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NODE_02 Live LIVE PRODUCTION

Stellar Drift

Browser game

An idle space game that plays in the browser with no install and no account, runs offline, and has an Android app in closed testing — a whole consumer product, not just a website.

Open stellardrift.app Play it on this page Ask about this project
epochs of the universe
10
one codebase
Web + Android
automated tests and checks
190+
Stellar Drift in its dark theme at Epoch 4, Heavy Elements: the dust count and the collapse forecast along the top, the gather core, and photographed nodes joined by dotted lines over a nebula.

// What it does

Plays anywhere, instantly

No install and no sign-up: it opens like a web page, and keeps working with the internet off.

Ten epochs of the universe

From Quantum Foam to Evaporation, through a research map illustrated with real astronomical imagery.

Earns while you are away

Up to eight hours of progress is worked out for the time you were gone, the moment you come back.

Automation

Upgrades like the Drift Sensor take the repetitive clicking over as the game goes on.

Collapse and start again

A prestige loop: the universe ends in a short scene, the stars going out, and a new one begins, stronger each time.

Every universe different

Choose the next universe's laws when you collapse, each a trade rather than a bonus; take on challenge universes; play a weekly event universe with its own currency.

Achievements

About forty to find, tracked for their own sake rather than for power.

Optional account

Cloud saves, friends by friend code, and a profile to show them.

Saves that survive updates

Old saves are migrated forward, with a test that loads every earlier save shape.

Season pass and shop

Cosmetics, a starter pack and the season pass, as one-time purchases: Paddle on the web, Google Play on Android. Boosters are earned, never sold. No adverts.

On Android

The same game, packaged as an app with Capacitor.

Anonymous statistics

Aggregate numbers about how the game is played, with nothing that identifies a player.

Privacy, terms, refunds, support

All published at stellardrift.app, as a store listing requires.

Captured from the running game, not mocked up. Select one to see it full size.

  • Eight seconds of play: drifting across the owned epochs while idle income counts up.
  • A node's sheet: what each one makes, what the next costs, how long it takes to pay back, and the real event it stands for.
  • The Firmament, the second place: an orrery of the solar system scaled by real distance, with the asteroid belt drawn rock by rock.
  • Earth's sheet, with NASA's photograph and its orbit simulated live on a canvas.
  • Collapsing the universe: the Seeds it pays, one constant carried forward, and an optional law for the next universe.
  • Discoveries: every node is a real moment in the universe's history, recorded with when it happened.
  • On a phone: the core at the bottom, the controls in reach of a thumb.

1 / 7

Eight seconds of play: drifting across the owned epochs while idle income counts up.
The sheet for First Supernova, the keystone of Epoch 3: owned, output per second, next cost, payback time, share of income, a description, and buy buttons for one, ten, a hundred or the most affordable.
A node's sheet: what each one makes, what the next costs, how long it takes to pay back, and the real event it stands for.
The Firmament map: Earth and the Moon on one orbit ring, Mars and Olympus Mons on the next, each with its Light price, and a wide band of scattered rocks for the asteroid belt.
The Firmament, the second place: an orrery of the solar system scaled by real distance, with the asteroid belt drawn rock by rock.
The Firmament sheet for Earth: charted count, Light per second, the next price and a Chart button, a description, the NASA photograph of Earth, and a small orbit diagram.
Earth's sheet, with NASA's photograph and its orbit simulated live on a canvas.
The collapse screen offering 32 Seeds, with a choice of one constant to carry forward and three optional laws for the next universe, and the buttons Not yet and Collapse.
Collapsing the universe: the Seeds it pays, one constant carried forward, and an optional law for the next universe.
The Discoveries list: Quark Soup, Higgs Field, Baryogenesis and others, each with the time after the Big Bang and a sentence of real physics.
Discoveries: every node is a real moment in the universe's history, recorded with when it happened.
Stellar Drift on a phone screen: the dust count and epoch along the top, nodes on the map, the Gather core at the bottom and the account, shop and menu buttons on the right.
On a phone: the core at the bottom, the controls in reach of a thumb.

// Play it here

The whole game, running on this page. No download, no account — progress saves to your own browser.

Prefer a tab of its own? Open the game full size ↗

// The problem

Idle games are usually built on heavy engines, stuffed with adverts and dependent on a server. This one had to load like a web page, work with the network off, and sell nothing but an optional season pass.

// What was built

  • The whole game in the browser: offline earnings, prestige, and a solar-system map scaled by real distance.
  • An optional Laravel API for accounts, cloud saves and a one-time season pass.
  • A Capacitor shell that ships the same files to Android, with Google Play billing.

// Engineering

  • Zero-build vanilla JavaScript: no bundler, no framework, no install step; the game never waits on the API.
  • Invariant-checking tools guard the rules a single global scope cannot enforce by itself.
  • Payments by Paddle on the web and Google Play on Android; the purchase is resolved from the price, never from the browser.
  • A Laravel API with token sign-in for accounts, cloud saves, friends, the pass and the shop — 180 API tests — and 14 checkers for the game itself: save migration, balance, layout, asset and phone rules.

Built with

JavaScript HTML CSS Game Design Laravel Capacitor Android
Status
LIVE PRODUCTION
What it is
Browser game
Public address
stellardrift.app
Links
Play at stellardrift.app Privacy policy Terms Refunds

// How it got here

  1. Aug 2026

    First playable in a day: the cosmic timeline, achievements, discoveries and sound made in code.

  2. Aug 2026

    The Firmament, and a Laravel API for accounts, the shop and friends.

  3. Aug 2026

    Gems sold through Paddle on the web.

  4. Aug 2026

    Wrapped as an Android app, with Google Play billing and reminders.

  5. Sep 2026

    The Fine Structure, a third place, and live at stellardrift.app.

  6. Sep 2026

    The Firmament becomes an orrery, scaled by real distance.

  7. Oct 2026

    The Android app goes to closed testing on Google Play.

  8. Oct 2026

    Universe laws, twelve challenge universes and a weekly event universe.

  9. Oct 2026

    Faster loading: the first screen waits only for its own pictures.

// What comes next

  • From closed testing to production on Google Play.
  • The first season, The Longest Night, runs from 1 December 2026 to 1 March 2027.

// Notes on Stellar Drift

The deploy fix that never ran

A deploy failed with an error that had been fixed five days earlier. The fix was in the repository the whole time — it had just never been executed, because the host runs a copy of the script pasted into a web form, and nobody diffs a web form.

Stellar Drift is playable

A browser idle game with offline earnings and a prestige loop. The engine is zero-build vanilla JavaScript — no bundler, no framework, no install step — so it loads as fast as a static page and keeps working with the network off. You can play it on its project page without leaving this site.

// Open for work

Want something like this, built to your own brief?

Fast, accessible, and built to last — no page builders, no template you'll outgrow in a year. Tell me what you need and the contact form goes straight to my inbox.

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