Junkyard Astronauts
Scavenge a junkyard, weld the scrap into a rocket of questionable structural integrity, and light it. Highest flight wins the shift. 1–4 robots, one shared launch pad, no appeals.
Fact sheet
| Developer | muddermis (Halfdan Løvås), solo developer, Denmark |
| Publisher | Self-published |
| Release | 27 October 2026 |
| Demo | Free on Steam now. In Steam Next Fest, 19–26 October 2026 |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon) |
| Players | 1–4, co-op on one shared pad (Steam or LAN), plus single-player offline |
| Chat | Text chat and proximity voice chat (push to talk, open mic or off), per-player mute |
| Controls | Keyboard and mouse, full controller support |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
| Languages | English |
| Steam | store.steampowered.com/app/5140020 |
| Discord | discord.gg/ErVPQKeEua |
Description
Short
Scavenge a junkyard, weld scrap into a rocket, and launch it. 1–4 robots share one launch pad, and the highest flight wins the shift.
Long
Junkyard Astronauts puts up to four robots in a scrapyard with one shared launch pad. Everyone scavenges motors, tubes, fins and nose cones, welds them into a rocket and lights it. Physics decides how high it gets before something structural gives out.
Build one glorious stack together, or draw a yard tool and shoot the parts right out of a rival's pockets. Weapons switch off once the rockets reach the pad. Everything before that is fair.
Four robots to play: Rivet, Gantry, Dozer and Spark. Altitudes run from a hundred metres up to the Moon, 384,400 km away, and every shift ends with yard awards.
Features
- 1–4 players on one shared pad, online or LAN, with text chat and proximity voice
- Weld real rockets from scrap: motors, tubes, fins and nose cones
- Physics decides every launch, so bad welds come apart on the way up
- Work together, or shoot the parts out of a rival's pockets
- Four robots with their own strengths
- From 100 m to the Moon, 384,400 km up
- End-of-shift yard awards and 37 Steam achievements
- Single-player offline, full controller support
The robots
Rivet
The all-round fitter. Good at everything, smug about none of it.
Gantry
The long-reach crane. Can put a part where nobody else can stand.
Dozer
The heavy plant that never tips. Slow, immovable, deeply pleased with itself.
Spark
The fast little monowheel with tiny arms. Gets there first, carries less.
Screenshots
Key art & trailer
Keys & coverage
The demo is free for everyone on Steam. Full-game keys are available for press and creators: email the address below with a link to your outlet or channel.
You're welcome to stream, record and monetize videos of Junkyard Astronauts.
How it was made
Junkyard Astronauts is a solo project, built with substantial help from an AI coding assistant (Claude), directed and reviewed by the developer. Most of the code was written with AI assistance. The 3D models, textures and yard layouts come from procedural generator scripts written with AI help, and the soundtrack comes from a music engine written the same way. Sound effects are licensed, human-recorded libraries (Sonniss GDC bundles, Kenney). Everything was reviewed and play-tested by hand, and nothing is generated by AI while you play.
About the developer
muddermis is Halfdan Løvås, a solo developer from the Aarhus area in Denmark who also makes iPhone apps. Junkyard Astronauts is his first Steam game.
Contact
muddermister@gmail.com
Halfdan Løvås, press and key requests.