Game · C++ / SDL2
Leaving Earth
Run a 1950s space program on a budget: buy rockets you don't fully understand, and find out what they do the hard way.
What it is
A digital version of the board game about running a space agency in the early space race. You buy components without knowing whether they work, plan missions years out, and eat the consequences when a rocket you'd already committed to turns out to be unreliable. The tension isn't dice — it's committing to hardware before the data comes in.
How it's built
C++ and SDL2, no engine. Roughly half the code is the rules — outcome decks, maneuver difficulty, radiation, rendezvous, mission eligibility — and the other half is drawing and input, which is where nearly all the pain lives. Text layout, DPI scaling, and scroll behavior are all hand-rolled, which was educational in the way that word usually means.
The rules half was worth writing from scratch. If I did it again I'd put the same engine under a real UI toolkit and skip re-inventing text wrapping.
Where it stands
- Full campaign playable end to end, solo and hot-seat.
- Original artwork throughout — none of the published art is used.
- In beta with a small group of testers. Windows and macOS builds both cut from the same source.
Leaving Earth is a board game designed by Joe Fatula and published by Lumenaris. This is an unofficial project and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher.