I have had this game since it's Early Access release. I also have some caveats and annoyances I want to get out of the way, way up here before you go on to read the wall of text below. The early game is a touch grindy: the actual fun bits of making a ship come after the drudgery of mining up all the materials you need. Dev's significantly streamlined the process for a single ship to acquire the materials in the form of Raw Mining turrets in that regard, but I feel it important to mention that. Management in the game is somewhat complex, nothing too bad even for a meathead like this guy right here that steamrolls everything in game using Railguns, "RRRRRAMMING SPEED!" and Cannons, but it's there. Also, currently, custom turrets seem a bit buggy and revert back to the default appearance of the turret occupying the custom turret block whenever the undo command gets used*. This particular bit might get patched out later, or it might just be something to do with my current save. I'll watch it.

That all aside.

A smartass who's played the game might answer "It's the Macguffin you're told exists at the center of the galaxy when you start this game up for realsies." And you know what, those smartasses are right, that is what 'Avorion' is. In the context of the game.

As for the game itself, it is simultaneously one of the simplest yet most comprehensive voxel-based physics spaceship construction 'simulator' slash real time strategy game anyone can get their hands on. And you might think, 'Well I don't know, what about Space Engineers? Or even From the Depths?' to which I might respond, 'It's simpler then that.' You don't get moving parts, no deployable landing gear (which you don't really need since you can't land on any planets you see), much less articulation outside of the turrets, but during actual construction of ships? It's like putting building blocks together. Or assembling a model diorama you spend hours of effort upon until you're satisfied with the results. And then proceed to crash it into pirate ships with the childish abandon once received from crashing toy cars together while laughing like 'ha ha, I'm armored and you aren't!' But I digress.

You might have taken note of that little air quote you saw around the word "simulator" earlier. Let me just acknowledge that this is in acknowledgement of some resources juggling you do have to perform in the game: anything that moves your ship requires energy to do so. Dense ships need more engine thrust to move than light ships, in turn needing larger energy requirements, and so on and so forth. Further, the placement and size (power) of movement thrusters can alter how well your ship yaws, pitches, rolls, etc, all given a handy little informational graphic in the build mode. You can use 'Gyro Arrays' to alter the same thing: but the power you may need for said gyros will change the bigger your ship gets, requiring either larger gyros or thrusters to compensate for the level of nimbleness you want out of your craft. And if you want to add an Integrity Field Generator to make your ship more durable? Shields to add a second layer of protection? Computer Cores for more system upgrades, Assembly Blocks to build on board fighters, Hyperspace Cores so you can jump further out, all that and several others you get into will all require energy.

Then there's crew to keep your ship in shape, from Engineers to maintain and run the technical stuff (read: every single thing I just mentioned), Mechanics to repair damage, Gunners for guns, Miners for mining/salvaging equipment and more. All of them would like Crew Quarters for living space, and need to be managed accordingly after, either to keep morale up or assign the normal crewmen work. That aside though: it's all building blocks. Just snap on what you need and you're pretty much good to go, to the point it becomes ludicrously simple to build the biggest, most deranged ship your mad mind can conjure.

All this, by and by, is just the surface: you can customize the appearance of turrets, build your own space stations, alter the economy either by participating in it or blowing up traders to steal their goods as a pirate, eke out your own territory in the galaxy, build a bleeding fleet of ships all under your command...hell, you don't play this game for that story I mentioned, chasing Avorion at the center of the galaxy.

You play it to make your own story on your journey to get there.

*Edited with new information found on discussions and confirmed in game
*Further edited after a certain word was suddenly censored. Assumed to be because of a similarity to a very different word.