Games Where You Design Your Own Starship: From Engineering Sims to Cosmetic Customization

Several games offer starship design, from deep engineering to cosmetic loadouts. Pick based on your desired depth:

Deep Engineering & Physics

• Kerbal Space Program (1 & 2) — Build rockets/starships part-by-part. Real orbital physics. Total freedom.
• Space Engineers — Voxel-based block building in space. Functional systems (power, thrust, life support, scripts). Survival/Creative.
• Starship EVO — Voxel ship builder + flight model. Early Access.
• Rodina — Seamless planet-to-space, custom ship building.

Strategic Fleet Design (Stats/Loadouts)

• Stellaris — Grand strategy. Design ship classes: choose hull, weapons, shields, engines, utilities, aura. Fleet composition wins wars.
• StarCraft II — Not free design, but deep unit/upgrade selection per match.
• Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 — 40K naval combat. Refit ships with weapons/favors.
• Endless Space 2 — Module-based ship design per faction.

Cosmetic / Chassis Customization

• Star Wars: Squadrons — Component loadouts (weapons, shields, engines, hull, counters) + paint/decal cosmetics.
• Elite Dangerous — Module engineering (grades, experimental effects) on fixed chassis. Paint kits, decals, kits.
• Star Trek Online — Visual customization (hull, nacelles, saucer, pylons, windows, colors) + equipment loadouts.
• No Man's Sky — Procedural starships; upgrade tech slots, customize appearance at Space Station.
• Everspace 2 — Chassis variants + modular equipment + paint.

Honorable Mentions

• SpaceEngine — Universe simulator; create custom ships for cinematics.
• From the Depths — Voxel vehicle builder (air/space/land/sea) with complex physics.
• Cosmoteer — 2D crew management + ship design. Free demo, full on Steam.

Pick based on depth: KSP/SE for engineering; Stellaris/ES2 for strategy; Squadrons/Elite for piloting + loadouts; NMS/STO for cosmetics.