We are making Beyond Astra, a space 4X game where you can actually build cities directly on planetary surfaces
Hi everyone!
We are Alex and Valentin, making Beyond Astra, an innovative real-time 4X strategy game offering a unique blend of sci-fi grand strategy, planetary city-building, and RTS combat.
We spent the last 6 years coding a custom engine to experience a seamless scale: you can zoom from your cities all the way out to the galactic view in an instant, with zero loading screens.
In most space 4X games, planetary management is just a spreadsheet of slots and icons. In Beyond Astra, playing directly on planetary surfaces anchors the depth of grand strategy into a concrete, palpable experience.
We recently published a Dev Log diving specifically into the city-building aspect of our game, and we thought this community might find it interesting!
In it, we showcase the different architectural styles players can choose from at the start of a game. We also explain how we adapted the core DNA of city-building to a galactic scale:
- A Living Evolving Population: Cities are the beating heart of any civilization, with billions of citizens simulated in the background.
- Physical Logistics: Resources aren't just global numbers, they are physically transported across the galaxy.
- Scaling up: We share details on the design choices we made (like City Template system) to ensure management stays deep, fluid, and fun, even as your empire progress technologically and expands across dozens of planets.
You can read the full article and see more screenshots here: Galactic-Scale City-Building
We would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any questions you have about mixing city-building with grand strategy!