One of the very first games that launched into Steam’s Early Access was Keen Software House’s Space Engineers, entering into Valve’s developmental program back in late 2013, as reported by DualShockers. The game, as of February 28th, 2019, has officially graduated from Early Access and is now available for purchase for $19.99. During the first week of its official graduation, you can get the game for 20% off as well as play it for free over the course of the weekend.

The physics-based survival-game has sold more than 3 million copies and has more than 200,000 active players each month, according to the Steam community update.

I’ve had the game for years, but only ever played it off and on. It was one of the few games that caught my eye due to how non-linear it was. Basically imagine Minecraft with actually good graphics and the ability to create cool spaceships of varying sizes, venture to planets, and rely on actual real-world physics-based thermodynamics.

You can see what the release version of Space Engineers looks like with the launch trailer below.

Yes, the game is basically like a more contained version of No Man’s Sky. Even still, the game has come a long ways based on how it started, where you were basically just in a tiny little space sandbox and you could just build ships. Eventually Keen Software House added the ability to create ground-based vehicles and mechs, and then they improved the visuals so that the parts were no longer blocky voxels, and then they added planets, and then they added more moving parts, lights, day and night cycles, and lots more content than can be named in this post.

Some gamers have made some truly groundbreaking mods for Space Engineers, and it all helped give the game more presence in the gaming sphere by showcasing just how creative people could get with Keen Software House’s title.  For instance, the video below showcases some custom made Star Wars ships engaged in PvP battle, courtesy of Captain Jack.

Space Engineers definitely had its ups and downs, but it’s definitely had more ups than downs, and it’s one of the few games that actually pushed the space sim genre forward.

If you’re keen on taking a trip across the farthest reaches of space in your very own hand-made space ship, whether it’s a tiny personal transport, a multi-crew corvette, a cargo frigate, or a star destroyer, you can check out Space Engineers by hitting up the Steam store page for more info.