Juno: New Origins, formerly Simplerockets 2, is a spaceflight simulator heavily inspired by Kerbal Space Program created by Jundroo, LLC.
Gameplay is centered around engineering rockets to explore the Juno System, launched from the earthlike planet Droo. Every part of a spacecraft is highly customizable, from the engines, fuel tanks, wheels, wings, exhaust nozzles, and the size and shape of these parts. The spacecraft editor is so versatile, that players have used it to make cars, airplanes, ships, tanks and even mechas.
Unlike Kerbal Space Program, Juno: New Origins has an in-built planet editor that allows players to make their own celestial bodies and solar systems.
The game has two modes, Career and Sandbox. In Career, the player is given missions to complete, and will receive funding if the missions are completed. There is also a Tech Tree, where the player is given more parts as the gameplay progresses. In Sandbox mode, the player is free to do whatever they please, even add more celestial bodies to the Juno System.
Juno: New Origins is available to purchase from Apple Store, Google Play and Steam
. It also runs on mobile devices as well as PCs.
Juno: New Origins provides examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality:
- The game utilizes Patched Conics to approximate the trajactory of a craft. This does not reflect reality, as in Real Life, every large celestial body exerts gravity on a given spacecraft. To do this however, requires a lot of computational power, so the game relies on a less accurate but more computationally efficient model.
- The planets are scaled to roughly 1/5th their real life counterparts, but retain the same surface gravity. So if you do the math, the planets are made of materials denser than any known real life material.
- Droods can survive very long voyages with a fraction of the food a human needs for that amount of time. They can even survive being stranded in space for years at a time.
- Spacecraft are unusually stiff and strong. For example, a Boeing 747 can be dropped from 500 meters from the ground in earth gravity and still remain intact after it hits the ground.
- Ambiguously Human: The Droods are humanoids native to the planet Droo. On one hand, they are the same shape and size as a regular human. On the other, they live on a different planet, and their faces are hidden under their helmets. Subverted as of the Career Update, where the Droods are revealed to be human after all.
- Alien Sea:
- Tydos' innemost moon Nebra has oceans of liquid water, kept from freezing by the moon's geothermal activity.
- Urados' moon Taurus, an analogue of Saturn's moon Titan, has seas presumably made of hydrocarbons.
- Alien Sky:
- Droo is orbited by three moons: Brigo, Luna and T.T., with the former two appearing the same size when seen from Droo's surface.
- Cylero, the game's Expy of Mars, has a thin red atmosphere.
- Tydos' moon Nebra sports a purplish sky, and Tydos appears quite large when seen from Nebra's surface. (Juno also appears smaller than it does from Droo, being so much farther away.)
- Artistic Licence – Physics: The game utilizes Patched Conics to approximate the trajactory of a craft. This does not reflect reality, as in Real Life, every large celestial body exerts gravity on a given spacecraft.
- Construction Is Awesome: The game lets you design, build, and fly your own spacecraft, space stations, and surface bases, including the possibility of assembling them part by part in orbit or on another planet's surface. Non-spacecrafts, like cars, boats, and tanks can also be created.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Players utilize premade parts to make all sorts of vehicles. In addition, every part is highly customisable, adding another layer to construction not seen in Kerbal Space Program.
- Scenery Porn: Thanks to spacecrafts being more computationally efficient, the game can afford to dedicate more computing power into rendering the atmosphere, lighting and terrain effects. As a consequence, the stock game already looks much better than stock KSP.
