Empty Hold Demo

No cockpit, no third-person camera, everything is played through your ship's OS.

Empty Hold is a trading, smuggling and conquest sandbox set in a galaxy that that is completely simulated.

There's no cockpit and no third-person camera. You play everything through your ship's OS: windows, a taskbar, notifications and apps. You plot jumps in NAV, read prices in MARKET, hail stations through COMMS and fight in TACTICAL.

The Galaxy will not wait for you or make concessions.

Three governments compete for territory: the UCH, the Imperial Stars and Irenia. Corporations and cartels work inside and between them. Leaders rise and get assassinated. Wars start over resources and ideology, stations starve, or get destroyed, and treaties get signed and broken. Rival captains are climbing the same ladder you are, and they will remember what you did to them.

Pick your way to the top.

- Corporate: earn a state charter and push rival companies out of their stations.

- Military: build a fleet and take systems from their garrisons.

- Criminal: run contraband, climb a cartel or found your own, and keep your heat down.

There is something coming.

Freighters go missing near the edge of the map. Derelict probes drift in. The news stops making sense.

Features:

- A simulated economy where prices move with shortages, wars and your own trading

- Named leaders, admirals and captains whose personalities shape the simulation

- A news feed and a chronicle that records what happened, including what you did

- A stock market, trade routes, and corporate charters.

 - Ironman mode, three save slots and autosave

About the demo

The demo is an evaluation license for your ship's OS, valid for the first 60 days of a career. The full trade, combat, crew and underworld game is playable. The empire-building systems are visible but locked. Your save carries over to the full version, when it comes out. I plan to update this heavily based on your feedback!

Known weak points + upcoming plans

-Combat is pretty weak and needs overhauling

-Corporate life is going to be heavily expanded

-Political governments will get a real + flavored layer and a new path to the top

-Cartels could be more fun imo

Leave a comment, and have fun!