Persistent · Browser-based · Opt-in PVP

Every galaxy orbits a black hole.
Yours is next.

Project Maelstrom is a persistent space strategy game built around living, radial galaxies instead of a flat numbered grid. Crash-land as an amnesiac castaway, grow a colony on a real production tick, and band together with other commanders into alliances and empires that fight for control of entire galaxies — while the closer you push toward the event horizon, the more the universe itself starts working against you.

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No downloadruns in your browser
Free to registerkey only needed to crash-land
Discord-nativerole sync & live status
The Concept

You wake up with no memory of how you got here.

A crash-landing, a handful of survivors, and a supply cache that won't last. From that single colony, you build outward: mines, refineries, farms and housing on a real production tick, a research tree that gates everything that comes after it, and a fleet you'll eventually need whether you go looking for a fight or not.

PVP is opt-in, not mandatory. Every tier of the game has a meaningful PVE path woven through it — void surveys, wormhole expeditions, and defending against Voidborn incursions from the deep — so commanders who never want to fight another player still have somewhere to go, all the way to the endgame.

Alliances federate into empires, and empires fight seasonal wars for control of whole galaxies. None of it happens in a vacuum: fog of war means you only ever see what your own sensors, and your allies', actually cover.

Commander Log — Cycle 1
StatusCrash-landed
Home systemOuter Rim · Sector 6
ColonyCamp → City (Lv. 3)
AllianceUnaffiliated
Distance to event horizonFar
Threat levelLow
ObjectiveStabilize production
Core Systems

Everything a strategy game needs, built around one central idea.

Eight systems that all point back to the same thing: distance from the black hole is the danger gradient, and it drives risk, reward, and the black hole event system all at once.

Radial galaxies

Concentric zones around a real supermassive black hole, from the safe outer rim to the unstable inner core.

Real production tick

Mines, refineries, farms and housing on a live tick engine. Resources and build timers advance whether you're watching or not.

Fleets & combat

Four hull classes and a kinetic / missile / laser / plasma damage triangle. Escort, screen, and fight real round-by-round battles.

Research tree

A full tech tree gating advanced buildings, hulls, and modules — the thing every later system depends on.

Alliances & empires

Alliances federate into empires that fight seasonal, galaxy-vs-galaxy wars with automatic scoring and resolution.

Fog of war

You only see what your own sensors and allies actually cover. No omniscient galaxy map.

Megastructures

Late-game, empire-wide investments — Alloy Foundry, Void Forge, Wormhole Anchor, Core Anchor and more.

Wormhole expeditions

Rotating instanced rifts near the black hole. Ground assault, capture mechanics, and always-PVE void surveys.

Risk & Reward

The closer you fly, the stranger it gets.

Distance from the black hole isn't cosmetic — it's the map's core mechanic. Gravitational time dilation runs stronger the deeper you go, slowing build and travel timers near the event horizon while paying out the richest resources and the rarest finds in the galaxy.

Outer Rim

Where every commander starts. Safe, undilated, and slow to reward — the on-ramp.

STABLE

Mid-Belt

Undilated by design, but the logistics get real. Contested territory, better yields.

CONTESTED

Inner Core

Real gravitational time dilation kicks in here. Slower timers, richer everything.

DILATED

Event Horizon

Antimatter, dark matter, and Voidborn incursions. The endgame lives here.

EXTREME
Mission Control

Command your empire from a dashboard built for real decisions.

A stylized preview of the in-game interface — every screen shares the same dark, data-dense console language, from your home colony up to full empire management.

TICK ENGINE · LIVE
SECTOR 6 · OUTER RIM
Build Queue — Home Colony
Metal Refinery · Lv. 404:12
Housing · Lv. 3queued
Fleets in System
2nd Escort Wing · 6 LightHOLDING
Survey Convoy · 1 MediumEN ROUTE
Resources / hr
Ore+312
Metal+164
Fuel+58
Food+90
Stability
Empire sprawlNominal
Social Layer

No one holds a galaxy alone.

Alliances federate into empires. Empires fight for territory. The social layer isn't an add-on — it's how the endgame works.

01

Alliances

Shared chat, trade, and logistics. Rank structure from member up through leader, diplomat, and vice-leader.

02

Empires

Alliances federate together into empires with their own dashboard, coordination tools, and shared war footing.

03

Galaxy Wars

Seasonal, empire-vs-empire wars over territory, with automatic scoring and resolution at the end of each season.

Playtest Access

Register any time. Bring a key when you're ready to land.

Creating an account is open right now, no key required. You'll only need a one-time playtest key from Discord when you're ready to crash-land your first commander. Join the Discord to watch development happen in the open, request a key, and link your account with a single /connect command — no separate login required. Your Discord role syncs automatically as you progress in-game.

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