While studying Unity’s upcoming Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) I browsed various resources on the Unity landing page for this technology preview. Several game studios have already started using DOTS in their titles and Unity showcased a few of them. One of the case studies is Hardspace:Shipbreaker, and it has consumed all of my free time (and then some.)

I decided to look into this game because the name and visuals were vaguely familiar. After playing a while I remembered I first saw it on Scott Manley’s YouTube channel. He made that episode soon after the game was available on Steam. But the game has changed a lot in the past year, as it is an “Early Access Game” that is still undergoing development. (Windows only for now, with goal of eventually on Xbox and PlayStation consoles.) I assume a lot of bugs have been stamped out in the past year, as it has been mostly smooth sailing in my play. It is tremendously fun even in its current incomplete state.

Hardspace:Shipbreaker was the subject of an episode of Unity’s “Behind the Game” podcast. Many aspects of developing this game were covered, and towards the end the developers touched on how DOTS helped them solve some of their performance problems. As covered in the episode, the nature of the game means they couldn’t use many of the tried-and-true performance tricks. Light sources move around, so they couldn’t pre-render lights and shadows. The ships break apart in unpredictable ways (especially when things start going wrong) there can be a wide variation in shapes and sizes of objects in the play area.

I love teardowns and taking things apart. I love science fiction. This game is a fictional world where we play a character that tears down spaceships for a living. It would be a stretch to call this game “realistic” but it does have its own set of realism-motivated rules. As players, we learn to work within the constraints set by these rules and devise plans to tear apart these retired ships. Do it safely so we don’t die. And do it fast because time is money!

This is a novel puzzle-solving game and I’m having a great time! If “Spaceship teardown puzzle game” sounds like fun, you’ll like it too. Highly recommended.

[Title image from Hardspace: Shipbreaker web site]