Independent space exploration / In development
ASTRA
ARCANA
There’s always something
beyond the next gate.
Make your way through the stars. Take the contract. Answer the distress call. Let N.O.V.A. watch your back.
01 Your life out here
One ship.
Plenty of ways
to make a living.
The next job might be a quiet mining run. Or the reason somebody makes it home.
Travel between generated star systems, meet the people who keep them running, and take on mining, salvage, and ship-service contracts. Manage your fuel, recover what you can, and decide which opportunity is worth the trip.
You’re the Captain. N.O.V.A. is the voice beside you. The frontier is still taking shape.
A closer look at the work02 Places worth the journey
Far from ordinary.
Frozen rock. Impossible gravity. A wall of sunlight.
Three glimpses of the frontier in development.
Outer reaches / 01
The quiet has teeth.
Hard sunlight cuts across frozen asteroids. An ice miner works in the distance, and an unmanned fuel stop is a welcome sight a long way from home.
Actual project captures from standalone development scenes. These areas are being developed separately; availability in a playable build may vary.
03 More than a flight plan
Get hands-on.
Stay on board.
Some jobs need a steady hand and a little thought. Open your shipboard console to operate remote equipment and solve the problem in front of you.
- 01
Recover the valuable bits.
Work salvage mechanisms, clear obstructions, and bring the prize home.
- 02
Keep somebody flying.
Restore power, route coolant, and repair damaged ship systems.
- 03
Read between the signals.
Tune a receiver or work a data puzzle to uncover what’s waiting.
04 Your onboard companion
You fly the ship.
She’s got the bigger picture.
Meet N.O.V.A.
Your voiced AI companion helps make sense of the work, talks you through shipboard tasks, and travels with you as the campaign unfolds. The alpha bundles its local language models and voice system, so testers don’t need to set up separate AI software.
A little company goes a long way out here.
Private alpha / Invited testers
Help shape
the next frontier.
Astra Arcana is in active development. The private Windows alpha is for invited testers who are happy to explore, find rough edges, and tell us what needs work.
An individual download key is required. Nova01 is the alpha’s itch.io project name.
- 01 / REDEEM
Claim your invitation.
Open your individual download-key link while signed into itch.io.
- 02 / INSTALL
Bring the whole ship.
Install through the itch app for incremental updates. The first download includes the AI and voice files.
- 03 / LAUNCH
Meet your co-pilot.
Use Play in the itch app, or run Play SpaceGame.exe from the extracted package. First startup checks the bundled files.
05 A few things to know
Before the
first jump.
Can anyone download the alpha?
The current alpha is invitation-only. A download key grants access to the restricted itch.io project. Visiting the page or making an itch.io account alone doesn’t grant access.
Do I need to install AI tools separately?
No. The Windows alpha includes the two local language models, Ollama, and Nova’s voice software. You don’t need a paid AI account, an API key, Godot, or a separate Python installation.
How do updates work?
The itch desktop app supports incremental updates. Close both the game and its launcher before updating. Saves live outside the installation folder. A manual browser download requires replacing the package when a new build is released.
Are all the areas shown here in the alpha?
The ice belt, black-hole observatory, and stellar construction scenes shown here are development previews. They are being built and reviewed separately; the current alpha may not include them. The screenshots are from actual project scenes.
How should I report a problem?
Use the contact method provided with your tester invitation. Include the build version, what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened. The launcher’s Open Logs button locates its logs; review them before sharing. Screenshots help.
There’s a whole lot of space out there.
Find your way into it.