Take a moment and breathe. That’s what new, meditative space building sim rymdkapsel wants us to do. The concept here is to create and expand a space station (rymdkapsel means “space capsule” in Swedish), defending against waves of ever tougher alien spaceships. The goal is to survive as long as possible, reaching up to four monolith structures.
The game itself–originally released on Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld–is hypnotic, slow-paced, and calming. There’s a strange sense of joy and peace that descends as players build their space station using Tetris-shaped block pieces, sending Pong-shaped minions to build new corridors, gather resources, research the monoliths, and take up arms to defend against the incoming waves of alien shooter ships.
I’ve spent a good hour at a time, several times this past week, patiently building my station, assigning minions to various duties, and eventually succumbing to the overwhelming force of the alien invaders after about 22 waves or so. It’s become my favorite way to chill out at the end of a long day. Here’s a short video condensing one of my hour-long play throughs to a bit under four minutes.
As you can see, it’s a time-consuming game, especially in the beginning. After the station has been built up a bit, the alien invaders start to show up with tougher ships, stronger guns, and with less time between waves.
The trick is to balance expansion with defense, making sure there are enough corridors to reach the monoliths, which give the minions better powers. There are several missions to complete, like reaching all monoliths in one play-through, surviving all enemy waves, and the like, but ultimately the joy in rymdkapsel is in the playing. Building a space station, making sure there are enough resources to expand and plenty of defenses and defenders to stay alive is its own zen-like reward.
rymdkapsel is available in the App Store now for $3.99, and it’s worth every penny.
(Music credit: Niklas Ström)
