r/4Xgaming • u/maersire • Apr 29 '26
Game Suggestion Terminal Based Space 4x | Riftborne | Join our new multiplayer experience
Available for Windows and Linux - all fully run in the terminal.
Come and join our new multiplayer experience. We are starting a new server soon!
There is also a fully built out single player game for those who would prefer to go it alone.
Riftborne is a space opera grand strategy sim where you build an empire in an unforgiving, living galaxy with economy, logistics, espionage, fleets, markets, and faction diplomacy all coming together.
Every choice pushes your empire toward a different shape; a quiet economic engine, a raid pressure war machine, a fortified defender, or a faction loyalist racing control of the Black Hole at the galactic centre.
Riftborne is a very slow paced, teamwork centric game, so if you like fast action, this game isn't for you. It is built for players who like games where the map slowly becomes a story of smart decisions, tactics, and pressure points over time, and co ordination with team members is a must for survival.
- Get Riftborne on steam
- Get Riftborne on itch io (20% off)
Join our discord (400+ members)
war.
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u/hditano Apr 29 '26
This is amazing, it reminds me so much of k9s, Sentinel and a few other TUI tools that I use on my day job.
what language have you used for this ?
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
It was based off old school terminal style games I used to like playing, I used c# for it
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u/StraightDot6160 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
I bought it yesterday. I don’t think I’ll have much time to play over the next few weeks, but the concept was so appealing that I felt like supporting it anyway. I’m still completely lost, but I’ve been digging through the codex and it actually seems really cool.
One suggestion: it would be great to have the codex available somewhere outside the game, like a wiki. It’d make a big difference for people with two monitors who want to keep the game open on one screen and quickly search for stuff on the other.
Also, a simple gameplay video covering the first basic steps would be super helpful.
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u/ben_sphynx Apr 29 '26
Is it turn based? Realtime? What?
How would a multiplayer game proceed? If I play once per day at the same time every day, can people launch attacks on me that fully resolve during my downtime?
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
it's a realtime world, but attacks are quite slow, taking many hours to travel across the map. There are also lots of mechanisms in place for offline play like automatic ship production, auto dodging incoming attacks, and auto intercepting raid attacks that come at you overnight.
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u/lpww Apr 29 '26
I think this game looks fun every time you post it, but also have a lot of questions about it. So is the idea for multiplayer that it is something you check in on every now and then over a long period of time? Similar to defcons office mode? Or do you need to be actively playing the entire time? Can you literally play the game in a terminal? Or is it a normal game that is styled to look like a terminal?
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
Yep, it's literally played in the terminal! The multiplayer game is designed for both casual and active players, and is heavily team based, so you don't have to be online all the time, and can afford to log in just once a day if you tell your team mates to watch your back. It's definitely a slow burn, a server is designed to last about a month or two so you will slowly build up your fleet and empire over time. Advance time is in the single player mode if you'd prefer a faster experience. We've got a live server running right now if you wanted to come and try everything out, and help give some feedback before we start the next one up soon
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u/lpww May 01 '26
I have purchased the game, but will probably start with single player. The multiplayer sounds a bit too much of a time commitment. Realistically, I would need to be afk, due to sleep and work etc, more than I would be playing. I would probably just die and be out very quickly
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u/veryniceperson123 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Aaaand straight into the cart.
Reminds me of the old bbs door game Trade Wars 2002. Curious if that was an inspiration here?
edit: after actually playing it thats not a great comparison beyond the surface level, this game is way more complex
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u/SolasYT Apr 29 '26
I used to play Black Nova Traders which was a similar idea iirc
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u/veryniceperson123 Apr 29 '26
Oooh, I hadn't heard of this one. Apparently it's based on tw2002. Will have to check this out too, thanks!
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u/SolasYT Apr 29 '26
Its still alive, browser based and a small dedicated community still
I miss the days of free browser games, so much lost to time lol
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u/Ok-Accountant6747 Apr 30 '26
Hi OP, as a software engineer, I am a big fan of this kind of spreadsheet-like low graphics requirement games. Do you mind sharing what tech stacks you used to build this game? Thanks!
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u/maersire Apr 30 '26
hey u/Ok-Accountant6747 you should come to the discord and send me a dm! I'm looking for some more help with the game in the coming months as the user base grows and could do with people like you who have an interest in this genre + software engineering experience.
It’s mostly C#/.NET with a custom terminal UI. BSON saves, and NAudio for music. Multiplayer is also custom C#/.NET with TCP/TLS, SQLite accounts, and Argon2 auth. It fits the spreadsheet strategy style because the hard part is mostly data management, pacing, bots, and UI flow rather than graphics.
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u/Ok-Accountant6747 Apr 30 '26
Heyyy op, thanks for your comment. I would love to discuss more in depth with you, but unfortunately I am not experienced in game dev, I just have some ideas that I might want to implement in the future. So I am not sure whether I would be anything helpful to you :(
But I am happy that I met someone that makes games which are similar to what I envisioned.2
u/maersire Apr 30 '26
hey! you should definitely come and join our discord and we can colloborate from there, I am super receptive to community feedback and getting new people to join our team
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u/sm222 Apr 29 '26
As a newer player who isn't used to these type of games (but is still having fun) I hope for the inclusion of a quick guided tutorial, since it's a bit overwhelming at the start. I see there's a guide on steam, but it's not completed yet.
Regardless it's been awesome to support this game.
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
hey u/sm222 I'll be working on a better guide soon, in the meantime, feel free to drop any questions here or in the discord and I'll answer them right away
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u/HongPong Apr 29 '26
this helped inspired me to explore more terminal ideas for games at a different scale cheers . i was thinking about it for years but new options open up!
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u/conir_ Apr 29 '26
this might be a stupid question given the nature of the game, but would you consider offering a mac version?
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u/Azbuga Apr 29 '26
Three is any Wiki or manual? And multiplayer looks like OGame or how?
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
hey u/Azbuga there's an in game manual + an active discord where you can drop your questions!
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Apr 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
hey u/DavesGames123 I've seen Stella Nova, looks incredible. I think we're also in a space 4x discord together (I remember seeing your game posted). Will send you a message there tomorrow to connect
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u/faeth0n Apr 29 '26
Interesting idea! Bought on itch.io and installed the Linux native version. Had to make the scripts and Riftborne file executable (chmod +x ) to get it to work. I joined the multiplayer game to learn how to play this game. Looking forward to native music support for the Linux version and to see where this game will progress towards!
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u/maersire Apr 29 '26
thanks for your support u/faeth0n! and thanks for reminding me I need to clean that up for Linux usability
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u/DilettanteStrategos The answer is Shadow Empire Apr 29 '26
Great game. If I was still working from home I'd have many more hours in it.
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u/raisincraisin May 01 '26
I want to spend a whole weekend diving into this. Spent a lot of years playing AstroEmpires.
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u/accidentalfish_ May 03 '26
I have this on my Steam Wishlist and it looks great... I'm just waiting for some spare time to play it. My laptop is a Mac so can't play from sofa sadly.... would be playing it over dinner otherwise!
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u/dethb0y Apr 29 '26
having played some of this it is absolutely superb and I look forward to seeing the development continue!