What It Costs to Run an MMO
Conventional wisdom says running an MMO requires real infrastructure and a real budget. Mine costs roughly $145 a month, and here's the breakdown.
· 2 min read
Decades of tools for games other people made. Now I'm making my own.
About
Building tools for other people's games stopped being enough. I'm at the point where I need to build my own.
That's what this is: me doing the work and figuring it out. No publisher, no investors. Just me, building games I want to play.
Devlog
Subscription Only, and Three Reasons Why
Free-to-play enables abuse, undermines competitive fairness, and doesn't pay the bills.
· 1 min readFood Doesn't Belong in a Space Game. I Added It Anyway
Most space strategy games skip food entirely. I added it to fix a different problem: every player chasing the same few astros.
· 2 min read
Projects
Nebula Control
A browser-based space strategy MMO, in development.
Start from a single outpost. Build an empire that spans star systems, raise fleets, forge alliances, and fight for the most dangerous, most rewarding territory in the galaxy. Race six-month seasons or dig in on a server that never resets. There's nothing else like it in a browser.
- One galaxy per server. Everyone shares the same map. Allies, rivals, and grudges included.
- The Nebula. A storm-swept contested zone that opens for a few hours at a time. Its riches scale with the ships destroyed claiming them. Peace pays almost nothing.
- Disruption, not occupation. Defeat sets you back hours, not weeks. The damage has a timer, and the timer ends.
- Guild power is won, not bought. Jump Gates cost Nebulite, and Nebulite is only won under fire.
- No pay-to-win. Pure strategy. Everyone on a live server pays the same.
- Free to learn. Start on the training server, get the hang of the game, and pay only when you join a live galaxy.
Contact
Have a question or some feedback? Send me an email.
hello@octopusodyssey.com
I also write about the design decisions behind what I'm building. Read the devlog.