Indie developer Calin spent seven years building Space Flux, a 4D online FPS with non-Euclidean geometry, infinite fractal spaces, and impossible mechanics like portals and gravity-flip. The hardest part was netcode: syncing infinite player copies and destructible objects across all clients. The game launches 1.0 soon.
This game took me 7 years to make, and it's finally coming out tomorrow. I started in January 2018 when I was still in school for comp sci. I was learning Unreal Engine, and I wanted to make the trippiest first-person shooter of all time. That's when I became obsessed with non-Euclidean geometry. The first non-Euclidean space I ever made was a vertical loop. The way it works is you fall, but you always come back to the same level. There are infinite copies of this level with infinite copies of you on each of the levels. But Space Flex is an online game, so how does this work in multiplayer? Well, every player has infinite copies of themselves, right? Shoot any copy of your opponent to kill them. They're always above you, they're always below you. Sometimes they're shooting each other in the back. Sometimes you think you see another player and you start firing only to realize, oh, that's just me. Then I did this for every direction, so no matter where you go, you're back to the same place. You might have noticed the levels are made of cubes. That's because they're fully destructible. This is the first ever video where I revealed fractal space. Go into the fractal infinitely and always come back to the same level. People really liked it, so I made literally hundreds of videos about it, like, why can't I get to the center? Or, what happens if you go out of the fractal? This is my first ever video. Looks pretty different from the Space Flux we know and love today. Then I added more impossible spaces like Minimap. This is a perfectly normal— oh, what is this? No speed limit in vertical loop. We got infinite backrooms. In mirror mode, there's a reflected copy of you And the map. And finally, portals. Shoot through the portal. We got abilities such as flip gravity, decoys, turn into a cube, John Wall, John Wall. Why did I add psychedelic mode? When you make an online game, you gotta do a little something called netcode. This is the first time I ever learned netcoding, and I lost the plot. Netcode is stinky enough for online shooters, but it's infinite times worse for Space Flux because all the players and cubes and projectiles you see here has to look exactly the same on every copy of the map and for every client playing the game. Now, early access on Steam was just a month away. I tested the netcode the night before launch and it was unplayable, so I stayed up all night trying to fix it, and right before launch it actually worked. Since then, I've played with hundreds of you guys on Discord from all around the world. In 2023, I added Horde Mode where you shoot endless waves of heads. I made a new update to Horde Mode for tomorrow Tomorrow's launch, but I have to admit, I haven't even beaten it yet. I made it to the final boss and then Atomic Pete stomped me. It's just so damn hard. Also for tomorrow's launch, I added gun skins like the Rainbow Laser, Virtual Pineapple, Gold Assault Rifle, and Mousetrap. Space Flux has been in early access for nearly 5 years. I can't believe I let so much time pass. 1.0 is finally coming out tomorrow. And— I'm nervous. I've been making this game for a quarter of my life. I've spent all my money making Space Flux. If the launch doesn't go well, I won't be able to keep making games full-time. Well, here goes nothing.
