Entering the International Space Station (ISS) was child’s play for us—actually, a video game!

We let ourselves be carried away into space and created the official ESA (European Space Agency) video game.

Set inside the International Space Station ISS, the video game is part of a project conceived by the European Space Agency with the goal of promoting their online shop.

The official ESA (European Space Agency) video game was tied to a contest in which players who reached a certain score received discount vouchers for online purchases, within a broader campaign for the promotion of ESA Ugly Sweater, the line of fun gadgets (t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs) inspired by the famous “ugly sweaters" exchanged at Christmas and by the video game’s design.

To date, on the official Esa Shop website, many video game gadgets are available, and we suggest you take a look—the 8-bit space station and planet Earth are unmissable!

The video game mechanics are very fun. The player must step into an astronaut’s shoes and enter the International Space Station, choose an avatar, and access missions that allow them to explore space and get to know the environments of the International Space Station.

We created five missions that show the player the areas inside the International Space Station, and in each room they can carry out a mission such as: taking photos of stars and planets from the Cupola, delivering a meal to the astronaut, a musical memory game dedicated to caring for and growing plants in the ISS, a gear-fitting puzzle game, and a mini-game set outside the ISS.

So the player must step into an astronaut’s shoes, but they also have to be careful, because even among the stars there are unexpected events, such as meteorites and poor memory!

Once the avatar has been selected, you enter the International Space Station to tackle the five missions; the user can choose which one to start with!

The mission that takes place inside the Cupola, namely the famous Earth observation point, has the objective of taking photos of stars and planets floating outside while being careful to avoid photographing satellites. The video game’s original design was in a Christmas version, so the objective was to photograph Christmas gift boxes and manage to photograph Santa Claus. After the campaign ended, the game was adapted to be playable at all times, so you won’t find Christmas details but rather a pixel-art graphic layout inspired by astronauts’ missions in space.

A mission in line with life on the International Space Station is definitely the one where you need to be fast and very precise to deliver the astronaut their favorite meal.

If, on the other hand, memory games are your strength, you can test yourself with the musical game: to make plants grow inside the space station, you will need to memorize a musical sequence and reproduce it.

Finally, a truly special challenge will take you outside the International Space Station, but not before opening the hatch through the correct matching of gears.

In the original version, once the challenges were completed, the video game was linked to a contest in which, upon reaching a minimum score, you could leave your email address to receive the discount voucher. Today the game is played without contest access, just to test yourself!

You can access it directly from this LINK.

The production of the video game involved the established Dinobros team made up of Samuele Sciacca for programming, Manolo Saviantoni The Oluk for graphic design, and Jeff Sisti for music, and also included Sebastiano Barcaroli, who handled the video game’s creative direction.

News of the official ESA video game was picked up by numerous outlets. We report two of them below: WIRED and TGCOM24.