

WHAT IS ASTERRA?

Asterra mixes simulation, creation tools, exploration, civilization building, space travel, and sandbox gameplay into one connected experience.

The long-term progression stretches across enormous scales:

Cell → Creature → Tribe → City → Civilization → Space → Galaxy → Cosmic Web

Life can develop into intelligent civilizations.

Civilizations can build cities, wage wars, trade, research technology, reach space, establish colonies, and expand beyond their homeworld.

And you can interfere with nearly every part of it.

A UNIVERSE YOU CAN TOUCH

Asterra is increasingly built around hands-on tools instead of traditional menus.

Shape worlds.

Create creatures.

Build cities.

Place structures.

Design civilizations.

Create weapons, vehicles, ships, effects, scenarios, and environments.

Terraform planets.

Travel between worlds.

Watch civilizations evolve.

Or become the reason everything goes horribly wrong.

The goal is for Asterra to feel less like operating software and more like reaching directly into a universe.

SEAMLESS SCALE

You can stand on a planet, look toward the sky, leave the atmosphere and continue into space.

No separate "space level."

No completely disconnected planetary map.

Asterra is designed around the idea that these scales belong to the same universe.

Planets sit inside star systems.

Star systems sit inside galaxies.

Galaxies exist inside a much larger cosmic web.

And underneath all of it are the creatures, cities, wars and stories happening on individual worlds.

CREATE LIFE

Asterra's life systems begin at the cellular scale and can eventually produce creatures capable of forming societies and civilizations.

Creature design is moving toward a universal Clay Form Editor, allowing bodies to be shaped more directly instead of assembled from rigid preset pieces.

The broader goal is simple:

If you can imagine a lifeform, Asterra should eventually give you the tools to make it.

BUILD CIVILIZATIONS

Civilizations can grow from primitive settlements into complex nations with cities, economies, militaries, research and eventually space programs.

Current and developing civilization systems include:

• Cities and expanding road networks
• Working tunnels
• Military forces
• Trade and economy
• Research and education
• Nation creation
• Diplomacy and conflict
• Spaceports and colonies
• Vehicles and starships
• Disasters and invasions
• Player-created rules and scenarios
• Large-scale planetary and interplanetary warfare

Sometimes you build the civilization.

Sometimes you simply watch one emerge.

EXPLORE SPACE

Leave your planet behind and continue outward.

Fly between worlds.

Visit moons.

Discover systems.

Build and interact with stations.

Colonize other planets.

Watch civilizations spread beyond their homeworlds.

Go farther and the scale keeps increasing until individual stars become part of entire galaxies, clusters, filaments and voids.

Asterra currently includes a navigable galactic web containing thousands of galaxies.

BREAK THE UNIVERSE

Asterra is also a sandbox.

Throw worlds around.

Tow planets.

Collapse stars.

Create black holes.

Drop disasters onto civilizations.

Start wars.

Reshape terrain beneath cities.

Experiment with systems that were probably never meant to interact.

Some of the most interesting things in Asterra happen because the simulation is allowed to collide with itself.

BUILT DIFFERENTLY

Asterra uses a custom hand-written runtime rather than being built around a conventional third-party 3D engine.

A large part of the project is an experiment in building an interconnected universe simulation from the ground up while using AI heavily throughout development.

That means Asterra changes quickly.

Sometimes extremely quickly.

THIS IS AN ACTIVE EXPERIMENT

Asterra is still heavily in development.

Expect:

• unfinished systems
• rapidly changing mechanics
• experimental features
• occasional bugs
• things that get completely redesigned
• new systems appearing between builds

This is not a finished AAA game pretending to be finished.

You are seeing the project while it is being built.

And that is part of the point.

FREE WEB VERSION + $15 DOWNLOAD

Play in your browser: Free

Downloadable Windows build: $15

You do not need to purchase Asterra to try it.

If you play the browser build and decide, "Yeah, I want to see where this insane thing goes," buying the downloadable version is one of the best ways to support development.

Every purchase helps keep Asterra growing.

THE GOAL

Asterra is trying to answer a question:

How much of a universe can one game actually let you play with?

Not just a planet.

Not just a civilization.

Not just space.

Everything between the cell and the cosmic web.

That's Asterra.