About
The Game
Belters is a narrative-driven co-op extraction and survival game set in the Kepler-16 binary star system, a volatile, resource-rich frontier where independent contractors risk everything to carve out a living.
You crew a contract ship with up to five players, take on jobs from competing factions, venture into dangerous expedition sites, and haul your finds back before the system kills you. But Belters is more than a loop. Your choices, who you work for, who you betray, what you uncover, ripple outward and shape the fate of the entire star system across a full narrative campaign.
Built on Unreal Engine 5, Belters pushes for the feel of a living world: emergent crew dynamics, a reactive economy, hand-crafted story beats alongside procedural elements, and a setting that rewards curiosity.
At a glance
What Makes Belters Different
Most extraction games treat story as set dressing. A paragraph of lore in a loading screen, maybe a few audio logs. Belters does the opposite. The narrative is the game. Every contract you take feeds into the story. Every faction you help or ignore shifts the political landscape. The world changes around you based on what you actually do, not just how many runs you've completed.
There are no cutscenes. Everything plays out in the world, in front of you and your crew. News bulletins react to events. NPCs remember your choices. Vendor stalls get ransacked. Territories change hands. Your ship reflects the state of your campaign. It's not a backdrop. It's a machine that responds to input.
And then there's the ship itself. Between expeditions, your ship is home. You cook, you plan, you argue about which contract to take next. It's a persistent space that grows with you and your crew across the whole campaign. Not just a menu screen with a hull skin on it.
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The Gameplay Loop
At its core, Belters follows an expedition cycle: prepare on your ship, pick a destination, deploy to the surface, do the work, and extract before things go sideways.
- › Mining - asteroid fields and surface deposits hold valuable ores. Rarer, more volatile materials fetch a serious price but come with serious risk.
- › Salvaging - derelict ships and abandoned facilities are scattered across the system. Quieter, creepier, and often more rewarding than mining.
- › Contracts - factions offer jobs. Some pay well. Some advance the story. Some put you in direct conflict with people you used to work for.
Between all of that, you're managing your crew's survival. Resources, health, equipment, ship maintenance. Nobody said frontier work was glamorous.
The Factions
Kepler-16 is contested space. Multiple factions are operating in the system, each with their own goals, resources, and opinions about what your crew should be doing.
Some of them hired you. Some of them want to buy you out. Some of them just want you gone.
Your reputation with each faction matters. It changes the contracts you're offered, the prices you pay, how NPCs treat you, and even which parts of the system are safe to operate in. Build trust with one group and doors open. Burn it, and you'll feel the consequences.
We're not going to name every faction here. Half the fun is figuring out who's who, what they really want, and whether you can trust them.
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The Setting
Kepler-16 is a real binary star system, roughly 245 light-years from Earth. In Belters, humanity has reached it using experimental propulsion technology, and what they found there kicked off a corporate gold rush.
The system is harsh. Two stars, extreme radiation, unstable orbits, and a collection of moons and asteroid belts that hold resources valuable enough to justify the risk. The corporations arrived first. You arrived on contract.
The world is part of the broader Veritance Universe, a shared sci-fi setting that spans multiple projects. But you don't need to know any of that to play Belters. The game stands on its own.
Co-op, Solo, and Crew Size
Belters is designed for co-op - one to five (or more) players crewing a single ship. The game is at its best when your crew disagrees about which contract to take and has to hash it out.
It's fully playable solo too. The systems scale, the story doesn't lock you out. The sweet spot is probably two to four players.
No Microtransactions
Belters is a one-time purchase. No season passes, no battle passes, no premium currency, no cosmetic shops. You buy the game, you get the game. Post-launch content updates will be free.
This isn't a political statement. It's just how we think games should work.
The Studio
Toolbox Games Limited is an independent game studio registered in England and Wales. We're a small, focused team: two core developers supported by a growing network of specialists, building the kind of game we've always wanted to play.
We believe the best games are built around strong narrative foundations, genuine player agency, and systems that feel alive. Belters is our first real title, and we're building it in public, sharing the process, listening to the community, and iterating in the open.
The Team
The people responsible for all of this.
Noms
Co-founder / Game Director
Noms hails from the United Kingdom and loves gaming with a passion. He loves good food (the clue is in the name) and is a nerd for all things sci-fi - especially Stargate and The Expanse. You can usually catch him streaming, sometimes games, sometimes dev!
Buddytex
Co-founder / Technical Lead
This will be updated when Buddytex sends me his bio!
Belters is also shaped by a wider group of specialists contributing art, audio, narrative, and more. We also use purchased content from multiple sources such as the FAB marketplace.