ZeroSpace is a cinematic RTS with an epic sci-fi story where your decisions determine the fate of the galaxy. Powered by Pros!
Our Kickstarter has closed, but if you'd like to support us on our development journey (and lock in some great rewards, too!) please consider investing in a reward level below!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
ZeroSpace Update #16: Launch Date, Next Fest, and more!
4 months ago
– Wed, May 27, 2026 at 01:18:29 PM
Imminent Launch Detected!
First off, we’re excited to announce that we’ve picked July 20 as the ZeroSpace Early Access launch date!
Before then, we’d love for you to support ZeroSpace by playing during Steam Next Fest, June 15–22. Tell your friends and be sure to wishlist the game. As an indie team, word of mouth means everything to us.
Publisher Update
We’re super excited to have partnered with GamerSky! They’ll be publishing our game in Asia, as well as providing us with marketing and localization for the region.
We believe a partnership with them works well as they can help us get ZeroSpace into players’ hands all across Asia, where they have strong regional expertise.
You can already see the benefit of our partnership with Chinese localization available in our new demo!
Art Progress
New Tonemapper
We’ve added a new tonemapper to ZeroSpace, AgX. This tonemapper helps create both a better cinematic experience and in-game feel by preserving colors and giving a more “realistic” look, and allowing us to have more control over the colors and contrast in the game.
The Protectorate’s New Look
We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Aaron Kambeitz and his team to significantly raise the quality bar on ZeroSpace.
Aaron’s experience from founding Relic Studios and co-creating Homeworld has already proven to be instrumental, as you can see in his redesign of the Protectorate models.
The goal of the Protectorate update was to create models that provide a clear faction identity and convey the tone that we believe the story of ZeroSpace deserves. We aimed to have cohesion through materials, shape language, and sense of scale. We think we’re close to nailing it here and have already brought a much more immersive experience to life, especially on the more lore-focused campaign side.
However, the work is not done, and next on the docket is continuing to iterate on the new models based on feedback from new playtests and impressions. One area we’re focusing on next with the new models is readability.
Aside from the Protectorate, we’ll be looking at Grell buildings next, followed by a few merc factions after.
Check out the new models and some of the concepts we started with, and let us know your thoughts!
Commando and Harvester
Protectorate Army Marching Forward
Initial Concept
Later Render
Unit Collision
We made a change that we feel will make a big impact, increasing the size of our unit hitboxes in this update. Units won't clump up as tightly, making larger armies look as imposing and powerful as they actually are. This should significantly improve readability as well.
Before:
The same units after the change:
Campaign
Our campaign is steadily coming along and we’re seeing good progress. Recently, our team has been working on difficulty tuning so you can play at whichever experience level you feel most comfortable on; whether it’s Casual, Normal, Hard or Brutal. We’ve also been working to get all our recorded voice lines in-game and beautified with SFX. It’s been exciting seeing all of the bits and pieces start to come together into an immersive experience we hope you’ll enjoy.
General
In addition to art and campaign, we’ve also started on a new tutorial specific to Co-op gameplay. We hope this tutorial will better prepare you and your friends to jump into co-op missions and dominate the galactic map.
We now have tutorials for campaign, co-op, and versus, so anyone can quickly learn the ropes for any way they’d like to play.
Localization has also been on our minds, as we’ve been working on translations for Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, and Italian. The love for RTS is truly global and we want to be sure our game is accessible to everyone.
We also haven't forgotten about Quality Assurance. We’ve recently hired on a QA team who’s very passionate about RTS and who’s been doing an amazing job finding bugs so we can squash them.
We’ve also done a team color update to match our new tone mapper
Xol is also still in the works behind the scenes. We’re polishing their animations, adding more VFX, and crafting their unique music tracks.
Get a small taste of the Xol here:
UI Polish
Our user interface is now one of our main focuses as we near Next Fest and our Early Access launch. So far, we've got a new Home Page video, have started on icons for things like unit abilities, some in-game layout updates, and introduced new command card buttons.
New Trailer
In addition to the Protectorate models, Aaron and his team helped us create a campaign teaser trailer. Check it out here.
Insider Gaming Interview
Our CEO, Marv, sat down with Insider Gaming to introduce viewers to ZeroSpace for their upcoming Insider Gaming Showcase. We’d appreciate you tuning in on May 28 at 3pm ET/12pm PT/8pm UK on Insider Gaming’s YouTube channel. You’ll get to hear from Marv and also learn about a bunch of other awesome indie games that can use your support. Don’t miss out.
What's Next?
We’re working diligently to update our roadmap to give you a full overview of everything we will have available for Early Access, and what we will be working on after launch.
Our next update will include that roadmap as well as our Next Fest plans, so stay tuned.
For our amazing backers, your backer rewards are being worked on and we’re expecting to have them shipped out this year. We appreciate your patience as our team has been focusing on getting the best version of ZeroSpace ready for Early Access and beyond. We are working very hard to deliver you a game that we hope you’ll love.
In the meantime, remember to mark your calendars to play our new Steam Next Fest demo starting on June 15! You can help us by spreading the word with friends: this will be the best time for them to try out ZeroSpace before purchasing. Every extra person checking the game out during Next Fest makes a big difference.
Thank you for all of your support, it really means the world to us. - The ZeroSpace Team
ZeroSpace Update #15: Release Timeline, PvP Fest, Next Fest, and New Art Reveals!
7 months ago
– Sun, Feb 08, 2026 at 10:42:37 AM
Hey commanders, we’re excited to kick off February with some major announcements and share an update on our progress!
Steam PvP Fest (February 9–16)
Our Steam PvP Fest demo starts tomorrow, running from February 9–16! This open playtest will spotlight our competitive side, with a focus on Versus mode, but don’t worry, Co-op and Skirmish will still be available for anyone who prefers those, or wants something more relaxed than ranked.
The demo will feature:
Versus (Ranked 1v1)
Co-op (3 new maps!)
Skirmish (1v1 & 2v2 with friends or AI)
On February 15th Artosis and Mapu will be hosting a tournament, sponsored by ZeroSpace (more details to come during the demo)
This will be on the ZeroSpace Demo App, which you can download for free on our Steam page when the festival begins. This is what the demo app will look like in your Steam library (It has a blue icon)
For those interested in the patch notes since the last public playtest, those can be found here
Steam Next Fest (Summer, June 15–22)
Steam Next Fest is one of the most important visibility opportunities Steam offers developers before release. Given the importance of making a great first impression with new players, we’ve decided to continue improving and refining the game so that we can participate in the June Next Fest, instead of the February event, giving us extra time to polish the experience to the highest possible level.
Early Access Release (Summer 2026)
We’re confident enough in our development timeline to begin planning for an Early Access release this year.
We’re still pinning down the exact date; we’d like to aim for shortly after Next Fest, but we need to avoid the Summer Sale and other Steam takeovers that massively reduce the visibility of newly released games. We’re sure many of you understand the importance of timing!
Planned Early Access Content:
Xol release
Act 1 of our campaign, including 12 Campaign missions
Expanded co-op missions, commanders, and co-op meta progression
Full skirmish mode (1v1, 2v2, & FFA with friends or AI)
Full versus mode (Ranked, 1v1, 2v2)
Revamped survival mode
Our current plan is to release 1.0 about one year later with the complete campaign, additional mercenary factions, and more. We know many of you have been waiting for us to complete the game for quite some time, and we appreciate your patience. We don’t want to rush things by releasing the game before it’s ready. Early Access should be a very exciting time for you to be a part of ZeroSpace growing and improving as we’ll be releasing new features and content throughout the year.
Recent Art Progress:
In-Game Building: Endari Tavern
This Endari creature flies to its target location anywhere on the map before turning into a stone mercenary tavern.
Cinematic Model: Sofia
In-Game Unit: Legion Stormcaller
We felt and got feedback that Legion was lacking abilities and AOE damage outside of Heroes. That is where the Stormcaller comes in. The Stormcaller is in an alpha state. For now, it shares a lighting attack with the Fanatic and is able to cast "Lighting Storm"; a powerful radial AOE damage ability. In the future, Lighting Storm will be a channeled ability and the Stormcaller will swap its auto-attack for a channeling debuff that siphons life force out of enemy units, slowing their move and attack speed.
Map Objective: Koru Heart (Name likely to change)
You’ll discover the importance of this objective in the campaign mission: Leviathan, where you’ll also encounter the Cha’Kru for the first time.
Future Art Updates:
We’re working on a full Protectorate model refresh to bring the faction to a higher quality bar. We’re working on replacing all of our icons and 2D assets in the game from the placeholders they are now, to faction-specific designs for better UI clarity and immersion.
These updates are part of our push to deliver a visually stunning RTS experience. More to come soon!
Thank You!
A massive shoutout to our backers and community for the ongoing enthusiasm, your feedback from past playtests has shaped ZeroSpace into something special. We're gearing up for an amazing year ahead!
The ZeroSpace Backer Playtest is Live! Play Now!
9 months ago
– Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 06:16:57 AM
Our playtest is now live on Steam! It features:
Campaign Prologue
Co-op (2 New Missions)
Versus/Skirmish (Including an alpha version of our new 2v2 mode)
Survival
If you have played ZeroSpace via the ZeroSpace Playtest app before (Red icon on steam) you have access, this includes backers at the Solar Monarch level or higher, and anyone who received a key through a giveaway.
If you backed at Solar Monarch or higher and don't have the game, the key should have been emailed to you near the time you backed, and is available under the "Digital Downloads" section of Backerkit. If you still have trouble, message aweesomesauce in the ZeroSpace Discord.
To those not in this playtest, we'll be back with an open demo in February, stay tuned for more detailed regarding that!
ZeroSpace Backer Playtest Tomorrow! Details & Development Updates Inside!
9 months ago
– Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 10:25:41 AM
Playtest
Our closed playtest starts Tomorrow, Monday the 15th at 10AM PT, and ends on the 28th.
This playtest will be available to those that have backed the game at Solar Monarch or higher, or have received a Playtesting key from a giveaway or via a friend key.
There will be no streaming during this playtest
This playtest will feature:
Campaign Prologue
Co-op (2 new missions!)
Versus & Skirmish (including an alpha version of our new 2v2 mode)
The playtest will be played on the Playtest App in steam, this is the one with the red icon.
If you don’t have access to this, but believe you should because of your backer level or otherwise, please message aweesomesauce or chloviss in our discord.
Development Updates
New Unit: Hammerhead
Joining the Protectorate line up is the Hammerhead, an air transport that heals units inside! The protectorate values keeping their troops alive and this gives them another avenue to do that, and on the offensive side, a well timed drop behind enemy lines can be devastating.
New Unit: Cha'Kru Hero
He’s not quite ready for this playtest
New Co-op mission: Scavenging
Commanders, the enemies have set up a massive mining operation, and their base is heavily protected. The local Free Corsairs are willing to help, but only if we secure enough resources from enemy warehouses and supply convoys. We’ll need to be quick or the enemy will hire the Free Corsairs before we can.
Cinematic Progress
We’ve been hard at work on our cinematics! Creating new cinematic characters, updating uniforms, implementing new animations, and working on sound design. There’s a lot more polishing to do, but we hope you enjoy the Prologue!
“Yearl Hexlan”, leader of the Free Corsairs. (WIP)
The Protectorate heading into Grell territory…
Thank you for the support! <3
We hope everyone has a fun time during the playtest.
For the non backers waiting to play, our next open demos will be in February 2026 for Steam’s PvP Fest, followed by Next Fest. We hope to earn some shoutouts from you during that time as it will be an extremely important moment for us!
In case you missed it, here is our roadmap that we shared a few updates ago, as of now we’re still on track to hit these targets.
ZeroSpace: December Playtest Information and Development Updates!
11 months ago
– Sun, Nov 02, 2025 at 08:17:04 AM
Hey, Commanders!
Check out our upcoming playtest details, new developments, and Ironward’s upcoming RTS game! Also, we're starting the creation process for your Kickstarter rewards, so please make sure to double check your Kickstarter and/or Backerkit information like address, email, etc. so we can make sure you receive your goodies!
December Playtest
We’re having a closed playtest for backers December 15th - 28th!
This playtest will feature:
Campaign Prologue (More polished, and for those who missed this at Tacticon. Note: We have more missions completed, but we are saving them for launch)
Co-op (2 new missions!)
Versus (Including an alpha version of our new 2v2 mode) [More reveal on this later]
If you’ve participated in a previous closed playtest via backing, key giveaway, etc. you will be able to participate.
Updated Operating Towers
Last update we shared images of some of our new operating towers, and we’re excited to share their new animations! Check out the Protectorate and Grell operating towers in action:
Volumetric Fog
We’ve got new fog effects! We’re excited to add in these effects and create unique atmospheres for our alien planets!
The fog dissipates as units move through it
Environmental Sound Effects
We’ve been polishing our campaign experience to be more and more immersive; recently, we’ve been layering ambient environmental sounds on top of our music. Here’s a short video of our first mission with environmental sounds. We’ll also be adding these to our coop and versus missions!
Pathfinding
Marv - our lead engineer and CEO - created an awesome video breaking down pathfinding in RTS games. He goes over the common problems and solutions that both ZeroSpace and other games have implemented. We’re proud to say we’ve completely tackled all of these problems and more!
There’s also more to come with pathing improvements; including different styles of pathing and animations to make infantry movement feel more real and immersive.
This video is just the first of many technical breakdowns we’ll be creating. We’re planning on going into more detail on pathfinding, targeting and vision, netcode, and enemy AI in the next videos.
Let us know what other topics you’re interested in learning more about!
Check out Atre: Dominance Wars
Ironward just launched the kickstarter for their new 4x real time fantasy strategy game!
