About This Demo

A tight and tactical turn-based 4X strategy game where each run is different. Explore the galaxy, colonize new worlds, research powerful technologies, and command deadly fleets to lead your empire to victory.

Astro Protocol is not set in real space, but within a modelling protocol designed to predict the galaxy’s future. Six rival factions battle for control before the Great Calibration — the moment when modelling and reality converge.

Build space stations

Construct stations adjacent to asteroid fields, gas giants and stars to maximize output. Boost efficiency by placing refineries alongside them and complete the production chain by terraforming nearby planet to support the operation.

Colonize and terraform planets

Colonize habitable worlds or terraform hostile biomes to expand your empire. Establish colonies to expand your supply network enabling deeper exploration. Specialize planets to industrial powerhouses, mining worlds, science centers or choose one of the other available planet types. How will you shape the galaxy?

Research powerful new technologies

Mix and match technologies across three tech branches. Randomized technology options ensure that no two runs are alike. Unlock new terraforming tools, ships, stations or upgrade your existing ones. Guard your labs well, technology can be captured by enemies!

Build ships

Assemble fleets to dominate the galaxy. Deploy scouts to explore, Vanguards to colonize, Corvettes for hit-and-run tactics, Bulwarks to hold the line and Battleships to break through enemy defences. Bring Carriers and Oracles for long-range firepower. Upgrade the shields, armor, attacks, damage to shape a fleet that fits your strategy.

Crush enemy fleets

Combat is tactical and punishing. Each ship's attack profile and defences matter. Shield block all incoming damage until they are depleted but armor decreases damage from each hit. Choose your tactics carefully to exploit weaknesses and crush enemy fleets.

Investigate mysterious anomalies

Uncover alien artifacts and encounter mind-bending glitches in the simulation. Each anomaly presents randomized rewards from abandoned vessels to forbidden technologies. Adapt your strategy to make the most of them.

Race for victory points

Gain victory points by fulfilling victory conditions which are different in every game. Some victory conditions require destroying enemy ships while others make you gather artifacts from anomalies or control planets. Win by earning six victory points or by outlasting every other faction.

Choose Your Faction

Factions in Astro Protocol are interstellar alliances born from different species, technologies, and philosophies. Some are rooted in organic civilizations, others have transcended into machines or digital ghosts. The demo features three major factions along with three minor ones:

United Tellus: An alliance combining research with military power in order to preserve the humankind. Gaia-centric restrictions limit reckless expansion, but in the peripheries protest movements grow, creating tension within their ordered regime.

Yimono Union: A hegemonic empire that coerces diverse lifeforms into standardized ghost-forms, perfectly optimized for the digital realm. Their hierarchical society thrives on immortality and prediction, yet their reliance on synchronization blinds them to hidden flaws and glitches of the Protocol.

Santri Syndicate: A shadow network of resistance movements and space pirates devoted to sabotaging the Protocol itself. They hack its foundations, dismantle structures of power, and wage a crusade against any pursuit of immortality, even as they struggle to build lasting infrastructure of their own.