About This Game

Every world you own grows forces. Fling them at the next one.

Press on a world, drag to the next one, let go. Your fleet crosses open space and the fight starts where it lands. That is the only move in Nova, and you make it with one mouse. No build orders, no menus mid match.

The move takes a second to learn. Knowing when to make it is the rest of the game.

The bigger fleet wins by more than you think

Send 100 troops at 50 and about 87 survive. Send 50 at 50 and nobody does. Every fight in Nova runs on that rule, so the fleet you hold back is worth more than the one you split.

Commit too early and you throw it away. Wait too long and a rival takes the world first. Every match is that decision, made over and over, in real time.

Seven rivals, and they hate each other too

The Ember. The Bloom. The Kiln. The Cold. The Verdigris. That is five of the seven factions in Nova. The other two you will have to meet for yourself.

Each one has its own temperament. They remember which of your worlds beat them back, and they fight each other as readily as they fight you. Let two of them grind each other down, then take what is left.

A galaxy that fights back

Black holes swallow whole squads. Asteroid belts grind down every fleet that crosses them. Stars burn away anything left parked in the light. Fortified stations shoot down anything passing within range. Teleport portals skip every hazard in between, if you can hold them.

Twelve chapters, and each one changes the game

144 levels, every one placed by hand. None of it is procedural filler.

• Fortified Space. Barriers block the straight line, so every route takes thought.

• Frontier Gates. Cross the map through portals and break the turrets guarding the way.

• Wandering Worlds. Worlds orbit on rings, ellipses, figure eights and stranger curves. The map you plan against is not the map you arrive at.

• The Scramble. A four way free for all, with fortress stations in the middle of it.

• Known Space. Twelve puzzle boards, each with its own trick. One is our solar system. One is won by taking three in a row.

• The Dead Reach. Every planet is a husk. It can hold a fleet and never make one, so everyone fights over whatever still can.

• The Long Cold. The toughest single opponent in the game. Land on its worlds and your troops leave at half speed, bleeding the whole time they stand there.

• The Burning Deep. Suns you cannot conquer, burning anything that stays too long. It ends with three minutes to survive on three of them at once.

• Nova. The final chapter. I will not describe it here. Get there.

Every rank you buy, they get too

Finish levels to earn points, then spend them across nine skills with nine ranks each. Hard pays three times what Easy does. Here is the catch: the whole galaxy shares your tree. Faster fleets for you means faster fleets for every rival on the board. You are choosing what kind of war to fight, and a reset is free, so try anything.

The record is 4 hours, 38 minutes. Beat it.

That is the fastest anyone has finished the full campaign on Hard. I built this game, and that record is not mine.

I do hold the fastest time on four chapters: 1, 10, 11 and 12. Take them from me.

Nova has 26 global Steam leaderboards: the full campaign and all 12 chapters, on Hard, ranked by fastest time and by fewest moves. Waiting builds bigger fleets and costs you time, so the two records pull against each other. Pick the one you want, or go after both.

• Your score posts by itself once you clear a whole chapter on Hard.

• Every replay counts. Beat your best on one level and your chapter and campaign totals drop with it.

• The clock counts game time, so the speed setting changes nothing. Only your decisions do.

The boards live on Steam, through Nova's Community Hub. Go and put your name on them.

Three achievements for the stubborn

• Tempered. Finish every level in the game on Hard.

• Untouched. Finish every level on Hard without ever investing a point in the skill tree.

• What Slider? Finish every level without ever sending less than a full fleet.

In the box

• 144 hand built levels across 12 chapters, on three difficulties

• Seven rival factions, each with its own temperament

• 26 global leaderboards on Steam, for fastest time and fewest moves

• A skill tree of nine skills and nine ranks each, shared with your rivals

• 39 achievements and a codex of all 33 elements in the game

• One mouse. Windows and Apple Silicon Macs

A note from the developer

I built Nova alone, placed every level by hand, and played each one until it felt right.

If you enjoy it, leave a review. If you beat my times, I want to hear about it.

Thank you for playing.