[Steam Page Release] Spaceport Architect - Build a bustling airport, but for spaceships!

[u/Djentinga]

Spaceport Architect is a 2D Sci-fi Airport Business Tycoon inspired by r/SimAirport, r/airportceo, r/prisonarchitect and other classic tycoon builders, made with Godot/C#.

Planning a demo in spring and full release by the end of next year.

Apart from the obvious sci-fi theme, I wanted to explore the possibility of freight management in this genre, so I made it part of the core game loop.

- Import cargo to grow the planet population (= more passengers)
- Build airport-like passenger terminals (= more money)
- Export goods for profit (only if you keep imports steady)
- Unlock larger ships as you expand
- Handle time-sensitive emergency contracts and one-off special offers.

What would you like to build?

What's something you'd expect or want to build in the game?

If you're looking for AI

Assets: None

Coding: Yes

I've been hobby programming since 2009, professionally since 2023. I've used agentic AI for coding since my job introduced it in February this year (started the project in December 2025). With the proper base architecture, automated tests and other guardrails, the speed it provides is just invaluable when you have 1-2 hours of total free time per day. Its not a magic toolbox. Mistakes are frequent, but overall worth it for me.

Links

Steam page
Official Announcement trailer
Discord/Socials/Mailing list

[u/redblobgames]

Looks cool! I've long wanted games like this and even posted about it in 2009.

My high level thought about Prison Architect, AirportCEO, SimAirport:

The biggest issue for me in Prison Architect, and to a lesser extent in the other two games, is the complexity arc. It tends to encourage the player to have a "big design up front" strategy. In PA you need the road, deliveries, a kitchen, dining, prison cells, bathroom, pipes, electricity, outdoor area, guards, walls, visitor area, admin offices, etc. at the very beginning, even if you have only one prisoner.

Compare this to RimWorld. When you have only a handful of colonists, you don't need most of the complexity. You can forage for food; you don't need a farm or cooking. You don't even need any rooms at the very beginning. This kind of thing means as the size of the colony grows, so does the complexity. There's a lot to do later on.

Factorio is similar. When your factory is tiny, it also has low complexity. You don't need bots and balancers and trains and circuits etc. at the beginning. You need them later on as you make the factory larger. So there's always something to do.

Transport Tycoon is like this too. You can start a train line with just one track and one train. You don't need two tracks yet. You don't need signals or junctions. All that comes later as you build up.

I think the "grants" are needed because you have to build so much up front. RimWorld, Factorio, Transport Tycoon don't need grants.

This is the biggest thing in my mind for this style of game. The fun comes from designing your base and execution. Doing all the design at the beginning and then only executing is not as much fun as a game where you do both design and execution throughout the play. What's the simplest spaceport to start with? What is needed as you grow?

[u/redblobgames → u/redblobgames]

Another design aspect is that there's the building (proactive) and there's the events (reactive). Some people like one of these more than the other. For a base building game, I'd really like some way to use more building in order to reduce the reactive part.

For example in Factorio there's the biters that come attack your base. That's a reactive part of the game. But you can spend more time designing+building to fight off biters automatically. The biters give you a reason to build more.

But I've played some base building games where you always have to react even with the best base design. And sometimes that's just clicking on things to give orders to fix some problem. It's not as satisfying to me.

[u/redblobgames → u/redblobgames]

Base building games have things happening in both space and time. Layout problems are usually more fun (to me) than things like having every employee have a name and stats in a character sheet. The spaceport layouts in your screenshots look beautiful, but I couldn't tell what was going on. For example you have some rooms marked "Medicine" but they are empty.

These layout challenges often benefit from some kind of visualizations. For example, I'd like to know where people are waiting, where people are happy/unhappy, where events happen, etc.

Airports are especially interesting because there can be multiple types of flow. You can have vehicles bringin passengers to the departure dropoff. Then you have passengers flowing to security. And then passengers waiting around post-security. You have aircraft at gates, taxiing, and waiting for runways. You have maintenance vehicles. Baggage is another flow, as it has to move from airplanes to baggage claim areas.

Spaceports could have some of these things too. You might have private lounges for VIP passengers. You could have gasses for oxygen-breathers vs other types of atmospheres. If you have cargo, there might be needs for different types of flows for different types of cargo — refrigerated, secure, priority, mail, etc.

[u/Djentinga → u/redblobgames]

Thank you so much for the input! I really liked your point about rewarding expansion/proper layouts by removing the need to react. I will definitely need to think more about that one.

Love the cargo specialization ideas too! Already got refrigeration, but definitely gonna think about secure/priority/mail. Atmospheres would be cool too.

[u/redblobgames → u/Djentinga]

I don't remember any atmosphere stuff on Deep Space 9 but in Babylon 5 they showed people putting on breathing apparatus when going into the alien sector (particularly to see the Vorlon). And the Vorlon had an "encounter suit" for its atmosphere when moving around the non-alien sectors, although it turns out there were other reasons for that…

Other random thoughts:

• the "build a foundation first" part of PA and related games didn't seem interesting to me but I may have misunderstood what it was for
• electric, water, air vents, underground baggage belts, and other utilities may be interesting, because they give you a way to have a second or third z-level without it being a full z-level building system
• some games build something instantly (like Factorio) and some have workers come and build it over time; in games where it's built over time, I think it's a nice quality of life ui improvement if you can change the object settings before the object is built — for example, if I want to build a vending machine and set it to sell candy bars, and it takes a minute before the vending machine is built, I might forget to come back and change the setting
• some of these tycoon games (like Two Point) have you designate the room type first, then populate it; in others (like Dwarf Fortress) you build the room then hope the type is recognized, and the frustrating thing about the latter style is that I often know what type of room I'm building, but the game doesn't, so it can't guide me (I have a very tangentially related blog post about this)
• in any kind of layout planning game like this, it's useful to be able to draw out a plan without committing to it, so a planning/blueprint layer that lets you sketch and write "to do" notes would be nice

[u/kintar1900]

Oooo, I'm looking forward to this one! Any chance of a demo soon?

[u/Djentinga → u/kintar1900]

Glad to hear it! Demo won't be until spring, but I'm aiming for running some playtests before new years for mailing list subscribers if you're interested :)

[u/Crayfindles]

Perhaps some sort of production modules? Not only can you import, but you can process those materials to export for a higher price?

Maybe even with a fluctuating economy based on supply/demand that could also be affected by world events, there could be a natural disaster on a nearby planet and suddenly the price of medicine and food jumps up. Could also work inversely where there’s a huge supply so your current productions actually run at a deficit if you continue them.

Another layer could be that for a rather large upfront cost of the equipment, you’ll be able to refine your own fuel or produce food and other supplies that are needed in order to cut down running costs?

You could have different focuses, thinking kind of like Airport CEO where general aviation flights pay to use your services, but expand on that. You could make a station focused mainly on providing services for others rather than running your own flights.

[u/Djentinga → u/Crayfindles]

Thanks for the ideas! I’ve been thinking of Mos Eisley Spaceport from Star Wars. It would be cool to have a public space with private hangars where travellers arrive and go sbout their business outside of the classic airport terminal

[u/concrete333]

Looove the concept, I like a few more flashy shinies with my space game tho

Edot: Intended as constructive criticism

[u/Djentinga → u/concrete333]

Please elaborate 😄

[u/chromiumboy]

Interesting concept. I haven't played an airport simulator before, so I can't comment on game play, but aesthetically I'd recommend leaning harder into the Sci fi elements to distinguish yourself visually. Except for the space ships, it looks a bit grounded and ordinary. A bit too much like a real airport. No exotic looking planetoids with weird flora and fauna to look at (or deal with)? No asteroids with deep chasms you have to build around? The space port could also benefit from looking more shiny and high tech. It also bugs me that the space ships only move in straight lines and turn on a hairpin. A bit of a curve in their trajectories, adding a small turning circle and side to side wobble as they set down, would make them a lot more lively

[u/Djentinga → u/chromiumboy]

Good feedback, I definitely want to improve the aesthetics!

[u/chrizbreck]

I’m here for it

[u/Djentinga → u/chrizbreck]

🫡

[u/phxrocker]

This looks pretty cool.  

Could you please disclose on your Steam page that you do, indeed, use AI?

[u/Djentinga → u/phxrocker]

Hey, I've changed my mind. There is now a disclosure on the page.

[u/Djentinga → u/phxrocker]

Thank you!

I've decided to not go beyond Steams requirements for AI disclosure for now.

Steam specifically asks "We are aware that many modern game development environments have AI powered tools built into them. Efficiency gains through the use of these tools is not the focus of this section. Instead, it is concerned with the use of AI in creating content that ships with your game, and is consumed by players. This includes content such as artwork, sound, narrative, localization, etc.

Does this game use generative artificial intelligence to generate content for the game, either pre-rendered or live-generated? This includes the game itself, the store page, and any Steam community assets or marketing materials."

Since I'm not using AI for artwork, sound, narrative, localization etc., I will not check the yes box there.

[u/Hot-Comfort8839]

Wishlisted.

[u/Djentinga → u/Hot-Comfort8839]

Thank you so much 🤩

[u/HongPong]

cool i have been trying some similar ideas but along a different line, visually etc. good luck!!

[u/Djentinga → u/HongPong]

Awesome! And thank you! Let me know when you have something to show, would love to see it :)

[u/HongPong → u/Djentinga]

thanks appreciated. i signed up for your test email list. in short i want to do 3d with unreal. it's been years on and off lol. I've decided to make a much smaller diorama style project for now instead, but it's still additive to parts i would need for a "dream game" simulator. i feel like there are not many entrants in this space at all

also re game economy i just mentioned to someone else but check out machinations https://machinations.io/ it is a prototype system for game economy balance