PastForward

Forward In development · Windows PC · Early Access planned

The Third Leapa Kestrel Launch story

Fire. The wheel. Electricity. The stars.

Hand-fly a reusable rocket to orbit, catch the booster at the tower, and keep twelve people alive through their first winter on Mars.

  • Windows PC
  • Microsoft Store
  • Keyboard & mouse
  • Gamepad
  • Flight stick
Microsoft Store: coming soon Get notified
The silver Longbow rocket climbing past its launch tower out of a billowing cloud of exhaust, with the spaceport buildings and the coast behind it under a blue sky.

Trailer coming soon

The story

The third leap

Stone tools and fire were humanity's first great leap. Electricity and computers were the second. The third is learning to live on other worlds.

You fly for Kestrel Launch, a small rocket company that has bet everything on Mars. Twelve colonists at Arcadia Base have to get through their first dust winter, and Earth and Mars only line up once every 26 months. Every launch, every caught booster and every tonne you deliver decides how well they eat. And somebody out there is taking a very close interest in Kestrel's cargo.

Grounded near-future flight with warm humour: real orbital mechanics, no aliens, and a robot cook who never explains the pie.

What you do

Features

The silver Longbow rocket climbing past its launch tower out of a billowing cloud of exhaust, with the spaceport buildings and the coast behind it under a blue sky.

Hand-fly the Longbow to orbit

From the pad to a 200 km orbit on real physics: a rotating Earth, a real atmosphere and max-Q, hot staging, and a guidance fault you have to fly through.

The returned first-stage booster held upright in the arms of the lattice catch tower on the launch mount, seen from above the spaceport at dusk.

Catch the booster in the tower arms

The booster flips, burns back and falls from 126 km. Fly the landing burn yourself and settle it into the arms; in chapter 4 you do it twice at once.

The Longbow ship in Earth orbit with a green laser beam crossing the frame toward a small drone, the planet and its atmosphere glowing below.

Dock, refuel, and fight off a claim drone

Rendezvous with Waypoint Station on thrusters, top off a tanker ship to ship, then chase down the drone trying to latch onto it.

The Longbow ship standing on its landing legs on the grey lunar surface, ringed by orange pad lights, with a small habitat nearby and the Milky Way overhead.

Land on the Moon and Mars

Real transfer burns with a manoeuvre planner, a powered descent to Shackleton's rim, and a fiery Mars entry down to Arcadia Base.

First-person view inside the mission control room: rows of consoles, a big board reading Next: Flight 1, To Orbit, a weather screen, and the launch pad through the window.

Walk mission control and the bases

Step out of the cockpit: the spaceport, the crew deck, the Moon habitat and Teo's greenhouse on Mars, all in first person.

Inside the pink-lit Mars greenhouse, botanist Teo Lindqvist stands by the planters with a sign reading Tomatoes, Seedlings: 6, Ripe: soon (probably).

A real-time community Mars colony

Every pilot's cargo builds one shared colony that lives on real time, sol by sol, with a journal you can read.

The Challenges menu: the Catch Challenge daily run with its wind and seed, plus Moon: The Last 2 km and Mars Retro, each scored on a leaderboard.

Daily challenges and leaderboards

The same catch, Moon landing and Mars retro burn for everyone each day. Fly it, post it, beat your friends.

The people on the radio

  • Benny SalasTower chief. Lives for a clean catch, and has opinions about the coffee machine and the seagulls.
  • Pip HarlowThe intern. Please be nice to the intern; Pip notices things first.
  • Imani ReyesCommander of Arcadia Base on Mars. Counts every tonne you send.
  • Teo LindqvistThe colony's botanist. His tomato updates are the base's mood ring.
  • Wren AdeyemiReactor engineer, 19, the youngest person on Mars. Would really like a guitar string.
  • GlitterraA livestreamer who films everything, especially emergencies. "Hold on, I'm live."
Press & media

Screenshots

  • The silver Longbow rocket climbing past its launch tower out of a billowing cloud of exhaust, with the spaceport buildings and the coast behind it under a blue sky. Lift off from the Kestrel spaceport
  • The returned first-stage booster held upright in the arms of the lattice catch tower on the launch mount, seen from above the spaceport at dusk. Catch the booster at the tower
  • The upper stage firing its engines high above Earth, the curved blue horizon and scattered clouds below and a star field above. Climb to orbit above Earth
  • The Longbow ship in Earth orbit with a green laser beam crossing the frame toward a small drone, the planet and its atmosphere glowing below. Fight off a rogue drone at the fuel depot
  • The Longbow ship standing on its landing legs on the grey lunar surface, ringed by orange pad lights, with a small habitat nearby and the Milky Way overhead. Land on the Moon
  • The Longbow ship standing on its legs on the orange Martian plain under a dusty butterscotch sky, landing lights around its base. Set down on Mars
  • First-person view inside the mission control room: rows of consoles, a big board reading Next: Flight 1, To Orbit, a weather screen, and the launch pad through the window. Walk the floor of mission control
  • Inside the pink-lit Mars greenhouse, botanist Teo Lindqvist stands by the planters with a sign reading Tomatoes, Seedlings: 6, Ripe: soon (probably). Visit Teo's greenhouse on Mars
  • The Challenges menu: the Catch Challenge daily run with its wind and seed, plus Moon: The Last 2 km and Mars Retro, each scored on a leaderboard. Take on the daily challenges
  • A frame from the opening title sequence: a stylised rocket lifting off beside its tower at dusk, captioned The Stars. The third leap: leaving Earth, to live on other worlds. Humanity's third great leap

Screenshots are captured in the game at 1920×1080 on the Ultra preset (work in progress; the graphics upgrade is still to come). A downloadable press kit is on the way. For press and creator enquiries, contact us through Help & contact.

Where it stands

Roadmap

  1. Now built and playable in testing

    • Story chapters 1–4: Liftoff, Contracts, Waypoint and Double Header
    • Hand-flown launches, booster catches at the tower, docking and refuelling, and the first claim-drone fight
    • Moon landing at Shackleton (with the Snack Shack diner) and Mars entry and landing at Arcadia Base
    • Real transfer burns to the Moon and Mars, with a manoeuvre planner
    • Walkable scenes: mission control, the crew deck, the Moon habitat and Teo's greenhouse
    • The real-time community Mars colony
    • Daily challenges with leaderboards; keyboard, gamepad and flight stick; Low to Ultra graphics

  2. Later

    • A tablet Challenges edition: the daily catch and landings on a touch screen
    • More of the solar system

No dates yet: we'll share them when we're sure. Get notified and you'll hear first.

Opt-in, never shared

Get notified · Join the playtest

Sign in or join free with your email, then tick what you'd like: an email when The Third Leap launches, a place in the playtest, or both.

We email you a 6-digit code: no password. Nothing is ticked for you, and we never send marketing or share your address. What we store.

Will it run?

System requirements

The Third Leap system requirements
MinimumRecommendedBest
Operating systemWindows 10 or 11, 64-bitWindows 10 or 11, 64-bitWindows 10 or 11, 64-bit
Processor64-bit quad-core64-bit quad-core64-bit 6-core or better
Memory (RAM)8 GB8 GB16 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB) classNVIDIA GTX 1660 / RTX 3050 (6 GB) classNVIDIA RTX 4070 / RTX 5060 Ti (12 GB or more) class
Graphics APIVulkan or DirectX 12Vulkan or DirectX 12Vulkan or DirectX 12
Storage2 GB available space2 GB available space2 GB available space (SSD)
Plays atLow preset, 1600×900, about 55–60 fpsHigh preset, 1920×1080, 60 fpsUltra preset, native up to 4K: MSAA 4x + SMAA, 8K shadows, 16K planet maps

Minimum is measured on a GeForce GT 1030 (Low ≈ 56–61 fps). Best is measured on an RTX 5060 Ti, where every level renders at High in under 1.2 ms of GPU time and Ultra in about 1.9 ms. Recommended is our estimate between the two; we will confirm it before release. The game's own logic takes about 0.3 ms a frame, so the graphics card is what matters. Memory: about 0.9–1.2 GB in use (up to 2.1 GB committed) at Ultra. Storage: the game's assets are about 0.55 GB once imported; 2 GB leaves room for the engine, saves and the shader cache.

Graphics presets

Low
Renders 3D at 60% scale (sharpened back up), FXAA, 2K shadows in 2 cascades with the cheapest soft filter, the sky's reflections every 2 s, 6-step atmosphere.
Medium
75% scale, MSAA 2x, 2K shadows in 4 cascades, the sky every second, 8-step atmosphere.
High
Full resolution, MSAA 2x, 4K shadows, sharper sky reflections 4 times a second, 14-step atmosphere, more launch steam.
Ultra
Native resolution up to 4K, MSAA 4x + SMAA, 8K shadows with the softest filter, finer distant detail, the sky every frame, 20-step atmosphere.

On the first start the game picks a preset from your graphics card's video memory: under 3 GB starts on Low, under 8 GB on Medium, under 12 GB on High, and 12 GB or more on Ultra. While you fly it watches the frame rate: under 45 fps it steps down a level, and if the card is barely working it tries one level up, once. F2 changes it any time, and your choice is kept. Planet maps follow video memory, not the preset: 3 GB or more gets the 16K Moon and Mars maps, smaller cards the 8K ones (Earth is 16K on every card).

Controls

ActionKeyboard & mouseGamepadFlight stick
Pitch, yaw, rollW / S, A / D, Q / ELeft stick (pitch, roll), right stick (yaw)Stick
ThrottleShift / Ctrl (Z full, X cut-off)TriggersThrottle slider
Start the countdown, stageSpaceA—
Fly the booster home yourselfBB—
Attitude hold (prograde, retrograde, entry)T——
Docking thrustersNumpad 8 2 4 6 9 3 (or I K J L H N)D-pad—
Cameras: cockpit, chase, tower, mapC / V, right mouse and wheel to look and zoomY / Back—
Walk outside on the Moon or MarsF, then WASD, Shift, Space——
Time warp, and .——
Help, graphics, detailsF1, F2, F3Start (help)—

Keyboard and mouse, an Xbox-style gamepad, or a desk flight stick with a throttle slider (dead zones and response curves are tuned per device). A computer can fly any part once to show you how (G).

Questions

FAQ

Where can I get it?

On the Microsoft Store for Windows PC. The daily challenges stay free; Early Access details will be announced.Get notified when it's out.

How much will it cost?

Early Access pricing is to be announced. The daily challenges stay free.

What platforms?

Windows 10 and 11 PCs (64-bit). A tablet edition of the daily challenges is planned for later.

Will it run on my PC?

It runs at 55–60 fps on an entry-level GeForce GT 1030 on Low, and goes all the way to Ultra at 4K on a big card.See the system requirements.

Do I need an account?

No. The whole game plays without one. A free PastForward account only adds cloud saves, leaderboards and the community colony.

Is this a SpaceX game?

No. Kestrel Launch, the Longbow rocket and everyone in it are original and fictional. It's a game about the real physics of reusable rockets, not about any company.

Does this site track me?

No ads. No third-party trackers. We count visits with our own cookie-free, anonymous analytics: no cookies, nothing stored on your device, nothing shared.What we count and store.

Which languages?

English.

Can I play with a controller or a flight stick?

Yes: keyboard and mouse, an Xbox-style gamepad, or a desk flight stick with a throttle slider.See the controls.

Compete

Leaderboards

The daily challenges (the catch, the Moon's last 2 km, the Mars retro burn) and the story's best runs, from linked PCs, under a name you choose. Boards are opt-in.

The Third Leap leaderboards