Space strategy Sine Fine turns players into a galactic brain of an immortal AI
Vindemiatrix Collective, a studio based across western Europe, is developing Sine Fine – an ambitious space strategy game in the hard sci-fi genre. Players control a lonely, functionally immortal AI searching for a new home for frozen human embryos following humanity's extinction. Laboring across eons, the AI sends probes to nearby star systems and builds outposts with communication networks.
The game operates at relativistic speeds – fast enough for relativistic effects like time dilation to become significant. Sine Fine differs from traditional strategy games by lacking direct and instantaneous control over outposts in different solar systems. Instead, orders travel from the AI core to a target system along a "star path," while smaller AIs handle day-to-day operations at outposts. This creates a delay between issuing orders and their execution – messages to distant outposts require careful consideration to remain relevant upon arrival.
The smaller AIs are envisioned as fragments of the original terrestrial artificial intelligence. They're all particles of a decentralized and desynchronized cosmic "psyche." The developers plan to let players influence and potentially enhance target outposts by routing the star path through intervening celestial objects.
One developer provides a hypothetical example of transmitting signals through exotic phenomena like black holes, pulsars and supernova remnants to "focus" the target outpost on research. Or directing the signal around dangerous areas like nebulae, where it might degrade. The galaxy becomes a brain, with players tinkering with its wiring.
Beyond this, Sine Fine incorporates other ideas and prototype systems drawn directly from real astrophysics. The developers hope to procedurally simulate planet formation around stars, progressing through accretion phases over millions of years. How tangible this will be for players remains unclear, but hard sci-fi enthusiasts should definitely take notice.
For those wanting to try the concept, a free early prototype for Linux and Windows is available. Note that this is a technical test, not a full game – you can explore the galaxy map and system screen, but transporting embryos to Alpha Centauri is still far off. Everything described may change significantly as the project develops.
More details are available on the official website.
