One game that crawled into our inbox this week that has really piqued my interest is an upcoming game called Machinaero from Austrian developer Tobias Sturn. The idea was sparked off by thinking about a lone astronaut flying through space in a rocket ship. The feeling of loneliness being in the vastness of space, but also the feeling of hope and excitement as you enter uncharted territory. Being that Machinaero is a side project to his full time job, this inspiration has led to many changing game ideas over the years before finally settling on what is at the core of the gameplay. You’ll be building your own vehicles using more than 50 different types of blocks and objects and then try to make them viable enough to overcome various obstacles and explore new places. These obstacles can be things like blowing winds, rough seas, dark caves, wild jungles, hot deserts, and freezing mountains as you build vehicles to traverse land, sea, and air. Do that and you’ll be able to realize your ultimate goal and the one that started it all in the first place, building a rocket to explore outer space. Check out the inspiring trailer for Machinaero.

So I hinted that this game has been in development for quite a while, and there’s a reason behind that. Besides trying out different ideas for what Machinaero would end up being, Sturn has also studied aerodynamics and physics in an effort to make the physics engine in the game feel as realistic as possible. That means things like wind friction, lift, drag, pressure, temperature and fluids will all need to be taken into account when building and trying to use your vehicle creations. It sounds like a lot of fun using your imagination to build all sorts of wild vehicles, but it’s also very cool that you’ll have to put some thought into these realistic restrictions if you ever want to make it to outer space. I love the look and the concept of Machinaero, and I’ll really be looking forward to seeing exactly how it plays when it arrives exclusively on iOS on December 10th.