Space For Sale is a sandbox space builder that looks like alien Animal Crossing

Of the many games announced during THQ Nordic’s Showcase this evening, Space For Sale is the one that caught my eye the most, primarily because it looks a bit like Animal Crossing with aliens. In it, you play a small stubby astronaut who dreams of hitting it big as an intergalactic property developer. Man, they really took the phrase ‘colony sim’ to its literal extreme, didn’t they? Are we sure that isn’t Tom Nook under the helmet there? The proportions definitely seem right, is all I’m saying. I just hope the rent you end up charging isn’t… astronomical. sorry Here’s the reveal trailer.

You’ll be creating plots on all sorts of exotic planets in Space For Sale, but you’re not just developing these properties, no sir. You’re also acting as a galaxy-wide landlord, which means fulfilling the needs and wishes of all your otherworldly tenants. Seriously, if it isn’t Tom Hook under the hood there, he sure could stand to learn a thing or two from Mirage Game Studios’ small protagonist, that’s for sure.

It will be playable in either single-player or two player co-op – ideal for its sandbox-style approach to space age house building – and you’ll be going from solar system to solar system, making its procedurally generated planets hospitable by removing its mysterious quantities of ‘space rot’. Once you’ve laid down the groundwork and cleared out the rot, you’ll be able to start slapping down houses for the local alien clientele and building other neat-looking accessories they ask for. You’ll do this by collecting resources through mining and crafting, and battling its more ornery creatures who aren’t best pleased about all these new folks moving in on their turf.

To me, it looks like the ideal blend of Animal Crossing and its more building-heavy spin-off Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (or Happy Home Paradise for those of you more familiar with the Switch version). Just, you know, in space, which is kind of what I’ve always wanted from Animal Crossing ever since HHD consumed my life all those years ago on my 3DS. Here’s hoping its offworld residents will be just as cute and charming as Nintendo’s animal pals.

Space For Sale is still a way off from release at the moment – the developers told me in a presentation earlier this week that it’s currently in pre-alpha right now, but they’ll hopefully have more to show very soon. Fingers crossed it will be arriving on Steam in the not too distant future.