Shiro, a developer known for games such as Dune: Spice Wars and Wartales, has finally released a demo for their upcoming space sandbox SpaceCraft and revealed what players can expect in the game.

SpaceCraft is an online sandbox MMO, where you move between star systems and planets, mine resources, expand a base and build starships. Since the game world keeps progressing even when players are offline, what you build and sell can change the in-game market.

According to the game’s story, during a war against the Tripod war machines, humanity fled through a mysterious portal and became stranded in a distant region of space. The survivors now aim to rebuild and create a new home across multiple worlds.

The developers explain that SpaceCraft is built around cooperation and long-term systems rather than aggressive PvP combat. Groups can form corporations to boost production and trade. Combat is present, but it focuses on planetary fauna and pirate skirmishes. Direct PvP elements are kept to a lighter role, which the team says they will tune as development progresses.

Building and production sit at the core, as automated factories, modular ship parts and market systems matter more than pure combat. The goal is to create room for indirect competition where two players might never fight directly but still influence each other through trade and resource control. Solo players can also explore and set up bases without needing to join a corporation.

Official servers will host the persistent universe, and the developers aim to support thousands of players per server and they say major features rely on that official setup. Private dedicated servers are not planned at launch, though the team has noted player interest.

The game shares ideas with other space and building games. Players who know titles such as Elite Dangerous, Satisfactory, Space Engineers, Eve Online and Star Citizen may spot familiar systems, but SpaceCraft mixes them toward a player-driven, persistent sandbox.

Ahead of SpaceCraft‘s Early Access release coming later this year, players can try a demo on Steam. It covers the game’s core pillars, exploration, resource gathering, and shipbuilding, and gives the developers a chance to collect feedback.