Hi all. I’m Ben and I’ve been building Galaro, a browser-based round-based space game in the classic tick mould, and it’s reached the point where it needs players who aren’t me. It’s very early and most of the galaxy is still AI, so I’m after a few testers rather than an audience.
I used to play Planetarion back in the day and wanted a more modern phone version of that with my own ideas in it.
What it is
- Rounds run about a month. One shared galaxy of ~60 regions. Round ends, everyone resets, leaderboard locks.
- No tick-hoarding. Resources accrue lazily and are computed on read, so there’s no “log in exactly on the hour or lose value” pressure. It’s playable in ten-minute bursts on a phone — that was the main design constraint.
- You have to find them first. No alliance gate to strike once you have, the map itself is the barrier. Scout a target and travel time scales with distance; a freshly-beaten world gets a short cooldown before you can hit it again. Early protection reduces incoming damage, it doesn’t block an attack outright.
- Server-authoritative combat. Rock-paper-scissors ship matrix, up to four rounds of attrition, both sides take losses, no knockouts. Battle reports are immutable, visible to both sides, and replay as a full-screen cinematic.
- Roids are the strategic resource. You raid for them, you don’t build them, and they drive the leaderboard. Raiding is the point of the game.
- 3D galaxy map instead of a coordinate table. That’s where most of my time has gone, and it’s the bit I’d most like a second opinion on.
Honest state of it
Pre-alpha. Expect rough edges, expect the balance to be wrong, expect me to reset things. It’s free, there’s nothing to buy.
What would actually help
Two questions more than anything else:
- Do the first ten minutes make any sense without me explaining them?
- Would you open it again the next day, and if not, what was missing?
The “Eon” is about to reset tomorrow morning so please feel free to sign up today and then have a fresh start then! I look forward to your feedback 
Ben
