Space Privateer
A space simulator with a whole universe to fly through. Learn your ship, pass the training tests, and earn your missions — then trade, fight, and set down on worlds of your own choosing. It begins here, in orbit over home.
Loading the Earth…
Drag to look around · click the view, then scroll to zoom
About Space Privateer
Space Privateer is a free 3D space simulator you play in your browser — no download and no account. You will fly your own ship through a whole universe: leave orbit, cross between worlds, fight, and land on planets. It is being built in the open, a piece at a time, and this page always shows the latest piece.
A simulator: learn first, then fly
This is a simulator, not an arcade game — the ship flies the way a ship would, and nobody hands you the keys. Before a mission opens you study what it takes — how the ship is controlled, how orbits and approaches work, how to navigate, fight and land — and then pass a training test on it. Each test you pass qualifies you for the missions that need that skill, and what you learned for the test is what brings you through the mission. Skip the learning and the mission will show it.
What is here now
The view from orbit. The Earth turns below you under real cloud patterns, with the Sun low over one shoulder: oceans glint where the light strikes them, the air glows blue along the edge of the planet and burns orange where day gives way to night, and on the dark side the cities light up.
- Look around — drag with the mouse or a finger, or use the arrow keys.
- Music — it starts when you first touch the view; the Music button at the bottom right, or N, switches it.
- Zoom — click the view, then scroll; pinch on a touch screen; or press + and −. Press Esc to give the scroll wheel back to the page.
Enlisting
Start game opens the game on the whole screen. Sign up there to enlist: choose a nickname and one of twenty faces, say what your character is like, and answer seven short situations — a psychological test with no wrong answers. Your answers become your pilot's portrait — Vanguard, Tactician, Guardian, Lone Wolf or Pathfinder — which is kept with your account and will shape your training and missions.
What comes next
A ship to fly, with a cockpit and an outside view; the first lessons and training tests, and the missions they open; the Moon and the other planets, each in its true place; combat; and landings. The planet you see here is the first of many.
Frequently asked questions
Is Space Privateer free?
Yes. It is free to play with no sign-up, no download and no in-game purchases.
Is that the real Earth?
The surface, the city lights and the clouds are NASA's Blue Marble and Black Marble imagery, wrapped round a globe. The atmosphere is drawn thicker than the real one, which from this distance would be a line too thin to see.
What does it need to run?
A browser with WebGL — every current phone, tablet and computer has one.
The view on this page runs entirely in your browser. Start game opens the game itself, where signing up saves your account — email, nickname, chosen face, character and test answers — to the Hostavix Game Center. Earth imagery: NASA Earth Observatory (Blue Marble, Black Marble).