Surprise. the follow-up to Misfits Attic’s Duskers is called Duskers 2.0. Get ready for more spooky and strategic scavenging of shipwrecks hovering ominously above planets, this time with the goal of establishing colonies which can give the denizens of a doomed universe a second chance.

“Scavenge derelict spacecraft with your drones via a command-line interface, navigating past whatever is still alive in the dark. Find survivors frozen in cryostasis and piece together their stories,” as Misfits Attic put it in a press release. “Nothing you do is forgotten. Each run builds toward a new colony, and over time you’ll see how your previous outposts have fared. Who survived, who didn’t, and how well you prepared them. The universe pushes back at every turn, with system hazards, drones with quirks you learn to work around, a ticking clock, and always the question of whether one more derelict is worth the cost.”

As in the first game, developing a deep personal connection to your scavenger drones looks to form a big part of the stakes, with the narrator of the trailer seemingly having named the ones you start with after the family he’s left behind after sacrificing himself to give humanity its second chance.

If you’ve not played the original Duskers, Brendy (RPS in peace)’s review paints a great picture of the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on in this regard. “A playthrough of Duskers is full of small tales like this,” he wrote. “One time, John, my point-bot, was killed by some kind of… swarm – all because I forgot to turn his shiny new turret on. Another time, I accidentally flushed my gathering drone Quintin out of an airlock, because I had hastily typed “a1” instead of “dock a1”. In that instance, I laughed my ass off. But afterwards I was obviously devastated.

“My point is: while all this is happening, it feels fantastic. Fantastic and frenetic. On a ship marked “stable” you can afford to take your time but a “volatile” ship will have radiation leaks, or incoming asteroids, or malfunctioning doors, or punctured hulls. All of which threaten to upend your plans and force you to rethink, react or retreat, quickly, back to the nearest room with a stable airlock.”

Despite all of the doom and gloom, Misfits Attic and co-developers Stray Signal insist Duskers 2.0’s mission will feel a bit more hopeful than its predecessor. Stray Signal, interestingly, are The a new studio helmed by Unknown Worlds co-founder Max McGuire, one of the former Subnautica 2 leads Krafton fired in controversial fashion last year, leading to a lengthy court case.

As of right now, Duskers 2.0 is in early development, with a Steam early access release planned at some point down the line.