We begin in safety. The Hab provides our needs. Spacious, clean, with food and water. But the screens are flashing alerts. The Agents are coming. They arrive soon.

As the populace runs for the trams, the Seneschal urgently requests your assistance. Although well informed, they have a deeply pacifist mindframe and cannot actively engage with the enemy. You are offered every assistance in the form of supplies, equipment, design, and construction. But you must aim these yourself. The Seneschal will not provide targeting or tactics.

Perhaps you will construct a colossal gun emplacement, and attempt to obliterate the Agents before they can reach the Hab. If they do, they will no doubt destroy your home and you will be forced to flee. Or, instead of fighting, perhaps you can convince the Free Agents to join you! After all, they too once likely lived in a Hab. Once the Agents are dealt with things return to normal. Or, they would, except that you still have your emergency authority to command the Seneschal. What will you do with this power?

So, To See the Sky is a kind of first-person tower defense city building sandbox. You are periodically attacked by free agents, but are otherwise free to build and manage the Hab as you see fit. The robotic Seneschal oversees the technical details and has no trouble acquiring supplies.

But maybe you don’t want to engage with this combat aspect. Maybe you just want to flee to the trams with the rest of the inHabitants. That’s fine too. I’m sure someone else will deal with the aggressive mech pilots burning relentlessly toward your home. There’s always another hab to flee to. Why don’t you just board the tram and get out of here?

And, what’s keeping you from just riding the tram from Hab to Hab? They each have a different design, and the cliffs of steel and brass and faceted quartz outside seem to vary with some intentional pattern. Who built the Habs, and the trams? Maybe if you travel far enough you will uncover the secret. In the meantime though the trams always lead to other Habs.

The tram though. It’s a fascinating microcosm. Propulsion and life support and storage. With the tools at your disposal you could re-purpose it. Free the controls. Free it from the rails. Free yourself.

Ignoring the Seneschal’s urgings to consider your own safety, you accomplish the task. And now, where to go? You have some weeks of breathable air onboard. Perhaps those distant structures hold the secrets you seek! Or the chasms yawning unexpected through the mechanical chaff, pulsing with strange energies in the depths, demand exploration.

You learn how to burrow through the subterranean husks of abandoned Habs and tap the power conduits to recharge your equipment. You learn how to armor your transport shell to resist the razor bladed grit which swirls around the pits. You learn how to scale the monoliths with piton and grapnel. You learn that your equipment wears out, and the equipment that repairs your equipment wears out, and it looks like you’re going to have to convince the Seneschal to reveal where they have been getting their equipment from.

They sit, ignorant of all this, in safety. The Hab shields them with many walls. But the screens declare your approach. Soon, you will arrive.

So, that’s To See the Sky. A cyber-future base-building and exploration and combat game with mechs and stuff. And if you ever draw too much resources by expanding your Hab, or cause enough damage defending it, or poke your nose too far into places you aren’t allowed? Well. The engines that built the world churn on, and will not tolerate being disturbed.