Distant Suns (series)

Distant Suns: Space Simulation Video Game Series

A space simulation video game series developed by John Watts, published by Matrix Games, focusing on procedurally generated star systems with realistic orbits and planets.

What is Distant Suns (series)?

Distant Suns is a long-running series of space simulation video games developed by John Watts and published by Matrix Games. The first game in the series, Distant Suns, was released in 1983 for the Apple II. Subsequent games have been released for various platforms over the years, including DOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The Distant Suns games focus on open-ended space exploration and discovery. Players traverse a procedurally generated galaxy, visiting stars and their orbital planets, moons, and asteroids. Each star system has realistic physics and orbits, with some featuring phenomena like black holes, nebulae, and supernovae. Players scan and analyze planets and other objects to catalog their properties like temperature, atmosphere, gravity, and resources.

A key aspect of the Distant Suns games is the hard sci-fi realism and attention to scientific detail. The games emphasize making space feel vast, cold, and dangerous. Resources are scarce, requiring careful planning and risk management. The procedural generation creates a sense of the unknown, since even veteran players will encounter new and surprising solar systems.

Over its long history, the Distant Suns series has gathered a cult following for its meditative pace focused on exploration over high scores or non-stop action. It has influenced many other space simulation titles over the years as well. The latest game, Distant Star Revenge for Windows and Mac, was released in 2021.

Distant Suns (series) Features

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