The Dark Forest

The Universe is full of life. Life in the universe functions on one basic principle:

Life’s goal is to survive

Civilizations are like hunters in a dark forest. In the dark they can never be certain of alien life’s true intentions and attempting to communicate risks exposing their location. The extreme distance between stars and the unknown nature of alien life prevents any two civilizations from communicating well enough to relieve mistrust, making conflict inevitable. Therefore, it is in a civilization’s best interest to preemptively strike any developing civilization they encounter before it can become a threat, but without revealing their own location, lest they be destroyed as well.

Objective:

Your civilization has just discovered evidence of another. They are somewhere in a volume of space dangerously close to your own worlds. To ensure your survival you must locate and destroy their worlds, before the locations of yours are revealed.

In The Dark Forest you will harvest resources from nebulae and systems, develop new technology to surprise your enemy, move your ships through hyperspace to strike at enemy fleets and systems, and ultimately destroy the enemy Home Worlds in order to ensure the survival of your civilization.