The K-73 space tug from behind: a white cab with yellow and black stripes, three engines glowing blue, a blue planet at the lower edge of the frame.

Starlane Logistics

Start the ship. Live aboard. Ride the hyperlane.

You are the solo captain of K-73, a small space tug. It pushes four cargo containers in front of a two-level cab, and the cab is your home.

Early prototype · PC · working title

Cold start, switch by switch

A flight starts with a dark ship. Bring it up one switch at a time: systems, reactor, shield, engines. The ship's voice talks you through it, with subtitles, and you feel the hull tremble.

Sometimes the reactor fails. Then you leave the seat, go down to the engine room and fix it.

The engine room: a tall reactor cabinet marked EB-1 with a round blue display, copper pipes, red valves and hazard stripes on the floor. The front of the tug's cab from outside: K-73 painted on the hull, yellow and black stripes, warm lights on.

A cab you can live in

Walk from the bridge down to the lower deck with no loading screens. Downstairs are the living quarters, with a 2.3 m round window and a bed set into it. There are glass doors, a galley, the engine room and a suit room.

A large round window with a yellow frame. Through it you see the stars and the containers on the tug's frame. A small desk under a lamp, with a note pinned to the wall and a round porthole above it. The lower deck: white lockers, a stool and a small table under warm ceiling light.
A narrow airlock tube with ribbed walls and warm lights, leading to a door with a yellow frame.

Suit up

Put on the spacesuit, cycle the airlock and step out onto the vacuum walkway around your cargo.

Fly it by hand

A stepped throttle, heavy handling with assist, a brake and a slow reverse. The HUD on the windshield switches between tunnel and lane-edge modes. A radio dispatcher clears you to undock, and on arrival the ship docks itself.

Hit something and the shield bounces you off, or the hull takes the bang.

The bridge from the pilot's seat: four blue monitors, red switches and a throttle lever. Through the windshield, the curve of a blue planet seen from low orbit.

Ride the hyperlane

The hyperlane is a winding, glowing river in space. Fly into it, and it carries you from Halvard to Kel-7.

From the bridge, a glowing blue river of light winds across the dark through the windshield.
A huge gas giant with rings fills the windshield, seen from the pilot's seat.

Planets are made from a seed: Earth-like Halvard seen from low orbit, and Kel-7 b, a ringed gas giant with a moon. Their light reaches into the cabin.

Halvard cargo port

About 1.5 km wide, with around 4,300 containers, cranes and company signs.

The tug next to a long port platform stacked with colourful containers, a crane and a control tower, a blue planet below.
Side view of the tug: four containers (red, green, orange and red) on a frame in front of the cab. A wall of containers in many colours with company names, in front of a lit port building.

From a big ship to a small tug

Starlane Logistics is a solo project.

The first prototype was a large container ship with a crew. After 65 steps it felt too big, and it was not the feeling I wanted. I kept the systems that worked, like the power grid, docking and the shield, and rebuilt the game around one small tug and one idea: the ship is your home.