Escape Velocity Nova

In Escape Velocity Nova, the player is placed in command of a shuttlecraft in space. The game is played from a top-down perspective in 2D. A tutorial is offered, but players are granted freedom to act as they will at the start. Players can earn money by purchasing and trading goods, taking missions transporting people or goods to various locations, or by stealing from other ships.

The player's ship moves between systems of planets by using a hyperspace jump. At various planets, the player can take on missions and trade goods, buy new ships, or outfit their current ship with new weapons and accessories. Ship classes vary from shuttlecraft to large frigates. There are six different storylines within the game that can be played; each one is mutually exclusive and a new game must be begun to play a different story.

Nova began as a plug-in for Ambrosia Software's Escape Velocity Override in July 1998. A group of students from Tasmania: Dafydd Williams, Jason Cook, and Scott Vardy were fans of Override and began working on a modding project called Override Nova. Their updates on the project were shared on Ambrosia Software's website forums, which caught the attention of Ambrosia employee Andrew Welch. Shortly afterward, the student group took the name ATMOS Software and signed a contract with Ambrosia to work on a new game.

Ambrosia Software's Matt Burch developed the game engine, while Welch managed the project and ATMOS developed the graphics and scenario. Burch, who had programmed Escape Velocity and Override, programmed Nova while also working a second job as an engineer. In July 2000, Ambrosia contracted ATMOS to convert the plug-in into the scenario for Nova. Development of the game from Override took approximately 12 months, with an additional 8 months of beta testing.

Escape Velocity Nova received praise for its gameplay and game design, especially in light of it being a shareware game. MacAddict gave Escape Velocity Nova its Editor's Choice Award. Reviewer Chris Barylick stated that the gameplay is essentially the same as its predecessors, Escape Velocity and Override. He called the game "more beautifully designed than you could expect a shareware game to be".

Two years after the game's release, Barylick said the game was still worth the download. In a review for Inside Mac Games, Richard Porcher expressed that Nova's graphics were superior for a shareware game. Macworld's Peter Cohen lauded the combination of action-based space battles with adventure-style gaming. He noted the game made improvements over Nova's predecessors while stating that Ambrosia Software "has wisely left alone what ain't broken."