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ZeroSpace is developed by Starlance Studios in partnership with Ironward, and published by Starlance Studios. Starlance is an independent studio working toward the stated goal of revitalizing the real-time strategy genre, led by founder and chief executive Marvin Gouw, a longtime games industry veteran who also serves as the game's director.
A Partnership of Studios
Starlance works closely with Ironward, which was established in 2013 and is headquartered in Croatia, and which is known for its earlier squad-based strategy games. Ironward co-develops ZeroSpace rather than acting only as a contractor. Neither studio publishes a staff page, and the combined team has been described by the studio itself as a relatively small one with big aspirations, which has shaped a focused, community-driven approach.
Crowdfunded and Community-Driven
The game was announced in August 2023 and funded through a successful crowdfunding campaign, drawing strong support from the competitive strategy community. From the start, the project has leaned on input from veteran professional strategy players to tune its competitive Skirmish design.
Community interest grew steadily through the pre-launch playtests and demos. By the time the free demo finished its June 2026 showcase run, ZeroSpace had passed 250,000 wishlists ahead of the July 20 Early Access launch, and the figure kept climbing after release: in early August 2026 the studio put it above 350,000. The studio also publishes a development roadmap that maps the path from Early Access through the full 1.0 release, and the day-one patch on July 21, 2026 added a copy of that roadmap inside the game.
Evolving Visuals
In May 2026 the studio partnered with consulting art director Aaron Kambeitz and his team to raise the quality bar on the art, introducing him as a founder of Relic and a co-creator of Homeworld. He is an outside consultant rather than studio staff. His first visible work was a redesign of the Protectorate models, moving the game's units toward a grittier, more realistic style than the more stylized appearance of earlier builds, with the stated aims of clearer faction identity and cohesion in materials, shape language and sense of scale. Ahead of the July 20, 2026 launch the team polished factions, effects and music, and shipped the fourth main faction, the robotic Xol, with the launch build, though it stayed early in development and enters ranked matchmaking after community balance testing.
In the months before Early Access, the studio added a new color tonemapper called AgX, which aims for a more realistic, cinematic look by preserving colors and giving finer control over contrast. Around the same time, the team began a faction-by-faction visual overhaul, starting with a redesigned, grittier look for the Protectorate's units.
Performance and Scale
Large armies have been a stated engineering target from well before launch. In October 2025 the studio published a technical breakdown of how it separates pathfinding from crowd simulation, along with a demonstration of roughly 1,500 units moving at once. Optimization work continued through Early Access, and in early August 2026 the studio set out its goal plainly: a stable 45 frames per second on a GTX 1080 Ti, on any map, with any units. Current minimums and recommendations are listed under System Requirements.
After Launch
Early Access changed the shape of development from milestone builds to a published cadence. In early August 2026 the studio described how it intends to ship:
Update Type | Contents | Stated Pacing |
|---|---|---|
Regular patches | Bug fixes and minor balance tweaks | Weekly |
Large content drops | Missions, commanders, factions and heroes | Around monthly |
At the same time the studio set out a plan for the following month covering a new Galactic War season, more units, and additional campaign and co-op content. That is a stated intention rather than an announced or dated release, and nothing on it had been confirmed as of late August 2026. What has actually shipped is recorded in Update History.
Bringing ZeroSpace to Asia
On May 27, 2026, ahead of launch, the studio announced a regional publishing partner to bring ZeroSpace to players across Asia, with that partner handling publishing, marketing and localization for the region. The collaboration added Chinese-language support to the game's demo. The game shipped in 12 languages on July 20, 2026 and has added more since; Skirmish and every other mode use the same localization.