Cinder LakeGAMES

In development · Windows PC · Coming to Steam

Fly the history of spaceflight, one real mission at a time: from Robert Goddard's first liquid-fuel rocket in a snowy Massachusetts field to the first crews on Mars.

81historic missions planned, each one flown as it really happened
1926–2037a century of spaceflight in eight acts, plus "what if" missions
100 %path traced: every pixel of the world is lit by ray-traced light
12missions already flying in the current build

What it is

Road to Mars puts you at the controls of the missions that took us to space. You stand at the real launch sites, rebuilt from archive photographs, work the real launch sequence, and fly the real rockets and capsules. Then the debrief shows how close you came to history.

Real missions, faithfully flown

Each mission follows its historical flight: the date, the hour, the weather, the trajectory and the hardware. Sputnik, Explorer, Vostok and Freedom 7 fly today; Apollo, the space stations and the road to Mars follow.

From the launch pad to orbit

Turn the launch key at Baikonur, hold the count at Cape Canaveral, then ride the rocket through staging and into orbit, with the Earth turning below.

Inside the capsules

Sit in the cabin: the panels, the switches, the porthole and the clock. Fly retrofire and re-entry, and come down under the parachute.

The places, rebuilt

Auburn in 1926, White Sands, the Cape's launch complexes and Site 1 at Baikonur: each one modelled from photographs and plans of the day.

Light the way it really falls

The whole world is path traced in real time: sunlight through the atmosphere, clouds, ocean, launch smoke and the glow of re-entry.

The voices of the era

Narration and launch control guide every mission, and each debrief opens the archive: the real photographs of the flight you just flew.

A century, in eight acts

  1. PrologueThe Dreamers1926–1950
  2. Act IBeep-Beep1957–1960
  3. Act IIMan in Space1961–1963
  4. Act IIILearning to Fly in Space1965–1966
  5. Act IVThe Moon1968–1972
  6. Act VLiving in Orbit1973–2011
  7. Act VIThe New Space Age2004–2026
  8. Act VIIThe Red Frontier2028–2037
  9. What if…The Road Not Takenearned with Echo stars

Screenshots

Work in progress: in-game captures from the current development build.

Coming to Steam

Road to Mars is in development for Windows PC and needs a graphics card with hardware ray tracing. The Steam page is on its way.