Space Station 13

Space Station 13's gameplay is based on the content, settings, and code applied on the game server. Due to the largely open-source nature of the game, sessions are typically hosted on user-maintained and customized game servers, which can alter or vary the gameplay experience. Sessions are played in rounds, where players can create a customized character, begin playing with a randomly generated one, or use a previously existing character. Players can choose different jobs, such as janitor, engineer, or clown, which dictate their roles and responsibilities. Sessions are usually isolated from each other, so players can choose to change their job, character, or playstyle in between rounds.

The player can interact with nearly any object or being in the game world in a context-sensitive fashion. , using a crowbar on another player would attack them, but using it on a floorboard would pry it up). Additionally, depending on the server, the player can change their character's 'intent' between four different states (Help, Disarm, Grab, Harm), which will further influence actions taken. For example, using the player's hands on a fallen character with help intent would help them up from the ground, while using harm intent could punch or kick them.

Due to each server's lack of an agreed canonical storyline, most, if not all, servers have individualized lores. Generally, Space Station 13 takes place several centuries in the future on a research station owned by the megacorporation known as Nanotrasen. The station exists to research the mineral 'plasma' (also referred to as 'phoron'), which is very valuable, possibly due to its extreme flammability. Nanotrasen's influence and power have effectively made them a government entity, but it is often left ambiguous as to whether they are good, evil, or a neutral party (depending on the server).

Due to Nanotrasen's immense stature and massive monopoly on plasma, it is targeted by an array of third-party aggressors. This includes but is not limited to, the Syndicate (a coalition of smaller companies and planetary governments), the Space Wizard Federation (a federal group of thaumaturgical aggressors), and Changelings (an extraterrestrial species with the ability to take on the form of any organic life-form they've absorbed, similar to The Thing from the novella Who Goes There?).

Space Station 13 was originally created in 2003 by developer Exadv1 as an atmospheric simulation program before being expanded into a multiplayer game on the BYOND engine. In 2006, the original source code was released or leaked to the public, prompting player communities to create independent, competing development branches.

Because development transitioned into open-source community branches, several prominent codebases evolved with different design goals:

Space Station 13 garnered attention from various video game journalism websites over the years.

The game served as a direct inspiration for the role-playing video game Barotrauma, and was also mentioned by Eurogamer as an inspiration for the now-cancelled game ION by DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall. He then later released Stationeers, which was also inspired by Space Station 13.