At Gamer Social Club we love indie games. As the industry becomes a saturated space where excellent undiscovered gems are releasing on an almost daily basis, we pride ourselves on sharing the best of smaller titles that are begging for your attention. As we approach Halloween 2026 there’s been a rush of horror titles including the exceptional Silver Pines, Hellraiser Revival and more.
One spooky season title that has slipped under some people’s radars is new immersive sim, RetroSpace. Deeply inspired by classics in the genre including System Shock and BioShock, RetroSpace offers and rewards versatile exploration of the fantastic Aurora 5 ship where the game takes place. In my RetroSpace review I said, “This is a mature, well-told story aboard a genuinely brilliant space ship which is fun to explore in any way you wish to approach it.” I noted a handful of bugs in the review, but I’m pleased to say these have been fixed by the Janitors’ Patch #1.
After my review, I was delighted to be contacted Writer and Director of RetroSpace, Bánk B Varga. Bánk was kind enough to share more about the design philosophy of the game, as well as its mature handling of societal topics, and of course the excellent Aurora 5 ship – truly one of the finest game environments I’ve had the joy to explore in recent times.
RetroSpace Interview
Congratulations to you and the team on the launch of RetroSpace! First, tell us how it feels to finally have the game released to the world.
It’s always incredibly scary, but at the same time, it’s a fantastic feeling. You work on something for years, and despite all the testing and releasing a demo, you can’t be sure until the very last moment how the public will react to your game. Fortunately, we’ve passed the test, and players love the game. We’re currently at 90% on Steam, and we hope to boost that even higher with a few updates. So, we’re satisfied in every respect.
GSC staff and readers love indie games and the community they create. Tell us about your game development journey and the journey to RetroSpace.
It was a long process that lasted nearly five years. Within the team, a colleague and I started building the game as a sort of internal demo or prototype, but at the time we had no idea just how big a project it would become. But everyone on the team liked the early demos so much that, even though we were working on other projects at the time, RetroSpace began to take shape nicely in the background. Shortly after that, we showcased the game on social media (on Twitter at the time), and it became a surprisingly big hit.
At that point, there was only one level and a few base features, but it seemed like people were loving it, and we’d managed to tap into something that was missing from the gaming market. From there, everything fell into place: a larger team (5–6 people) was assigned to the game, and we soon found a publisher in Kwalee Gaming. Working with them, we were able to finish the game by 2026, and its scale and ambition ultimately far exceeded what we had originally planned.
I was delighted to review the game for GSC. I thought the game, and in particular, the Aurora 5 itself, were great. What was the design philosophy of this sprawling, diverse ship?
For us, one of the most important elements was the “sense of place.” We grew up playing games like the System Shock series, Thief, Half-Life, and even BioShock, and in all of these games, the atmosphere and authenticity of the locations were always incredibly strong. Somehow, you felt like they were real, living places – not just playgrounds for a video game. So this was a fundamental philosophy for us as well: to make the setting of our game – the Aurora 5 space station – believable, livable, and, of course, very atmospheric and varied. For example, we made sure that every major location had a toilet. After all, we didn’t want the people working there to have to go to neighboring areas just to take care of their business… but that’s just one small detail among many that, perhaps even subconsciously, can give the player the feeling that this is a real place.
There are some very weird, and very wonderful characters on the ship. Who and what inspired these bunch?
Each character had its own unique sources of inspiration. Sometimes these were hidden, and sometimes they were quite obvious – such as the character “Marco Rosso,” who was clearly inspired by Porco Rosso. But above all, the goal was for every character to be completely unique. A living computer, a mutant pig-man, a tough female soldier, an android with a disco ball for a head, and a scientist who has a monkey-like flower creature. Their personalities are also incredibly colorful and distinct; our main goal here was to show just how multifaceted and vibrant the Aurora 5 space station was before the catastrophe struck. We also wanted to ensure that, by the end of the game, the player truly feels like they’ve managed to assemble a ragtag crew of misfits.
One of the highlights of my time with RetroSpace was its mature take on topical themes such as humanity, AI and science. What questions did you want the player to ask themselves whilst playing the game?
We wanted players to discover more serious themes behind the humor that permeates everything. Faith of humanity, price of self-sacrifice, the tyranny of science, or even the existence of AI and its moral limits. But there are also a lot of other important themes that appear subtly and in the background, yet come through in one way or another throughout the game. We didn’t choose a single, very distinct central theme and build everything around it; instead, we tried to create a story that touches on many topics from a variety of perspectives. After all, that’s how real life is.
For example, we don’t have characters who are clearly good or evil. Everyone has their good qualities, but they also have their secrets and flaws. We felt this was more important than delivering some kind of moral lesson or spoon-feeding the player answers. We wanted players to reflect on these aspects after finishing the game – to mull them over and ask questions (because questions are often much more exciting than ready-made answers).
In my review, I highlighted some technical issues, which you have confirmed are now fixed via the Janitors’ Patch #1. I was pleased to see you’ve also quickly addressed fall damage! What does post-launch support look like for the game?
This is an extremely complex game created by fewer than 10 developers. As a result, there’s plenty of room for errors, but we’re constantly working on updates to help the game reach its full potential as quickly and efficiently as possible. So, everyone can expect major updates that will include not only bug fixes but also significant quality-of-life changes and rebalancing.
Thank you to Bánk for chatting to us all about RetroSpace. The game is now available on XBOX Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
Have you been playing RetroSpace? If so, which ending(s) have you reached now? Let us know in the comments below or join the friendly and active Gamer Social Club Discord to chat about all your favourite games.
