When one indie developer couldn’t find the sci-fi game of his dreams, he built it himself. Fortified Space is a deeply personal project from Brendan and Nightsail Game Studios, combining tactical ship combat, on-foot exploration, and sandbox base building aboard a fully explorable starship.
After a year of solo development, the free demo launches on August 9, offering players a first glimpse into a universe crafted from frustration, inspiration, and raw creative drive.
This week, we’re proud to feature Fortified Space as our Game of the Week 15, and bring you an exclusive interview with Brendan, the developer behind the vision. From building the ideal space survival sim to balancing player feedback and personal ambition, this is one of the most promising sci-fi indies of 2025.
We spoke directly with Brendan about the journey behind the game, the challenges of designing across space and ground gameplay, and what players can expect beyond the demo.
What inspired you to create Fortified Space, and how long has the project been in development?
Fortified Space is the result of a decision I made a year ago to learn game development in order to create the kind of game I’d always wanted to play, but could never quite find. Becoming a developer was not anything I had ever planned on or aspired to. In fact, I have a full-time career in a completely unrelated field. What finally drove me to do this, however, was that itch I couldn’t scratch. I think most gamers can relate to what I am talking about. That seemingly endless search for the perfect game that checks all your boxes. Occasionally, you’ll find something close, and be able to drop hundreds of blissful hours on it, but there’s always something that’s missing. Something not quite there. I got tired of that feeling. I had spent hours and hours on various corners of the Internet, trying all manner of game suggestions, but never finding the one I truly wanted.
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One day, a close friend of mine asked a deceptively simple question: “what is your ideal game that doesn’t exist?” The words in my answer began flowing as if I had rehearsed them a hundred times. I told him I wanted to play a sci-fi game where you live on a starship. It would have lots of NPC crew, and there would be ship-to-ship combat, survival aspects, taking care of crew needs, ship boarding, planetary landings, and customization. The ship would have a fully explorable and customizable interior, and you could go down to planets and build bases. Some planets could be uninhabited, and others would have cities. The ship wouldn’t just be a static base or loading screen, either; you would be able to actually pilot it through space and fight with it and operate it. You’d feel cozy aboard the ship, but you’d have to keep going out for resources and missions. I then told him about several games that came close, including some fairly high-profile ones, but they didn’t quite do it the way I was hoping for.
I realized that, unknowingly, I had created a roadmap for myself. With frustration on one hand and passion on the other, I started learning and building. I should be clear that Fortified Space does not currently have all of those features I just described, but it has some of them, and the list grows by the day. Maybe, as I gain more experience and feedback, this game or future games I make can finally be that ideal game. It’s still early. For now, Fortified Space is the one starting to go out into the world. And as I started sharing the Steam page, I started getting feedback about how the game checks other people’s boxes, and how they were also looking for games like this. That gave me a reason to keep adding more features from my personal wishlist and it motivates me to take it across the finish line. I feel like I could work on this forever.
Game development is the ultimate sandbox, and I feel like it’s the surest way to ensure that your vision of an ideal game, a vision which every single gamer has a version of in their own minds, can someday become reality.
The mix of space combat, base building, and sandbox play is pretty unique—how did you decide on that blend, and what’s been the biggest challenge in making it work?
I think in my mind, I always wanted the ship to be a central character. I love the feeling of being cozy in your ship, but having to go out into danger to complete what needed to be done. In fact, that’s why I ended up naming my company “Nightsail Game Studios.” The feeling I’m describing is analogous to being on a warmly lit sailboat traveling through a pitch black ocean.
Why I included space combat and base building and sandbox play was ultimately due to two primary reasons: first, I wanted the contrast between the friendly warmth of your ship and the hectic chaos of building a base to repel waves of enemies.
Between missions, the crew can relax—and even play soccer—in the fully explorable starship of Fortified Space.
Having planets and ground combat also gives you a reason to have a ship at all, which is a vehicle that takes you to destinations. Secondly, all three types of gameplay ultimately provide that nice safe feeling at some level. Whether it’s relaxing aboard your ship, or finally breathing comfortably once your base is strong enough to defend against all enemies, I wanted to create that Nightsail feeling. The sandbox aspect provides the reward, after completing a difficult base building/ground combat mission, of absolute safety. Congratulations on beating the mission, now you can enjoy unlimited materials to build the ultra-secure base of your imagination.
I think the biggest challenge in making these work has been balancing the difficulty between all the different modes. It’s a bit like a triathlon, where each mode requires different skills. Flying a spaceship and strafing enemy ships forces you to consider momentum, and to have quick reflexes to destroy incoming missiles. On the other hand, the base building aspect is more about being strategic in placing stationary emplacements and figuring out how best to survive if a massive crowd of enemies has assembled at your tail. In playtesting, players have generally been strong in one type of gameplay and less strong in the others. But that’s part of the fun!
You recently added sandbox mode—was that based on player feedback, or something you always wanted to include?
The sandbox mode was actually based on player feedback! You may notice that “sandbox” was never in my own description for my “ideal game.” In early iterations of the game, once a player finished a planet assault mission, their base would vanish so that they could fully replay the mission whenever they wanted. I assumed that since the base was made up of fairly simple parts, nobody would care. I was wrong. Turns out, people got really attached to their bases. One told me that because they were the one who built it, they got attached to it. So what I did was not only make the bases persist on the planet after mission completion, but to allow unlimited building materials so that players could continue expanding and designing their creation to their heart’s content. This reaction from players was a pleasant surprise, and I was happy to add that feature in. Plus, when I played through the sandbox mode, I had lots of fun too. Instead of a desperate, thrown together base, I could create an orderly castle with all kinds of pointless design decisions. And since enemies continue to attack and get blasted away, that cozy feeling of safety got even stronger. Replayability was preserved by adding a big “Restart Mission” button for those who wanted to start from scratch.
What can players expect after the demo? Are there specific features or missions you’re most excited to expand on in Early Access?
I plan to release the full version in late 2025, after I’ve had the opportunity to gather feedback from demo players, incorporate them into the game, and add as much as I can of my personal wishlist as well. My hope is that the Early Access release will show a game with many more features and interesting quirks than what is currently in the demo. I actually have a list, multiple pages long, of all the different things I think would be cool to add. I could literally do it for years, so we’ll see what I can do in the time allotted. If Fortified Space gets enough interest, I could see myself continuing to update the game for a long time. As I keep adding features, I’ll keep providing development updates on Steam. So I hope players will wishlist the game and follow the page to see my progress!
Construct your defenses and hold the line—Fortified Space lets you build and expand your outpost after every mission.
One thing I’m interested in adding is emergent experiences. In the demo, players currently have a safe area designated as “deep space” where they can mine asteroids and otherwise take a breather. I think it would be cool to add moons, derelict ships, or other random encounters to reward players for exploring. These could be the source of some fun side missions.
As far as missions are concerned, I’m excited to go beyond the mold of ship combat and base building to see what else is possible. Maybe ship-to-ship boarding, or stealth missions, or other things like that. I’m getting ahead of myself, and I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, but I have quite a few mission types that I want to try implementing between now and full release. There’s also a bunch of lore that I haven’t added into the game at all yet, so it will be fun to see whether I can sprinkle that in.
Official capsule art for the Fortified Space demo—launching August 9 on Steam.
Those are just a few of the many features I’m hoping to add. As I said previously, I consider game development to be the ultimate sandbox, and I relish the feeling of wanting to do something in the game and then simply adding it in. I hope that players will have as much fun as I’ve had.
Fortified Space launches its free demo on August 9, inviting players to step into a personal passion project and witness the ambitious vision of a solo indie developer firsthand. Don’t miss your chance to explore, build, and battle across the stars—wishlist the game now and support its journey towards Early Access!
We also talked with another legendary indie developer, Minh Le (Gooseman), co-creator of Counter-Strike. You can read and watch the full interview here.
Written by Ronny Fiksdahl, Founder & Editor of Fix Gaming Channel.
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