The Backyard Rocket, Grown Up

Every kid has that one memory. A rocket kit on the kitchen table, a tube of glue that smelled like regret, fins that never lined up quite straight, and the big moment in the backyard when you hit the button and watched your creation scream into the sky. Then you spent twenty minutes chasing a parachute through the neighbor's yard.

9.8 brings that whole feeling back, with one difference. This time the rocket does not come back down. Unless you built it wrong. And trust me, you will build it wrong, more than once.

What 9.8 Is

9.8 is a 2D space agency simulator built on real orbital physics, the work of Tremoço Games, the one person studio of Porto based musician and composer Andre B. Silva.

You design rockets, launch them, and fight them into orbit. Once it clicks, you can land on moons and asteroids, set up colonies, and deploy satellites.

The Steam page even says you could theoretically knock a moon out of its orbit if you put your mind to it, which is the kind of ambition I can respect.

Gameplay: Build, Launch, Learn, Repeat

The core loop is simple. You assemble your rocket in the hangar using a freeform editor stocked with stages, heat shields, parachutes, and landing legs, then send it off with a quick Shift and W. Fuel, mass, thrust, and staging all matter.

Get the balance right and you reach orbit. Get it wrong and you have built one very expensive firework.

What makes the loop work is that failure is the fun. Every launch that tips over or burns out early teaches you something specific.

Then comes the first time you nail a clean orbit and your little rocket keeps circling the planet like it is paying rent up there.

You sit there grinning like a proud parent watching a child take a first step. It is the backyard launch again. But this time, with a far higher ceiling.

Keeping It Simple Was the Right Call

Here is the smartest thing 9.8 does. It does not bury you in equations.

A hardcore sim with spreadsheet level instructions would scare most players off before they ever cleared the launchpad. Instead, the presentation stays clean and approachable while the real physics does its work under the hood.

Go too simple and it is just a toy. Go too complex and it is homework on a Saturday night. 9.8 sits in the sweet spot where a curious player can jump in without a physics degree.

Graphics: Clear Beats Fancy

9.8 is not going to make your graphics card break a sweat, and it does not need to.

The visuals are clean and easy to read, with just enough detail that you always know what is happening, whether that is your rocket's trajectory, a planet's surface, or the exact moment your second stage decided to quit.

In a game where reading the situation is everything, clarity beats eye candy, and 9.8 understands that.

Physics Is the Star, Not the Supporting Cast

This is where 9.8 earns its place. Plenty of games have you measuring a jump, an arc, or a long range shot, but in those games physics is a tool you use to win the fight. In 9.8 physics is the whole show. Gravity is not a hurdle between you and the next level. It is the level.

Watching gravity, thrust, and momentum play out in real time taught me more than any textbook diagram ever did. You start to feel why rockets launch the way they do, why orbits hold, and why 'just going straight up' is a terrible plan.

If school had looked like this, a lot more of us might have ended up at NASA instead of arguing about box scores. It is genuinely inspiring, and I do not say that lightly about a 2D rocket game.

What Needs Work

• It needs more tutorials. There is a lot to unpack here, and the guidance on staging, orbits, and landings feels like batting practice when newer players really need spring training. There is a lovely teaching hook sitting right in the name, too: 9.8 is Earth's gravity in meters per second squared, the number that decides whether your rocket climbs or falls, and a few more tutorials could land ideas like that in a way that sticks.
• The replay feature did not work for me. There is an option that is meant to show the last sixty seconds of a launch, perfect for reliving a clean orbit insertion or a spectacular explosion. I could not get it to fire once. Hopefully a future update brings it online, because it is a great idea.

Early Verdict: One to Watch

9.8 already nails the hardest part. It takes a subject most of us dreaded in school and turns it into something you keep coming back to, one launch at a time. Fun, discovery, and exploration are three things nearly every game promises and few deliver, and the 9.8 demo delivers all three.

What is left is polish: more tutorials to carry new players to that first clean orbit, and a replay feature that actually works. With a full launch targeted for Q1 2027, there is plenty of time and runway for both.

This is one I will be keeping installed for a long time, and an easy one to watch.

What Works

• A simple, approachable presentation of physics that will not scare off newcomers.
• Clean graphics that are easy to read and easy on your hardware.
• It brings back the joy of building and launching rocket kits as a kid.
• It makes physics genuinely fun, and even a little inspiring.

What Needs Polish

• More tutorials to explain the deeper systems around staging, orbits, and landings.
• A replay feature that did not work during the preview.

FAQ

What is 9.8?

A 2D space agency simulator built on real orbital physics, from solo developer Tremoço Games. You design rockets, launch them into orbit, and go on to land on moons, build colonies, and deploy satellites.

Who made 9.8?

Tremoço Games, the one person studio of Porto based musician and composer Andre B. Silva. It is his first game.

Is 9.8 out yet?

Not in full. A public demo is available now, with the full launch targeted for the first quarter of 2027.

Is 9.8 a hard physics sim?

The physics underneath is real, but the presentation is deliberately approachable, so you can enjoy it without a physics background.

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