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Meco Rocket Simulator
Meco Rocket Simulator is a realistic physics game where you play as an underpaid rocket scientist working for Mecodyne to design and test rocket engines without regard for your safety.

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Features
Single-player
Family Sharing
Profile Features Limited 
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔ ✔

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“It is a complex niche game that depends on a cult following to give feedback to make it relevant.

I am on an urgent mission to get rocket engine simulation into the hands of as many people as possible.

It already has five years put into it, and now is the time to gather and reflect on what others think about it.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“As long as it is needed to provide a high-quality product. The minimum is a year, and the current estimate is at three years or more.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The longer-term plan is to have the following features:
  • Tutorials and Missions (30% Complete)
  • 3D Engine Builder
  • Campaigns
  • Simulated Space Missions
  • Components for Expander Cycle and Staged Combustion Engines
  • Methods-Of-Characteristics Nozzle Designer

The above will likely evolve as the community chimes in on what rocks their world and what doesn't.

For the Simulated Space Missions, it will not be Kerbal-style grab the joystick/smash the keys seat of the pants execution. Key mission parameters will be planned before launch and followed.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“It has the Core Simulation Loop, which features the following:
  • Rocket engine components sufficient to design most gas generator cycle cryogenic regeneratively cooled engines.
  • 2D Node Graph for assembling components into an engine.
  • Component Editor to view and edit component properties.
  • Simulated Engine Test Fire
  • Test Fire Data Interactive Graphs

For missions we have:
  • Missions Chapter I (1 to 3): "Getting Started"

    Note:
    • At this point, features are minimal,
    • I do my best to make quality software; it will be a little buggy.
    • Only the Gas Generator Cycle is currently supported, with the Expander Cycle coming next.

    These are the components currently available in-game:
    • Liquid and Gas Channels, Pipes, and Ducts.
    • Fittings for Pipes and Ducts (Elbows, T-junctions, etc.)
    • Liquid and Gas Valves (Controlled by points set in time)
    • Supersonic Turbines
    • Radial Pumps
    • Transmission Gear Boxes
    • Electric Motor
    • Coaxial Shear Injector
    • Combustion Simulation for Hydrolox (Kerolox next)
    • Conduction of Heat from Gas to Metal to Liquid in Cooling Channels
    • Simple Expansion Ratio Nozzle Design

    Notable things missing:
    • Missions Chapter II, III, IV and V
    • Simulated Space Missions
    • Converging-Diverging Truncated Ideal Bell Nozzle and Rectangular Ideal Nozzle
    • Ignition - It is assumed that the oxidizer and fuel will ignite when they mix in the combustion chamber.
    • Fuel Tanks - The simulation is supplied with a never-ending supply of oxidizer or fuel at a set pressure.
    • Combustion Instability and Lag
    • 3D assembly of components
    • Failure due to thermal meltdowns and loads exceeding the limits of components.
    • Mass representation of most components - useful to get the thrust-to-weight ratio of an engine.
”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The price will gradually increase as we add more advanced features.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Search Google for the following to get involved:
  • meco rocket discord
  • meco rocket forum
  • meco rocket wiki
  • meco rocket youtube
  • meco rocket x
  • meco rocket reddit
  • meco rocket kickstarter
”
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Buy Meco Rocket Simulator

SPECIAL PROMOTION! Offer ends June 5

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$39.69
$27.78
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Buy Meco Rocket Simulator - Pro Edition

Includes 2 items: Meco Rocket Simulator (Pro DLC), Meco Rocket Simulator

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0.5 Out Now

COMPLETE ENGINE CYCLES.

Turbopumps. Gas Generators. Injectors.

Every component to build a cryogenic GG-cycle engine is taught.

Design. Test. Fail. Learn.

Roadmap

After 5 years in development, this game is still in Early Access. Many of the features below are still in development and not yet available. Please see the Early Access notes above.


  • Missions - Chapter I (1 to 3): "Getting Started" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter II (4 to 6): "Feel The Pressure, Feed The Burn" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter III (7 to 9): "Spin Machines" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter IV (10 to 12): "Don't Break The Cycle" (IN-PROGRESS)
  • Missions - Chapter VI (13 to 15): "Building On The Past"
  • Thrust and ISP measurements (COMPLETED)
  • 3D Nozzle Design and Flow Separation (IN-PROGRESS)
  • 3D Pump Impeller Design
  • 3D Turbine Rotor and Stator Design
  • Mass of components
  • Thermal and Load Stress Limits
  • Historical Campaigns

The above can take between 1 and 3 years to complete. If enough people like you buy this, I can focus on this 100% as my full-time job, and development will be much quicker. Your support is very much appreciated!


Dannie Sim

Solo Indie Dev – Meco Rocket Simulator

(formerly at Activision/Blizzard on Candy Crush & Sony PlayStation on Spider-Man 2)

About This Game


After 5 years in development, this game is still in Early Access. Many of the features below are still in development and not yet available. Please see the Early Access notes above.


Features Roadmap:


  • Missions - Chapter I (1 to 3): "Getting Started" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter II (4 to 6): "Feel The Pressure, Feed The Burn" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter III (7 to 9): "Spin Machines" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter IV (10 to 12): "Don't Break The Cycle" (COMPLETED)
  • Missions - Chapter VI (13 to 15): "Building On The Past"
  • Thrust and ISP measurements (COMPLETED)
  • 3D Nozzle Design and Flow Separation (IN-PROGRESS)
  • 3D Pump Impeller Design
  • 3D Turbine Rotor and Stator Design
  • Mass of components
  • Thermal and Load Stress Limits
  • Historical Campaigns

The above can take between 1 and 3 years to complete. If enough people like you buy this, I can focus on this 100% as my full-time job, and development will be much quicker. Your support is very much appreciated!


Dannie Sim

Solo Indie Dev – Meco Rocket Simulator

(formerly at Activision/Blizzard on Candy Crush & Sony PlayStation on Spider-Man 2)

Design. Test. Fail. Learn.


A realistic rocket engine sim where every failed test teaches you something real.


You're an underpaid engineer at Mecodyne — the kind of propulsion company that ships rockets aggressively and has opinions about your eyebrows. On your first day you accidentally fire up a Vulcain 1 on your coworker's workstation. The graphs come alive. The Vulcain runs. You probably shouldn't be doing this.


From there, you design real rocket engines — cold-gas thrusters, gas generators, full pump-fed turbopump beasts — using actual physics. Combustion. Fluid dynamics. Heat transfer. Component-level engineering. Twist an injector orifice and the chamber pressure curve responds in real time. Tighten the cooling channels and watch the thermal margin shrink. Reshape the nozzle and see what it does to Isp.


It's a sim that won't lie to you. If your design wouldn't work in real life, it won't work here either.

Three ways to play


Missions (start here)


Thirteen guided challenges, from "what's a model?" to gas-generator turbopump engines inspired by Merlin 1D, F-1, and Vulcain 1. Senior engineer Miku Aoyama walks you through — deadpan, accurate, mostly patient. No prior knowledge needed — Mission 0 starts you with that accidental engine fire-up on her workstation.


Free build


Skip the missions. Empty canvas, node-based editor, live graphs. Drop in components, wire them up, hit run, see what happens. Good for "what if I just…" experiments.


Recreate real engines


Same components, same physics. Build a Merlin 1D from scratch. Or an F-1. Or something that's never existed and probably shouldn't. Push materials, propellants, and geometry until something gives.

Pro Content (optional add-on)


Soundtrack, technical reference PDFs, 3D-printable component models (STL/3MF), and high-resolution wallpapers. For the people who want the lore in their toolbox.

What's new


  • 0.5.0 — Mission 0: your accidental first day on Miku's workstation. Three new gas-generator cycle missions (Turbopump Integration, Gas Generator Genesis, Injector Insights). Display Units, so you can finally read pressure in bar instead of pascals.
  • 0.4.0 — Real-time pump and turbine samplers with live performance curves. Auto-run on every edit. Pinned component editor with nudge buttons and mouse-wheel tweaking. Colorblind-safe chart colors (Okabe-Ito).
  • 0.3.0 — Multi-select and copy-paste in the schematic editor. Plus a pile of stability fixes for selection and menus.

Heads up


This isn't a casual arcade game. It's a serious engineering sim with a real learning curve, and honestly, your first dozen designs will probably fail in interesting ways. That's the point. The failures are where the learning happens — graphs go red, you stare at them, you figure out which assumption was wrong, you try again. By mission five you'll be reading turbopump curves like they're tech manuals.


If you've spent time curious about what actually goes on inside a running rocket engine — and why a 5% change in injector geometry can ruin your whole afternoon — Meco was built for you.


Come build something that works. Or something whose graphs go red in fascinating new ways. Both are fine outcomes.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

This game uses custom-trained AI tools for a small portion of the visuals/audio, based on assets I own or created. The vast majority of development effort is in the realistic rocket simulation and engineering systems.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • DirectX: Version 10
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 11
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • DirectX: Version 12
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    Minimum:
    • OS: macOS 12
    • Processor: Apple M1 or Intel Core M
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    Recommended:
    • OS: macOS 15
    • Processor: Apple M4
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
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What Curators Say

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