Overview
DREADNOUGHT TARTARUS is a semi-automated strategic simulation game developed solo by benkimchi. Players pilot a colossal, city-sized battleship (the TARTARUS) through active war theatres. The game is scheduled for a Q3 2026 release on PC via Steam.
Premise
An unidentified super-scale battleship suddenly appears in Earth's orbit. Its size rivals that of a moving city. Its firepower is capable of erasing entire metropolitan areas. The player pilots it across ongoing conflict and confronts urban defence systems, human militaries, gigantic monsters and anomalous lifeforms, and extraterrestrial invasion units.
Core Systems
Semi-automated strategic simulation. The battleship is commanded at a strategic layer rather than a first-person one; the player configures and directs the warship across large battle zones.
The TARTARUS is a constantly evolving war machine; every major system can be configured and modified.
Combat is a continuous campaign on a strategic map rather than a string of missions.
Reverse engineering turns intel from defeated enemies into new upgrades and armaments.
The player can also launch a combat mech from the TARTARUS's hangar bay for smaller-scale confrontations.
Aesthetic
benkimchi has noted that part of the UI design language was inspired by PS3 and PSP interfaces, which gives Dreadnought Tartarus a distinct early-to-mid 2000s anime sci-fi aesthetic.
