Veteran game developer Szymon Kosok today announced that Project: Zenith Expanse, a space colony survival sim about the people who didn’t make it into the history books, is coming to Steam Early Access in Q3 2026.
You’re not a chosen one. You’re not saving the galaxy. You’re a captain with a ship, a crew that needs feeding, and a dream of maybe – just maybe – breaking even this quarter.
Project: Zenith Expanse is a colony survival sim where emergent storytelling isn’t a marketing buzzword – it’s what happens when interconnected systems collide and someone forgets to rotate the crops.
Your colonists have personalities, opinions, and a concerning tendency to start fights over pineapple on pizza. They’ll form relationships, develop grudges, and occasionally die doing what they loved: ignoring the food pyramid.
Key Features of Project: Zenith Expanse
– Deep Colony Management – Build settlements on planets that don’t want you there. Watch them thrive or collapse because someone left the airlock open.
– Crew Simulation – Every colonist has traits, skills, relationships, and opinions about your leadership. Some will become indispensable. Others will become problems.
– Emergent Storytelling – No scripted drama. Just systems colliding until someone loses an airlock. Or starts a philosophical debate about toilet paper orientation.
– Dynamic Economy – Trade across a living galaxy where supply and demand actually mean something. Yes, burgers cost 8 credits on Hynstrixus IV. No, we don’t know why either.
– Factional Politics – Navigate a galaxy divided by old Earth grudges and new frontier ambitions. Your reputation follows you.
– Let Me Cook Modding System – Create new items, events, quests, and mechanics using simple text files. If you can write a recipe, you can mod the game. No coding required.
– Morally Questionable Choices – Recruit colonists, trade with them, steal from them, or… well, there’s a “Terminate” button. We’re not here to judge.
“I spent 18 years making games. 16 of those running a social sim that hit 600,000 users. I’ve learned one thing: players don’t remember the perfectly balanced mechanics. They remember the time their favorite colonist died because they ate nothing but donuts for a week. Project: Zenith Expanse is built for those stories.” – Szymon Kosok, Developer
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