Recovering from uncertain times, your Peeps find themselves on the back of Kewa - a lonely Space Whale journeying across the universe. Building a city on the back of a sentient creature comes with its own set of challenges, but as you build your relationship and travel across the galaxy, you'll come across great opportunities for exploration and stable expansion. Meet other species, pursue the needs and wants of your Peeps, and seek the truth about their ancestors and the Space Whales alike.
The vastness of space is full of mysteries, and as you first arrive at your new home atop the Space Whale Kewa, your Peeps will quickly learn the need to work together – with each other, but also with their new home.
A Home Among the Stars - Build a sprawling city on the back of a universe-traveling Space Whale as your Peeps seek places to live and work. Your new home is largely desolate and inhospitable when you arrive, save for a small patch of green by the water – work around the contours of the land as you plan your city, taking into account the efficiency of your production chains. Will you simply place buildings as the land allows, or will you change its very shape to take advantage of adjacency bonuses and reduced travel times?
Reach Far and Wide - Terraform the land around you to better suit your needs. Create a thriving ecosystem by digging canals and adding top soil in preparation for farming. Plant trees to maintain a steady flow of raw materials, and maintain entire forests to help spread the atmosphere and facilitate the expansion of your city.
A Fragile Equilibrium - Prepare to seek out additional resources as you research new technologies and gain access to advanced goods. Your people’s needs will grow, and complex logistics networks and mining infrastructure will follow. You must be careful not to tip the delicate balance of the ecosystem, however – the land on Kewa is fragile, and if not tended to with care, your habitat will shrink. Will you walk a fine line of sustainability by risking Kewa’s ecosystem, or will you seek opportunities to instead gather resources on other worlds to keep Kewa happy?
Unveil the shared history of the galaxy as you travel from system to system with Kewa – seek answers about your past, learn about the history of the Space Whales, and understand the unique relationships that bind everyone together.
Reliable Outposts - Kewa’s environment is plentiful, but not without limits – there will often be a dearth of essential resources and space, and you’ll want to ensure the environment is not over-exploited. Create outposts on nearby planets and seek out supplementary sources of what you need – but unless you build a strong relationship with Kewa, you may find it difficult to predict how long you have at an outpost before Kewa decides it's time to leave a system behind, potentially never to revisit it again.
A Travel Companion - Kewa longs for connection, and is no mere pet – your home has hopes and dreams for the journey through space. Invest in the right technology and you can learn to speak with Kewa. Through understanding Kewa’s needs and desires you can better build a symbiotic relationship. This will give you the opportunity to work in collaboration and allow you to decide on a path together as you journey across the universe.
Friends Along the Way - Your approach to the sustainability of your ecosystem and relationship with Kewa will influence how others feel about your Peeps. On your journey, you will cross paths with alien species who all have opinions on your approach, offering unique opportunities to those they like – additional objectives and their subsequent rewards, opportunities for trade, and new technologies with the doors they open.
Balance your people’s survival, prosperity, and progress with the need to co-exist with Kewa in a journey across space. Beyond These Stars asks you to consider the logistics of your supply chains and production lines within the context of a living, breathing, sentient world.
