If you’re into sci-fi settings with open worlds, base building, and survival elements, Atmosfar could be your next all-evening obsession. Today, publisher Shueischa Games announced when it all starts: May 20—though "only" in Early Access.

At first glance, Atmosfar gives me strong No Man’s Sky vibes, which immediately sends my inner explorer into overdrive. Like a hedgehog catching the scent of fresh food nearby—ever seen that? It’s especially funny in slightly taller grass. 🙂

Anyway: Atmosfar parts ways with Hello Games’ spacefaring sandbox in a few key areas. Its open world, the alien planet Tycos, seems to be either hand-built or procedurally generated and then polished by hand. The setting is even more out-there than No Man’s Sky, too, since your journey takes you across a world of floating islands. Which might explain the Japanese publisher—kidding, obviously.

Still, Atmosfar is built around plenty of familiar ingredients: survival, crafting, resource management, scrap extraction, aircraft customization, and building out a mobile airborne base... it’s all here. If that sounds like your thing, mark May 20 in your desktop calendar; because that’s when Apog Labs’ game enters Early Access. According to the game’s Steam page, it’ll stay there for at least nine months.

Early Access Trailer offers a first taste

The initial Early Access build is set to include two fixed regions made up of several biomes, each with its own weather conditions. According to the publisher, the existing regions will be expanded with more islands, and a third region called "The Rime" is also planned.

The demo will presumably already include both singleplayer and co-op for up to four players. The freshly released Release Date Trailer offers a first look at life on Tycos:

Okay, at 27 seconds, it’s a pretty meager look, but at least the shots come thick and fast. The preview doesn’t show much of larger flying machines like the hulking steel block further down in the image, but I do like the flying "cable car gondola" on display. Maybe Atmosfar works like most other games, then: first you get a Mini Cooper, later you end up in a Lamborghini.

Flying vehicles instead of ships

I picked that car comparison on purpose, by the way. Atmosfar doesn’t focus on spaceships as such, but on flying "Wasp" vehicles across several classes. That explains the weird-looking "cable car gondola" in the trailer. I suspect the "steel block" isn’t really a ship either, but the mobile airborne base known as the Cloud Cruiser.

The Cloud Cruiser can be piloted and expanded, though not with the same level of detail as in Empyrion - Galactic Survival. Instead, your floating home is modular; you expand it by snapping one module onto the next. Base management tasks can also be handled in co-op.

One thing Atmosfar might end up skimping on—not necessarily a crime—is story. There is a narrative hook, though: you uncover the fate of humanity’s last outpost, or rather a collapsed colony. Not much else is known, but in this genre, that’s fine by me.

For now, Atmosfar is a PC-only game. Whether console versions follow will almost certainly depend, as usual, on how well it does. Right now, Steam and the Epic Games Store are the only storefronts listed.