A freeform space-based realtime strategy game where the player controls groups of starships and fighters.

The game is built around a starmap which the player must rid of all enemy ships, while completing storyline and side missions. During this quest, stations around the map can be used to purchase ships, weapons and modules.

The enemy will be trying to seize control of your stations, and take the sector for themselves. Through a variety of missions, you must capture stations and push forward until the Dust Zone is safe once again.

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Okay, where to start.

Well, I think the big headline is that it's finished.

Almost.

We're still working on all the last-minute clean up and launch prep, but it's true - Dust Fleet is launching REAL SOON™. We're gonna be on Steam, GOG and the Epic Game Store.

So what's in the finished package? Let me talk you through it.

THE CAMPAIGNS

Dust Fleet comes with two main campaigns. The first is Prelude, which is mostly a tutorial. Those of you who have played the demo will have played this already, although it is slightly tweaked from the demo to account for some new gameplay mechanics. The main campaign, though, is all-new. Defence of the Dust Zone sees you pitted against a rogue element of Earth's government intent on finding something hidden deep within the Dust Zone. You as the player have to help the people who live there, the Zoners, to fight them off and protect the Dust Zone's secrets. To do that, you'll be playing through a series of story missions and initiating your own battles to keep the enemy at bay.

All the missions are fully voice acted by a great cast, and I'm really proud with how the story turned out.

A space battle


But that's not all!

SECTOR ASSAULT

Once you've completed the campaigns, Sector Assault is waiting for you. This has similar gameplay to the campaigns, but on a randomised map with no story missions. Just you vs an AI. You can tweak map size and difficulty to get the kind of challenge you want. The full tech tree from the campaign is here too, giving you plenty of scope to try everything out that you might not have gotten to in the campaign.

The ship construction screen

THE EDITOR

When I was making Dust Fleet, I quickly realised that hand-coding scripts for the missions was just not going to work. So I wrote an editor. But I didn't like it, so I wrote a better editor. And then I decided that if it worked for me, it could work for everyone! So, the game ships with the same editing tools I used.

The Dust Fleet Editor

Now, these are a little complex, and the game won't ship with a full manual for them because it would be huge and no one would want to read it, but I think I'll probably do some walkthrough videos to help you get started. I also can't guarantee any particular level of support for the editors - it's just me here, and I just won't have the bandwidth to be able to answer all questions and issues that might arise from using them. But as long as the game is alive, I will make it my goal to tackle bugs and make sure they continue to work. Ultimately, if the editors see a lot of use, I'll be relying on you the lovely Dust Fleet community to help each other where you can.

Also, the editor and game includes support for mod.io. If you don't know what this is, it's a place where users can share mods for supported games, a lot like Steam workshop, but it'll also work for our players on Epic and GOG. In the case of Dust Fleet, the mods will be campaigns created in the editor. With just a few clicks, you can get your campaign up onto mod.io, and other players can download it in the campaigns menu of the game. So any campaign you make can go straight into player's hands.

IT'S ALMOST HERE

So, the game is coming real soon. You might have caught me chatting with Justin from Media Indie Exchange and Jirard from The Completionist during the recent REMIX live event, where they played through 20 minutes of the game. That was quite exciting, my first ever media event. If you missed it, I've posted that part of the livestream to the Dust Fleet channel. We've got other things in progress as well, so you should be seeing a lot more from Dust Fleet very soon.

I'm really proud of Dust Fleet, and I hope you enjoy playing it.

I'll see you in space!

Add Dust Fleet to your Steam wishlist
Help fill out the wiki
See Dust Fleet's appearence on ReMIX Live 2023 (4:05:20)

Dev Blog #19: A Few Things Happened

Dev Blog #19: A Few Things Happened

News 1 comment

It's been a while since my last update here. If you've not been following Dust Fleet anywhere else, you might be surprised to learn that a lot has happened...

Dev Blog #18: A Large Pile of News

Dev Blog #18: A Large Pile of News

News

What's new with Dust Fleet? Oh, just an exciting new trailer, a big pile of changes and improvements, and a lot of lovely screenshots.

Dev Blog #17: About That Release Date

Dev Blog #17: About That Release Date

News 2 comments

The thorny topic of That Release Date, a look at some new ships, and a rundown of the enormous number of new features added in 2018.

Dev Blog #16: Big Announcements!

Dev Blog #16: Big Announcements!

News 8 comments

The latest news on Dust Fleet's development, including some big improvements to the game structure, some new ships and some new gameplay elements. A final...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 34)
Aetherial87
Aetherial87 - - 449 comments

Been watching closely for about 6 months, just wanna say the game is looking great and I look forward to playing on Steam. :)

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sirjuanitoPRO
sirjuanitoPRO - - 31 comments

your game is on Steam or Steam Greenlight ?

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OrbitingDisco Creator
OrbitingDisco - - 58 comments

It sure is! Find it here: Steamcommunity.com

Reply Good karma+2 votes
mrsdnjhn
mrsdnjhn - - 106 comments

will it get to have mods?

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Coal-Chip-Cookie
Coal-Chip-Cookie - - 198 comments

I just found this game and it looks awesome! Definetly tracking.

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deleted10101
deleted10101 - - 7,265 comments

I like this game's style , it feels a bit like Homeworld 2 where you can target and hit individual enemy ship systems

I'll definitely wanna try it once it comes out and randomly generated maps is a good idea that surely will offer replayability

I'll vote you max once i can and i'm tracking it

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23-down
23-down - - 3,553 comments

I completely agree with @⧊⋂≬∩⧊ this game looks epic.. You proof very well that even indie devs can release AAA titles. I will definitely buy this when it comes out. How ever I do hope there will also be a single player campaign at some point. Sand box alone makes it nice but not perfect. Also don't forget about a research tree or some space wreckage that you can salvage to gain resources or some new unique technologies or units.

Should the need arise: You can hire professional voice actors for free or for some money even. They're kinda good folks over there. Just promote your project accordingly and they will flood you with offers to do voice acting and sound effects for you.

Voiceacting.proboards.com

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OrbitingDisco Creator
OrbitingDisco - - 58 comments

I'd really like to do a single-player campaign, but writing a story isn't something I'm very good at. Having said that, the version of this game that comes out for release won't necessarily be where the updates stop. Once the game meets the design criteria, I'll be looking to see what else I can add.

I'm definitely going to need a bit of voice acting just for unit responses, so thanks for that link!

Reply Good karma+2 votes
OrbitingDisco Creator
OrbitingDisco - - 58 comments

Thanks! Still working hard on it, hoping to show off some new stuff real soon.

Reply Good karma+2 votes
deleted10101
deleted10101 - - 7,265 comments

Thanks DiscoJustice

Cannot help to point out that you're really cute

Take your time , your progress is great already

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