One ship. One crew. No one flies it alone.
DarkHelm is a co-op multiplayer starship bridge simulator for 6–25 players. Each crewmember takes a seat on the bridge, and every station controls only part of the ship. The pilot can't raise shields. The gunner can't see what's coming. Engineering keeps the lights on — or doesn't. To survive, you have to talk to each other.
This is a game about a crew, not a player.
MAN YOUR STATION
Six bridge stations, each a real job with real consequences. Split your crew across the ship:
- Helm — Fly the ship. Sub-light maneuvering, hyperspace jumps, docking, and the run for your life when the gunner misses.
- Weapons — Beams, missiles, point-defense and nuclear ordnance across a six-arc shield system. Pick your targets and pray the lock holds.
- Sensors — Cut through the fog of war. Detect, scan and classify contacts, run electronic warfare, and call threats before they're on top of you.
- Engineering — Route power, fight heat and damage, and keep failing systems alive as the hull comes apart. You decide who gets power when there isn't enough to go around.
- Comms — Hail ships, read transponders, work IFF and open channels, send subspace traffic between stars, and negotiate (or lie) your way out of trouble.
- Command — Take the captain's chair. Set the alert posture, read the tactical picture, make the calls and own the outcome.
Carrier-fitted ships add a seventh seat — Flight Ops: air boss for the wing, launching, directing and recovering fighters, bombers and shuttles.
A SHIP THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
DarkHelm runs one connected simulation under the hood. Power, heat, fuel, atmosphere and damage all flow through the same systems your crew is fighting over. A hit in the wrong place cascades. A power-starved shield fails at the worst moment. Life support is a clock — oxygen, pressure and CO2 are simulated, and a hull breach starts it ticking. Nothing is a cosmetic readout; every dial means something.
THE VIEWSCREEN
Look out the front window. A full 3D viewscreen renders the space around you — planets, stars, other ships and stations, incoming missiles, the streak of hyperspace as you spool the drive. What your crew sees is what's really there.
CARRIERS & STRIKE CRAFT
Fly a carrier and the bridge gains a flight deck. Launch and command a wing of fighters, bombers and shuttles, vector them onto targets, and recover them under fire.
GAME MASTER & MISSIONS
Bring a storyteller. The built-in Game Master console lets one player direct the action live — spawning ships, ordering AI vessels, running comms traffic and shaping encounters in real time. Play authored missions or let your GM build the night's story around the crew.
TALK TO EACH OTHER
Built-in voice chat puts your crew in the same room even when they're not — across the bridge, to command, or over a hail. In DarkHelm, communication isn't a feature; it's the whole game.
MOD & SHARE
Author your own ships, missions and total conversions and share them through the Steam Workshop. Subscribe to a pack and it drops straight into your game.
EARLY ACCESS
DarkHelm is in active development by a solo developer, and Early Access is where the crew comes in. The core is playable now — the full bridge, networked multiplayer, the simulation, combat, carriers and the Game Master tools. I'm building out missions, content and new ships alongside the community, and player feedback will shape where it goes.
What's here today:
- Networked co-op for 6–25 players (LAN or online)
- Six crewable bridge stations, plus carrier Flight Ops
- Interconnected power, heat, fuel, damage and life-support simulation
- Six-arc shield combat with beams, missiles, point-defense and nukes
- Comms, IFF, subspace traffic and electronic warfare
- A full 3D viewscreen of the world around you
- In-game voice chat
- Game Master tools and a scriptable mission system
- Steam Workshop mods and total conversions
- Multiple crewed ships in the same battle
Grab a crew. Pick your station. Don't die alone.
