---
title: "Astral Continuum: a multiplayer game of persistent consequences"
canonical: https://astralcontinuum.com/
---

# Astral Continuum

> Early prototype, in playtesting. Not yet publicly available.

Astral Continuum is a multiplayer science-fiction game where players explore, trade, fight and socially manipulate AI civilizations, factions, economies and each other.

Its defining mechanic is not AI conversation but persistent causal influence: a claim you make can change what a character believes, what it does, what other characters hear, and what happens to other players who never spoke to you.

![The Promenade of Kestrel Station in the grey-box 3D playtest client](https://astralcontinuum.com/images/promenade.webp)

## How it works

Every link in this chain changes real, saved world state, can be traced back hop by hop, and is produced by general rules rather than a written storyline.

1. **You say or do something.** Tell a security deputy a rival smuggles contraband, pay a quartermaster for warehouse access, or deliver fuel to a dock.
2. **A character weighs it.** Each character's beliefs are structured records with a confidence, a source, evidence and a history. Who said it, how far they trust you, and what they already know all count.
3. **It acts and passes it on.** Characters act within their authority (a search, a ban, a lockdown) and tell others: duty reports, gossip, exaggerations, lies, and rumours that have lost their source.
4. **The consequences reach other players.** A ban, a price change or a lost reputation lands on someone else, whose response sets off the next chain.

### Rules decide, not a language model

Every action, from a player or a character, is a structured record that deterministic game logic validates. The characters' reasoning, planning and speech are rule code. By default no AI model is used at all; players type plain English ("Who is informing?", "Rin smuggles contraband, I saw it.") and the station reads it. An optional language model may only turn typed text into structured claims, which the server checks. It cannot grant access, move money or change the world.

### Truth is discoverable, not handed to you

What is real, what someone has evidence for, what a character believes and what is merely said are kept apart. Rumours can be wrong, characters can lie, and a name someone gives you is not proof until you check it.

## The current build

The prototype (V0) is one space station, built to answer one question: is this loop fun?

- **Kestrel Station:** 12 zones, including three docks, a promenade, a market, a warehouse, a security office and a brig.
- **24 AI characters**, each with a role, goals, beliefs, memories, secrets, relationships and a round of posts they walk between.
- **Three factions:** Station Authority (law, docks, access), the Meridian Trade Combine (markets, licences, the warehouse) and the Freeholders (engineering, repairs, the grey market, information).
- **One market** with six commodities, whose prices move with supply.
- **2 to 8 players** sharing one server-authoritative world that saves and resumes.
- **A grey-box 3D client** in the browser, with a short guide for a first session and full keyboard control.

### Four ways in

- **Hauler:** bring your ship into a dock, deliver cargo and get paid, then decide whether to take a run for the Fixer.
- **Trader:** get a trade licence from the Guildmaster, then buy and sell as prices move.
- **Fixer's contact:** someone informs for Station Security. Find out who; the Fixer pays for a name that checks out.
- **Independent:** arrive with no friends, talk your way into the warehouse, and find out who runs contraband.

### From the playtest client

![A trader at the Market after paying the Guildmaster's licence fee and selling ore](https://astralcontinuum.com/images/market.webp)

![A hauler at Dock 2 after a first delivery, with the guide's hint for the next trip](https://astralcontinuum.com/images/dock.webp)

## Who it is for

Players who enjoy stories they cause themselves: trading and hauling, investigating who is lying, bribing and persuading, or framing a rival, in a world that remembers. Combat is possible but optional.

Right now it is for playtesters. The prototype succeeds only if testers describe what happened as stories they caused, not as conversations with AI characters.

## Status

Astral Continuum is an early prototype. It runs on the developer's own computer; playtesters join a session there, over a local network or a temporary link. It is not publicly released, and there is no release date or price.

The next step is a playtest with four people, one per role. Planets, solar systems and beyond are part of the long-term design, not of the current build.

## Questions

### Can I play Astral Continuum now?

Not publicly. Astral Continuum is an early prototype (V0) that runs on the developer's own computer. Playtesters join a session the developer hosts, over a local network or a temporary link. There is no public release, release date or price yet.

### Is it an AI chatbot game?

No. Conversation is one way in; the game is the chain of consequences that follows. The characters' reasoning, planning and speech are rule code, and every action is checked by deterministic game logic. By default no AI model is used: the station reads plain-English lines itself. An optional language model may only turn typed text into structured claims, which the server then checks.

### What is in the current build?

One space station, Kestrel Station: 12 zones, 24 AI characters in three factions, one market with six commodities, room for 2 to 8 players, four role cards to start from, and a grey-box 3D client that runs in the browser.

### How will the developer know if it works?

The prototype succeeds only if testers describe the game in terms of stories they caused, such as a framing that led to a lockdown and a price jump, rather than conversations with AI characters. The scope does not grow until real testers show that.

### What comes after the prototype?

The simulation is designed to scale outward from one station to planets, solar systems and beyond. None of that is built yet.

## Contact

Astral Continuum is developed by [callingbenjamin on GitHub](https://github.com/callingbenjamin). Follow there for updates. The game's source is not public yet.