"Moonbase Alpha" NASA on Steam

[Spikey00]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/39000/
Free.

NASA has once again landed on the lunar surface with the goal of colonization, research, and further exploration. Shortly after the return to the Moon, NASA has established a small outpost on the south pole of the moon called Moonbase Alpha. Utilizing solar energy and regolith processing, the moonbase has become self-sufficient and plans for further expansion are underway.

In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research. Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement. With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement.

Team coordination along with the proper use and allocation of your available resources (player controlled robots, rovers, repair tools, etc.) are key to your overall success. There are several ways in which you can successfully restore the life support system of the lunar base, but since you are scored on the time spent to complete the task, you have to work effectively as a team, learn from decisions made in previous gaming sessions, and make intelligence decisions in order to top the leaderboards.

I never knew NASA released a game on the Steam platform--interesting way of probing interest from the gaming audience.  Not my kind of game (I presume), but certainly an interesting move on NASA's part in moving to an area for gamers; I wonder if they'll acknowledge players whom are high on the scoreboards?

Though apparently, from what I gather, the community is... somewhat interesting since this game has multiplayer (6P).  But things are generally silly when Microsoft Sam or any other voice synthesizer is involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uLT_EIJjs

[Ozymandiaz]

Its a nice effort from NASAs side to generate more interest in RL topics that are kind of important, yet downplayed by our society in large.

[Spikey00]

I thought this would be one of those crude type of games, much more on the technical end, but from the footage it doesn't seem too bad, actually.

[Diazo]

I downloaded it (why not, it's free) to try it out.

It's actually more of a puzzle game then anything in how you have to maximize your resources to repair the damage to the Moonbase's systems.

Is "Real-Time Puzzeler" a genre?

That's how I would classify it.

D.

[rubikscube]

they should organize the "free games" on steam as this is the only one i seen, and not including the demos