Star Wars: X-Wing and MechWarrior veterans release In The Black, a "serious" space combat sim with Newtonian physics

In The Black is a new space combat sim that is "laser focused on the pilot experience" - this being the one, entirely justifiable and indeed, pleasantly grisly usage of "laser focused" I have ever encountered, while quoting a press release. It's the work of Impeller Studios, a company led by Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance gameplay and story lead David Wessman and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries director Jack Mamais. Those are certainly the right CVs for the job. I imagine they called the studio "Impeller" because some actual military aviation company already owns the trademark on "Overheating Flying Coffins R Us".

You play as a probably short-lived mercenary pilot, scrapping for credits in the shadow of Saturn and Mars, sometime in the 23rd century. There are orbital stations to defend, debris fields to scour, and asteroids to hopefully not crash into. On which note, the Steam page makes a big deal of the game having realistic physics. There's a demo as of writing if you'd like to try it out. Or you can watch the developer's intro to that demo.

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