A Game Developer’s Musing : Why Go for Science Fiction and Space Combat?

4 min readJul 24, 2023

When I was a kid, every car ride was like stepping onto a spaceship. All those buttons and dials — super cool, right? The way the car just moved and stopped, turned left and right at the driver’s command — it was like magic. And if the car was decked out with gadgets? Wow, I could barely contain my excitement.

Like most kids, I think we all had a phase where we wanted to be a cop, firefighter, soldier, or even an astronaut, a bit like Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. Who didn’t love cars, planes, and especially spaceships, with all their crazy shapes and colors? I know I did. I dreamt of flying something massive and shiny.

But let’s be real, as we grow up, these dreams typically take a back seat. We’ve got to face the real world, right?

Well, not me. I’m still clutching on to that dream. I still want to explore space, to pilot my own ship, and go on the wildest adventures. I’ve even daydreamed about designing a spaceship — small but universally known. Imagine space travel being as common as hopping in your car to grab a coffee. And anyone could operate this spaceship, just like driving the family car. It would be the star of a “Best-Selling Spaceship for Space Life” ad.

Think about it, you could take this spaceship to the newest amusement park on Mars just for kicks. But, with a few tweaks here and there, this spaceship turns into a super-fast fighter. Armed and shielded, it’s the symbol of courage, ready to charge into enemy lines. I guess, in a way, we never have to completely let go of our dreams — we just reshape them into something even cooler.

Remember those epic ’80s arcade games like Space Invaders, Exerion, or Galaga? If you do, then we’re on the same wavelength. These science fiction (SF) shooters were all the rage back in the day in Korea, and probably worldwide too. What’s interesting is how it was pretty much a given that the lead character in these SF games would be a spaceship. It’s like it was an unspoken rule or something, and that’s how the ‘Shoot ’em Up’ genre was born.

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Follow-up games, like Xevious, Gradius, R-Type, Raiden, and Darius, they carried the torch and kept the genre alive. They were a dream come true for every kid who wanted to fly a spaceship through the galaxy, blasting enemies left and right. But then, something changed. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss.

As game development evolved, games began to “grow up,” just like us. The fantastical space adventures were deemed a bit kiddish, and more games started cropping up with real-world settings. Even entirely new fantasy worlds started to become the norm. The occasional SF games that did come around were set in the future, but they typically featured humans as protagonists in FPS or RPG genres. The spaceship as the lead character started to fade into the background. As a hardcore SF fan, I have to say, it feels like space-themed games have lost their mojo.

Sure, there are still SF games where spaceships take center stage, but they’re not quite the same as the shooters I remember. Take Kerbal Space Program, for example. It’s more of a rocket launch sim than a combat game. Eve Online is all about exploring a huge universe and overcoming a bunch of obstacles before you can even get into some good ol’ space combat, thanks to its MMORPG setup. And don’t get me started on those mobile games with shiny spaceship ads. Most of them turn out to be 4X games where the spaceship’s role is more like a pawn on a chessboard, lacking the adrenaline rush of blasting enemies to bits. I mean, where’s the thrill of an epic space battle, with lasers and cannons lighting up the screen? It seems to me that the gaming market these days is missing something.

I was fortunate to grow up during a period of rapid development in Korea. I had the chance to witness firsthand the remarkable progress across various industries. This exposure to a dynamic environment, coupled with an array of international SF games from Japan, the US, and Europe, shaped my childhood and fueled my dreams. These experiences set the stage for my journey as a game developer, a field that is brimming with romance and adventure.

Among all genres, being involved in creating an SF game has been my ultimate dream, and fast-forward to the present, and here I am, working on this fantastic game called Galaxy Commanders. It’s like living my childhood dreams, but this time as a hopeful game developer. I’m excited and eager to share my vision and future plans for the game with all of you.