Build a future
far from home.
I’m working on a single-player colony simulation for Windows called Far Reach Industries (working title).

If you remember games like Outpost (1994)—the ambition of packing up for another world, dealing with all the real engineering problems, and trying to keep people alive—you probably also remember how it ultimately fell short. I kept waiting for a space colony sim that actually captured that kind of depth, where you could understand how the colony worked, figure out why things were going wrong, and see your long-term decisions play out.
Since I hadn't found it yet, I decided to build it.
Why this one is a bit different
Most space games lean heavily on the trope of Earth getting destroyed and humanity escaping to a final, desperate refuge. I wanted to try a different premise: what if settling other worlds was treated like an industry?
That changes how the whole game feels. Instead of just crash-landing and trying not to die, your expedition has a corporate sponsor, a contract, a budget, and actual obligations. What you pack depends entirely on your budget, what your surveys say, and what you realistically expect to manufacture locally. Over time, your settlement might buy its freedom, specialize in supplying other worlds, or figure out a way to keep a working relationship with its sponsor.
It’s less about frantic combat or clicking buttons to watch numbers go up, and more about a connected simulation where industry, life support, science, and society all actually matter to one another.
What I’m planning to build
into the final game
- You choose your setup: Pick your destination, crew, sponsor, and cargo. Weight and capacity limits mean you have to make hard choices about what tools and supplies you can afford to land with.
- Build above and below: You'll build your surface settlement and dig down across three underground levels, using cutaway views to keep track of everything.
- Follow the infrastructure: Water, power, atmosphere, and heat are all routed physically. If something breaks or a facility stalls, you can trace the shortage right back to its root cause instead of guessing.
- Real industry: Extract local resources, run production chains, and manage physical shipments. Funding helps, but a factory still needs raw materials, equipment, and actual workers.
- Generations and society: Your colonists age, retire, and pass down skills. You’ll have to manage research, civic policies, rationing, and public morale before unrest boils over.
- A whole solar system: You aren't stuck on one rock forever. Expand across multiple planets and moons, set up trade routes, and deal with other settlements (without any combat—this is purely about economic and social pressure).
- Multiple ways to "win": Whether you want industrial independence, total economic specialization, technological leadership, or just want to keep playing after achieving your goals, there are different paths forward.
Where development
stands right now
- Latest milestone: As of October 3, 2026, I’ve finished the milestone covering time, worlds, and expedition setup. That means the baseline framework for continuous time, pacing, generated planets, surveys, and landing configuration is working.
- What’s next: Terrain generation, underground construction, and routed power/water networks are next on the list.
- Is it playable yet? Not publicly. There’s no release date announced yet. Right now, this site is just tracking the development plan as I work through it milestone by milestone.

If you want to follow along as I put it together, I'll be posting updates here as things progress.
Developer journal
More about the game
Origin story
Outpost (1994): The future I wanted to build
The ninth-grade excitement, the frustration, and the idea that became Far Reach Industries.
Read the origin storyDesign goals
What I Want Far Reach Industries to Get Right
Informed decisions, understandable risks, recovery, and a colony worth developing after survival.
Read the design goalsBuilding With LLMs
A three-part series exploring the technology, the engineering, and the experience of building Far Reach Industries as an independent developer.
Part 1 · The Technology
It’s Not Really Artificial Intelligence. At Least, Not the Kind You’re Thinking Of.
On large language models, the AI buzzword, and why the distinction matters.
Read part 1Part 2 · The Engineering
AI Can Write Code. Can It Actually Engineer Software?
Why generating thousands of lines of code is easy, but building software that actually works is still hard.
Read part 2Part 3 · The Practice
AI Isn’t Building My Game. It’s Changing How I Build It.
How I’m using large language models to accelerate software development, rethink my engineering workflow, and build Far Reach Industries.
Read part 3