Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Empyrion - Galactic Survival is an open-world sandbox adventure game. It was released via early access on 5 August 2015 by Eleon Game Studios. This 3D open-world game explores a world of aliens. In order for humans to survive, they must explore the land and adapt to its environment.

Gameplay
New players crash land on an alien planet, where they must survive a hostile environment full of strange creatures, environmental hazards like acid rain or irradiated fog. They start out with a weapon/gathering tool, flashlight, and a bit of food depending on difficulty. Players need to forage to find rarer materials and food to stay alive. Using a portable constructor they can create with their advanced armor suit, they can build a variety of objects & components for advanced crafting, including bases, hoverbikes, ground hovercraft vehicles, and spaceships. As of the 1.10 update (6-27-2023) players can build hoverbikes, Hover vessels, Small vessels, and larger Capital vessels. In multiplayer, the planets are persistent worlds, and players can interact with each other, including trading and Player Vs Player combat.

Development
Empyrion was designed to focus on making exploration interesting. In an interview, the team referenced a German proverb that translates to "the journey is the reward". Comparing their game to No Man's Sky, Eleon said they wanted to make exploration fun first, then work on expanding the game to support a massive number of planets. Community involvement is another focus. A rotating number of player-created schematics for bases and ships are featured in-game, and surveys determine what features Eleon prioritizes. The game left Early Access "Alpha" in 2020.