The Long Dark
The Long Dark
Game
Game2026
Space Haven
Developer Bugbyte Ltd.
Space Haven is a 2026 simulation video game published by independent developer Bugbyte. It is a management simulation game in which players must protect and maintain a spaceship in search of a planet to colonise. Upon release of its early access version, the game received generally positive reviews, with praise directed to its level of detail and depth of gameplay mechanics, although criticism of its gameplay… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
304 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 6, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
69
Fresh
180 positive · 79 negative
95% range 64–75%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 180 | 79 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
45 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
9,579 of 11,169 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 304 · most liked firstI’ve been following this game for a really long time, and I’ve been playing it for quite a while... And I have mixed feelings about it. Let’s start on a positive note I love building spaceships; the system is engaging and fun. However, after a while, you realize that for your needs, you need a ship shaped like a cube. Whenever you feel the need for a more traditional shape that matches your idea of a ship, you’ll find that you can’t fit everything you want into it..... Yeah, you don't have to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have over 500 hours in the game (and probably well over 2000 if modloader time were also counted). This is the kind of game where you can build a spaceship exactly the way you imagine it, which makes it very special to me. However, even though it is very close to perfect for what I’m looking for, it has two important issues: 1. The technology feels outdated for a space setting Many essential systems — such as heating, ventilation, and electricity — are implemented through large, bulky…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sure many of you have come across reviews in which the reviewer bemoans the lack of a neutral review option. For me, Space Haven is such a case. While my experience with the game has been a net positive, it's because I'm a sucker for its core gameplay loop, and I can't, in good conscience, give it a positive recommendation in its current state (one that I doubt will change). --- First, the positive. This game has a highly satisfying core gameplay loop: explore the sector map for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Space Haven is one of those games where you sit down thinking you’ll play for maybe an hour, then suddenly it’s 2AM and you’re still trying to optimize oxygen flow while salvaging a derelict ship you absolutely didn’t need to board. The best way I can describe it is RimWorld meets FTL with a little bit of Oxygen Not Included mixed in, but it still manages to feel unique instead of just copying mechanics from other games. The ship design system alone is addictive. You’re not just building a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is the epitome of why there needs to be a half-thumbs up and down on Steam. I want to LOVE space haven, it's not only right up my street, it's in my home, on my couch, eating my pizza. BUT, the game fights you at every stage with a poor user interface and control system that, after playing Rimworld, makes it feel like a slog to get basic tasks done. The perfect example - one of my crewmembers needs medical attention: I should be able to click the crewmember, tell him or her to sleep…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its been years and years since I bought this game. It is a space ship that you build like a colony. Why has it never in 6 years added a second type of couch? Why is the decorations just a wall plant? They seem to never work on it in any meaningful way at all. Especially the wasted time of the crew. Why do they scrap the ship by taking down one wall then move to the other side of the ship to remove one wall, go back to the first part and remove one wall. It takes days to remove the hull when it…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is how the first run of my game has gun so far: - Slowly learning the mechanics - Build my ship up the way I like it - Admire the layout and design of my ship - Realise I have neglected obtaining power and food resources - Set out to find such resources - Find some but not enough resources - Ship begins falling apart and I have no materials to repair it - Come to the realisation my run might be over - Friendly civilian ship enters the system - They allow me to board because I helped…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great colony spaceship game. If you like Rimworld or any of the other autistic colony sim games, you'll enjoy this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Seems like half of a really cool game, released early and with a disingenuous 1.0 label slapped on it. Look forward to it being finished one day but it's clearly still a work in progress. Proof is the "superblock," a building resource that mentions it is for advanced structures.... in reality it builds one niche item. You can tell from this and the tiny research tree that more is planned. I'll change my review if they finish it or put it back in EA (won't happen, but would be the honest and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game rec: Space Haven went 1.0, and for the next day or so, you can get it for just $15.00 USD. store.steampowered.com/app/979110/S... Ragtag spaceship crew management sim, mildly retro vibes with isometric pixel graphics. Fight, scavenge, recruit, explore. 5,600+ Very Positive ratings on Steam.
unlabelledView post →For everyone saying that the updates since release have been too slow... This game is being made with only 3 developers and as much as updates are slow, good things take time. Bugbyte Ltd has made a beautifully aesthetic game with lots of replayability and creative freedom in designing your own space ship or asteroid base. There is so much that can be improved on and added (I'm looking forward to future modding) but despite that, this game has a really solid core and even in its current state…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like this game but it's at odds with it's own design philosophy. I can't tell if the devs want a ship sim, resource manager, city builder, or creative ship designer. It does all of these competently but none of them well enough to praise it. I've had this since early-access, and most of my time has been spent fighting with the ship builder and trying to plan a layout I can grow into, the game doesn't like that. The premise starts with the idea that you are so low on resources you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Death by a thousand bugs. This is a complex game that offers a deep and detailed simulation with a wide range of gameplay options and brutal difficulty spikes. Playing this feels like assembling an incredibly fragile and complex device that suddenly falls apart every time you're almost done. - Multiple NPCs from the same faction can give multiple quests to deliver the same item. Only one of those quests can be completed, and the inevitable failure of the second will reduce your reputation…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gem of a game. Worth every penny. You manage space in space. It is the type of game where you say to yourself "I played a bit, time to log off. I'll just move these 3 wall pieces 1 tile...", you blink, and its 4 hours later and you are saying to yourself "ok, just let me do this one thing.."
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I finally got bored, so it's clearly time to leave a review. After seeing so many nasty reviews, I was pleasantly surprised by the game: Outstanding pixel art: deliberately retro/1990s isometric aesthetic has a distinctive identity - ships and stations feel like miniatures. Excellent ship/station construction: everything is designed tile by tile rather than assembled from predefined rooms/blocks. A bad layout can become a logistical nightmare, while a good one feels like something…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game but I honestly cant recommend it. It's simply too clunky to be enjoyed long term and infuriating because I want to play. Heres some things I encountered that made me rage quit. Clicking on things doesnt work. Aim beside it. Random aim on all characters make the stats seemingly pointless. Characters do what they want despite me spending more hours setting up priorities and schedules for legit 3 hours in all my restarts. Saving people made the faction go to war with me. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like this game. But there are too many QoL things that need to be fixed to make the game less tedious: - Combat and movement, in general, is bad. If you want to do well you'd want to pause at 1x speed and micromanage everyone. Not being able to shoot while moving, combined with the slow movement, makes combat very dangerous. - It's too difficult to get detailed info you need to manage something like a big station. Power, for example, is not well described. Lots of data points,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I first played this game about 2 or 3 updates after its initial launch on steam, about 6 years ago. After all the content updates, and now the official release, I can quite easily say it's still the fun little colony builder I found in high school, after searching up "space," on the store page. I've always played it on peaceful, I've never really made it to the point where I was putting together multiple ships in a fleet, and my game sessions measured months between, but just like how some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Recommended, even though the game and I had a slightly awkward first date. I have to be honest: I am one of those players who usually treats tutorials like optional side quests. In Space Haven, that was probably not my smartest life decision. This is clearly a game where doing the tutorial properly is not just helpful, but almost mandatory. The problem is that the tutorial hit me like an airlock door to the face. There is a lot to learn, and the way it is presented felt a bit dry to me. Maybe…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is just empty... A lot of my hours are just the game running afk or left in the background. I just kept sticking around thinking the game will get fun once I get X, the game will get fun after I do Y, but it doesn't... It never gets fun... It's tedious at all points! 1. The AI is very bad, tasks take 10x longer than they need to be because they just don't chain jobs... You want to harvest a ship? The guy will destroy a wall, run to the other side of the ship to destroy a chair, run…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I now have a better understanding of character behaviour. Which I think was the original cause for my negative review. Playing the game longer made me appreciate the behaviour, I have now revised from a negative review to a positive one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It took me 70 hours to "reach Eden", ie complete the game, and all I got for it was a text box asking if I want to quit, the dev couldn't even throw in a picture lol. I think that summarizes this game well. I had a lot of fun for the first 20 hours, but completing this game sucked. Haven is all about timing and cranking tech as quick as possible. It plays more like a rogue-like, similar to FTL with building, but it takes far longer to progress and relies less on luck. I did enjoy the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. Top down space exploration with base building. Lots of options to customize your ship and crew and your playthru to your personal liking. Game bugs are rare even in the experimental versions. Still a bit rough around the edges but this will be smoothed out in the forseeable future. Lot of choice as well, piracy and slavery pay off but some people in the galaxy may not like it. Had lots of fun with the game and the games community and i'm sure i will have fun in the future too.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not Recommended I don’t mind difficulty or complexity, I played a lot of RimWorld. The problem with Space Haven is not challenge, but lack of clarity. The game constantly tells you to do something, but hides the prerequisites behind multiple unexplained systems and states. When things don’t work, you only get vague messages like “needs unmet” without explaining what is missing or why. This turns learning into guessing. Challenge is fun when rules are clear. Uncertainty and poor…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game feels like it has a lot of potential but the systems just aren't that interesting when compared to other games in the genre and the game needs to be balanced better I feel like. Nothing feels that satisfying, getting resources is way too hard/expensive, and you always just feel like you are constrained even on normal difficulties. Like the game is challenging but not in interesting ways. The systems don't really mesh together all that usefully, and it doesn't feel like you can be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this beautiful game on May 31, 2020, and it's been almost 6 years since it was released in Early access, and now I can finally plunge into the full version of this wonderful game. Thanks to the developers for bringing the game to release. It's time to set up your own space haven
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As much as I want to like this game, it feels very rough around the edges. I’m constantly discovering new points of frustration while playing. You can only force interactions via jobs—if there is no job for whatever it is you want your crewmembers to do, you’re out of luck—which takes away from micromanagement and can lead to very frustrating situations. For example, a crew member suffering from an open wound simply won’t go to a medical bed because, apparently, researching is considered more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those games that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. It allows you to have the true open sandbox experience some want, while allowing for a fairly easy to follow campaign for those that want an in depth space story. I've had the same crew for almost 5 in game years, and seeing them live their lives, make friends, foster relationships, and grow as a crew has been like watching a space opera where I'm the director. I can't wait for the next update where I can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I swing by every damn mayor patch and after years of development simple things are still impossible to manage. Food, moods, injuries, combat micro, trade pricing and resource access, environmental hazards, even, zones for prisoners and guests are all still unpleasant and overly restrictive. More effort has been made to fill out enemy factions than has been made to improve the base flow of gameplay and ql for interacting with crew, production and ship management. Pass on this, wish I had.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →📢 Metropolis 1998 Announcements: 📣EXCITED to share I am working with composers: 🎼 Jerry Martin (SimCity, The Sims) 🎼 Paul Zimmermann (Space Haven, Wild Frost). 📣The last major feature (economy) is in game.
unlabelledView post →Overall, the game is worth playing, however you might want to read this. I personally wish the game mechanics and systems were deeper and had more meaning/value overall. I enjoyed playing early on. I played the game, then the trading post like scenarios. I had high hopes for the "trading station" type of gameplay, but at the end it's just easier (and better) to trade with local ships than it is to go on missions and get your crew hurt and "away" from the trading post where they need to be.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have spent tooooooo much time on this game and will continue to, because the possibilities are limitless when it comes to ship designs, missions, attacking or trading with other ships, and more. It is definitely a learning curve in the beginning, but super fun. The station mode is such a cool additional feature and it's fun to stockpile up on the coins before making the transition to the normal mode. Only several annoying functions of the game at this point I would say are; 1. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This actually happened in the game. An asteroid hit my spaceship and destroyed the toilet. Look at what the game's asteroids look like btw. It was my first asteroid disaster and it directly hit the toilet that was on the outer wall. What are the odds? So due to that incident, and me not having enough resources on board, things escalated. Bad. The crew eventually got tired, stressed, became unwilling to work, a few of them had a mental breakdown and now they also walk around and sleep with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game really suffers with it's UI and tutorial. It hasn't improved as it's progressed out of early access and it feels like the same clunky game it was a few years back. It's really disappointing because it's a super great idea and cool aesthetic for the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Space colony building sim Space Haven 1.0 is finally here https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/space-colony-building-sim-space-haven-1-0-is-finally-here/ #SpaceHaven #IndieGames #PCGaming
unlabelledView post →I was able to learn the game fairly quickly. Got a good sense of the game. Though I am posting this at around 13 hours of total game time, it's fine since I do not see much to the game in terms of complexity and content. This game is alright for casual fun if you just want to relax a bit and mess around with space and ship stuff but it doesn't offer that much content or much interesting elements. Certain game elements such as controlling your crew needs polishing. The combat seems a bit…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you watch a 4-year-old "early-early access" video and compare it to the current "almost full release", you’ll barely notice any difference. Most mechanics feel unfinished or pointless. Many mechanics feel pointless. For example, space weapons: you can use them, but there’s no real reason to. It’s more efficient to just wait for boarding team, kill it with zero effort, than board the enemy ship, clear it, and take it over. Destroying ships doesn’t eliminate the crew inside anyway, they…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've got another game fresh out of early access for you: Space Haven. Come and help me survive in space please 😁 ❄ twitch.tv/2dkiri
unlabelledView post →It checkmarks everything that I need from a space game: a colony management, a space travel experience, trading, pirates, tech-tree upgrade, risk and rewards and I might be missing few things here and there. But I hate playing this game. Its overly complicated UI always comes in front of the great experience it offers.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game. I REALLY DID! At first, the slow gameplay as you build up your ship and recruit crew from wrecks I encountered was very enjoyable and even restful. All the references to the best Sci-Fi show ever, Babylon 5, made my inner geek laugh and squee with glee. Unfortunately, after 277 hours of gameplay, the poor ship-to-ship combat mechanics is killing the game for me for the following reasons: - Damaging blasts to your ship or the enemy's ships only damage the ship and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had an incredibly long EA, but the devs used that time to build an amazing, fun, relaxing (sometimes) game that can easily absorb hundreds of hours as you design and redesign your perfect ships and fleets. I keep coming back whenever I'm bored, to design a new spacefaring masterpiece. Viva Bugbyte and well done on reaching full release!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →6 years later there are still lots of game breaking bugs making an otherwise great game an uneven experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love this game!!! Can't say enough as a base-builder and as a colony sim lover, this game has been amazing! HUGE shoutout to the devs for a great game and continuing to make improvements!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is too complex for its own good. For example with rimworld. (which inspired Space Haven) What do you need for minimal survival in Rimworld? Nothing. Sleep on ground, forage for food, andmedicine from heal root. What do you need for a minimal sustained colony? - roof over your head, bed (all from trees nearby), plant some crops, and some defence fences and traps What do you need for minimal survival in Space Haven: Hull of the ship, pretty big one to contain everything, oxygen generator,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Space Haven is a quiet kind of space game. It does not rush you with explosions or scripted drama. Instead, it lets you build your own little ship, fill it with people, and watch what happens when survival becomes routine. Every corridor, bed, and oxygen scrubber matters. Every crewmember has moods, needs, and quirks that can turn a normal day into a small story. The pacing can be slow, especially early on. Some players might find the grind heavy before the ship really comes alive. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The primary issue with this game is the AI behavior and the lack of transparency around certain gameplay mechanics. Tasks that should be straightforward often become unnecessarily frustrating because characters fail to complete actions reliably. For example, during early salvage operations on derelict ships, characters may stop working, claim there is “no path,” and eventually starve despite having previously performed the same task for an extended period. This creates the impression that the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm really torn on this one, but at the moment I'm leaning towards no. The strange thing is, it is a fun game. There’s clearly a lot here, and I can see why people would enjoy it. But I’m playing on Easy, and I’m still finding it insanely difficult. The tutorial really doesn’t help. It feels badly balanced and unclear. It tells you to build certain things, but you often don’t seem to have the resources to build them, and it doesn’t do a good job of explaining what you’re meant to do next.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The building is cool but lacks any real depth, theres not a ton of decorations, the research tree is shockingly shallow, barely any mission types (so most of the game besides simple missions boils down to: travel to a new system, harvest ore aka wait around, mayybe check out a derelict ship if theres one, wait for it to be scavenged and thats the game.. with sometimes ships spawning in that u can trade with ) Also i felt like there are way too few sounds? Most u hear is just he music For a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Give this game 40 minutes of your time and a bit of patience. After that, it will do the rest - you'll forget to eat, work, and sleep. I rarely leave positive reviews, usually only criticism. But this game is something else. Mega amazing! And that's after playing only the Early Access version! Do yourself a favor and start with the tutorial. I strongly recommend it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have poured many hours into this game and do enjoy it. But the mechanics / instruction are vague and I spent A LOT of time on Reddit and watching 3 to 6 year old videos to learn processes. Also - to save anyone time: You cannot have a base AND ship without completing the main storyline via Standard, or purposely fail a base build mission and upset a faction. Also - HSS does not always mean a "Navigatable Ship" - you will not necessarily be able to build an engine on a vessel with the HSS…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game needs more time in the oven and more quality of life changes. It was in early access for how long? I enjoy the concept, the problem is that the AI is whack (they will not listen to me, or purposefully disobey) or something is not working, despite fulfilling all necessary requirements (turrets will not fire at enemies). I do not recommend this game- got it on sale so it isn't a big monetary loss.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is not bad, but needs another year in the oven. As of now, it's too clunky and repetitive. The novelty of zipping about space and salvaging stuff quickly wears off once you realize it's always the same stuff. Also, I understand the appeal of having a retro-style isometric aesthetic, and it looks nice, but it also makes the process of placing things quite a pain, more often than I'd like to admit. The game should have been in 3D, or at very least should have the option to change camera…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly I played this game 4 hours longer than I should have and now I can no longer get a refund. This game mashes several genres together and as a result it feels stretched out. I'm a big Rimworld and DF fan, but those aspects in this game are very shallow. If you like ship designing, I am sorry to say that is meaningless. Just make a big partitioned square with the correct ratio of systems with adequate spacing between things and you are safe. Congrats, that's all you need. Design is pointless…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty fun, but missing game variety. Once I got past the scarcity probem of early game with a stable ship and crew, I realized that I would just be doing the same thing over and over, just scaling it upwards, and the game lost its luster. Perhaps someone more autistic than I would enjoy it more. Give it a shot if you are so inclined.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →horrible ui, and unintuitive controls and menu layout kills it before it even hasa chance to get rolling
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm actually amazed my review is going to be overall negative. I honestly really wanted to like this game as I'm a huge rimworld fan. I picked it up during EA and have been trying to get it click with me but it just doesn't. Pros: -Sandbox setting with an optional story mode (or optional sandbox, depends how you look at it.) -Characters have unique skills and progression feels good and well paced. -Salvaging wrecks is decently fun. -Upgrading and building your ship offers new ways to make…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Space Haven – Review (80 hours played) I’ve spent around 80 hours playing Space Haven. As a big RimWorld fan and someone who recently finished Stardeus (both games I really enjoy), Space Haven easily earned my attention and kept me engaged for a long time. The game is challenging, especially in the early and mid-game. For a good portion of my playtime, I was constantly managing resources like food, Energium, and energy, which creates real tension and makes survival feel meaningful. While…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am still a newbie in this game. Killed all crew so many times... but keep returning to this game with desire to make things right this time. Every time I am going further, build the ship larger. But at some point, whatever I do, something goes terribly wrong. And one wrong decision may provoke a cascading collapse. Well, game is tough, but I like such intellectual and strategic challenge.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing some Space Haven. This character's attritubes seem pretty on point. #indiegames
unlabelledView post →I hope there are variations on how to play this game. After you build self-sustainable ship (excluding resources), there is nothing to do.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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