This city builder lets you build a civilisation on the back of a space whale with its own 'desires and agenda'

pcgamer.com:

The cosmos, despite its infinite beauty and wonder, can be an uncaring and deadly place, which we have chosen to explore by cramming men and women into rocket-propelled tubes, inside which they uncomfortably bob around as their bones and muscles deteriorate. The space-faring people of Beyond These Stars(opens in new tab), an upcoming city builder from the creators of Before We Leave(opens in new tab) and publisher Hooded Horse, have a better idea: they've set up shop on a huge space whale known as Kewa. 

We have undoubtedly reached peak city builder, where we now have at least two of them letting us build a civilisation on the back of a massive, fantastical animal. Beyond These Stars shares a few things with The Wandering Village(opens in new tab), but there also seems to be quite a lot that sets them apart, and the space setting is one of the big ones. You'll travel through a procedurally generated galaxy, one with planets that can be discovered and exploited, letting you establish new outposts and gobble up lots of resources, but only for as long as Kewa decides to hang around. 

«Kewa is an intelligent being with their own desires and agenda,» Balancing Monkey Games creative director and lead developer Sam Barham tells me. «When the player wants to travel around the galaxy, they have to ask Kewa to take them where they want to go. While the player will always be able to reach their destination, if their relationship is poor then Kewa might choose to take a different path—perhaps through the cold depths of space or past a dangerous asteroid field. Also, the player's ability to find new places while exploring is partly linked to their relationship with Kewa—the better the relationship, the further they can see.»

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