u/YogurtWooden

Hey r/BaseBuildingGames,

Solo dev here. Been building CozmoGame over the past year, a persistent multiplayer space strategy game where the core loop is empire management: building up planets, researching tech, expanding to new colonies, and managing logistics across them.

You start with a single planet. Bare. From there:

• 30+ building types per planet - mines (metal/crystal/deuterium), storage tanks, shipyard, research lab, robotics factory, nanite factory, terraformer, jump gate, sensor phalanx, sensor disruptor, missile silo, and more
• Resource economy - three resources, energy chain (solar plants → solar satellites), production rates that depend on building levels and orbital position bonuses
• Research tree - gates unlock advanced buildings, ships, and empire-wide bonuses
• Multi-planet empire - colonize planets, each with its own build queue. Multi-fleet missions (Collect Resources, Distribute Resources) move stuff between colonies in one click
• Academy skill trees - 6 officers, 30+ skills you spend points on for permanent empire-wide bonuses (mining yield, build speed, storage capacity, etc.)
• Defenses - every planet builds its own fortifications: light/heavy turrets, ion cannons, plasma turrets, shield domes, missile launchers
• Persistent universe - your queues keep running while you're offline, sessions are 5–30 min several times a day

It's a multiplayer galaxy (other players exist, you can attack or be attacked) but base building is the dominant loop. Automatic newbie protection blocks much-stronger players from attacking you, so you can focus on your empire without anxiety while you ramp up.

Other stuff: Free, web-only, fully responsive on mobile, 8 languages. Soft launch right now, beta universe is open.

Happy to answer anything about empire mechanics, resource economy, or solo-dev workflow.

https://cozmogame.com/en

CozmoGame Welcome Page

Hey r/SoloDevelopment,

Solo dev from Istanbul here. I just soft-launched CozmoGame, a multiplayer space strategy game that runs entirely in the browser. No engine, no team, just me and a codebase that's grown a lot bigger than I expected when I started.

What it is, briefly:

Players build planets, research technologies, construct fleets, fight each other, form alliances, run espionage, send expeditions. Persistent universe, your empire keeps ticking while you're offline. Sessions are short (5–30 min), checked into multiple times a day. OGame-inspired, but with a bunch of mechanics I designed myself (Intelligence Pacts, Sensor Disruptor, an Academy skill-tree system replacing classic officers, etc.).

The solo-dev part:

Stack: Laravel 12 (PHP 8.4), Blade + Tailwind 4 + Vite, MySQL.

Scope right now: ~25 Eloquent models, ~25 services, deterministic seeded combat engine with reproducible battle reports + a combat simulator, queue-based construction, an in-game wiki, Paddle payment integration, GDPR account deletion, alliance system, friend system, real-time chat, support ticket system...

8 languages, EN/DE/FR/PL/ES/TR/IT/RU. I do EN and TR myself; other locales are LLM-assisted but I read every key.

No graphics team: I bought sprite packs and CSS-sprite'd everything (single sheet per entity type, buildings, ships, defenses, research, etc.). No frontend framework, no React, no Vue. Just Blade + Tailwind + ~20 small inline scripts.

One person on call: I'm the dev, the GM, the support staff, the moderator, and the guy who fixes the queue worker at 2am.

Some hard things I learned the hard way:

Atomic writes for contended numeric columns. Eloquent's $model->save() will silently clobber concurrent writes when two requests hit the same resource column. Took a real "DM gone but resources never delivered" bug in production for me to fully internalize this. Now every contended numeric column (resources, ship counts, dark matter, debris) goes through atomic SQL UPDATE helpers on the model. One rule, applied everywhere.

Lock ordering for deadlock prevention. Two transactions touching the same set of rows in different iteration orders deadlock under InnoDB. Solution: always sort iteration by the type column before acquiring locks. Boring fix, took a 1213 error in prod to find.

Fleet processing order is load-bearing. Same-second fleet events have to resolve in strict dispatch order across all users for OGame-style timing play (ninja counter-attacks, recycler scoop races) to work. Per-user batching breaks it. I redesigned the worker around this after shipping.

State right now:

Soft-launched a couple weeks ago. Some active players in the beta universe, intentionally small while I balance systems and chase bugs in real time.

First official universe launches after beta concludes; everyone starts together at that point, no veteran lead.

I'm still finding bugs daily and the codebase is still moving fast.

Beta universe is open if anyone wants to poke at it. Link below.

Link: https://cozmogame.com/en

Discord: https://discord.gg/AwMrEgFG

Happy to answer anything, architecture questions, "how did one person do X", monetization decisions, the brutal migration story, whatever. AMA-style.

CozmoGame Screenshot

Hey r/4Xgaming,

I'm the developer of CozmoGame, a persistent online space strategy game where you start with a single planet and grow into an interstellar empire, colonizing systems, developing planets, researching technology, constructing fleets, conducting espionage, forming alliances, and competing across a shared multiplayer galaxy.

It is not a traditional single-player 4X. There is no "end turn" and no win condition you can race toward in an afternoon. It is a persistent multiplayer galaxy where 4X-style progression happens over days and weeks. Sessions are short (5–30 min), checked into multiple times a day, and the world keeps running while you're offline.

The beta universe is live right now and I'm running it open while balancing systems and fixing bugs in real time. The first official universe launches shortly after beta concludes.

Beta tester bonuses:

• Every player who joins the beta universe receives 1,000,000 Dark Matter (premium currency) on registration
• Beta testers will receive 2× the default Dark Matter starter bonus when the first official universe opens

On monetization: Dark Matter exists, but its gameplay impact is intentionally small, it speeds up some processes and unlocks convenience features, but it cannot buy resources, ships, defenses, or direct combat advantages. The strongest players in the beta universe got there through play, not payment.

On early-bird snowball: When the first official universe launches, everyone starts together, no veteran lead to catch up to.

Some of the systems I've built:

• Academy skill trees: 6 officer trees (Geologist, Navigator, Dockmaster, Engineer, Scientist, Technician) with 30+ skills. You spend skill points instead of paying flat per-officer fees, long-form progression layered on top of the standard research system.
• Intelligence Pacts: Bilateral diplomatic agreements that auto-share attack-mission intel between two players for 7 days. DM cost + cooldown prevent abuse.
• Deterministic seeded combat: Full reproducible battle reports + built-in combat simulator.
• In-game wiki: Detailed documentation for every system, building stats, ship costs, combat formulas, research effects, diplomacy rules. Beyond what I've listed above, I've designed several unique mechanics that aren't standard 4X tropes. They're all documented in the wiki, waiting to be discovered. Available in all 8 languages.

Scale and access:

• 8 languages: EN/DE/FR/PL/ES/TR/IT/RU
• Web-only, no install, works on desktop and mobile browsers

Links:

• Game: https://cozmogame.com/en
• Discord: https://discord.gg/AwMrEgFG

Happy to answer questions about specific systems, balance philosophy, or design choices. Honest feedback especially welcome, that's what beta is for.

Hi everyone, solo dev here. I've spent the past month building this - a persistent space empire strategy game that runs entirely in the browser. Just hit soft launch and I'm looking for early players to stress-test it.

What it is:

Manage planets, build mines, research tech, construct fleets, fight other players

Persistent multiplayer - your empire keeps running offline

Real-time combat with full battle reports, espionage, expeditions

Quick facts:

Free to play (no pay-to-win, optional cosmetic premium currency)

8 languages: EN/DE/FR/PL/ES/TR/IT/RU

Works on desktop and mobile browsers, no plugins

Soft launch - bugs likely, I'll fix them fast

Link: https://cozmogame.com/en

Happy to answer any questions in comments.