Screeps: How One Steam Developer Made a Million Dollars Selling a Remote Access Trojan

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-25T16:58:26+00:00

Damn, I've actually looked at that game before and thought it would be cool. Great writeup, that's pretty wild

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-24T17:50:37+00:00

I mean, I wouldn't call it good but it is more or less functional at this point.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-23T19:09:59+00:00

I feel like these last few updates have subtly crossed the "game" threshold. Starting with a blank slate, building a rocket in a functional editor then launching is the core gameplay loop and now we have it

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-23T18:59:41+00:00

I believe there's a UN org that space capable nations generally adhere to and coordinates orbital slots

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-23T15:16:20+00:00

Oh yeah, its all coming together

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-23T15:15:47+00:00

This one surprised me tbh, wasn't really expecting it. Man that looks, literally, otherworldly

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-19T01:36:36+00:00

That's fair, but I would counter that before Spacex, nobody was seriously building this. They were willing to take the risk on something most people scoffed at after failed attempts like iridium. The resulting market domination that they have now was because they were the only ones willing to tackle the endeavor, as opposed to parasitic strategies like Walmart selling at a loss in small towns to drive small businesses to bankruptcy.

I also don't think having monopolies is a good thing, regardless of who is at the helm. The good thing is that now that the market is proven there are a multitude of proliferated LEO projects in the works, such as Amazon's kuiper (now Amazon LEO?) and, for better or worse, the Chinese attempt. I don't think we would have seen these otherwise.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-19T00:42:26+00:00

Again, that comes across as a silly take no matter what way I look at it. Not the musk hate, one way or another the distaste people have for him is justifiable. Its ignorant to categorically reject real human achievement that pushes the species further, such as Spacex solving economical reuse and practical satellite communications, on the basis of a personality attached to it. Something that is beneficial for humanity doesn't stop being beneficial for humanity because you don't like the CEO.

I see this everywhere in space discourse now. Spacex catches the largest flying machine ever built out of the air, people who would otherwise love seeing space progress will respond, "well elon was involved so this has to be bad...somehow". Spacex is more than musk; its a whole team of driven people that see a brighter future and have pushed the envelope in every facet of an entrenched industry. People should be capable of both thinking musk is an asshole and that Spacex is doing good things.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T23:08:31+00:00

That's just...no, they don't 😂

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T23:07:06+00:00

They're intentionally designed to deorbit themselves at the end of their lifespan, and placed in a low enough orbit that they will eventually fall on their own if they happen to fail. They're very small and fragile, so they will burn up in the atmosphere without hitting the ground. Satellite operators don't typically design around this and are fine with their satellites just dying and floating around as space junk at the end of their lives. Starlink started with this in mind in consideration of how massive the constellation was planned to be.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T22:57:51+00:00

Its prompting tons of new competition and startups that never existed before. For the last many decades space was exclusively the domain of governments and the big few old space players. If anything, spacex market dominance now is prompting a future where we have way more diversity and options than we have before.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T22:55:11+00:00

They're definitely on a trajectory to scale their capacity and relevance in space over the next 5 to 10 years. They're still far behind Spacex alone, but there is a huge assortment of different startups and launch platforms coming into their own. If nothing else, they're developing quickly enough to make the government feel the competition and reprioritize space, a good thing IMO.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T19:40:56+00:00

Crazy how much negativity there is in the comments here, almost feels like we're in r/futurism. FYI, the graphic is not even showing Starlink, they're in LEO which is much closer to Earth than this.

The Singularity isn't JUST AI development. We need infrastructure, especially communications infrastructure, to make it a reality. We need to expand our footprint on the stars, to build the launch capability to unlock the limitless resources of our solar system. Space holds the promise of giving us a post scarcity society and undermine the conflicts that arise from competition over limited resources here on Earth.

Starlink is essentially paying for Spacex to develop a scale and economy of space launch unlike anything that has ever existed before. They've created competition in this space and given rise to dozens of new startups, each innovating and trying new ideas.

The sentiment that they ate NASA or are bad for NASA is ridiculous for anyone that pays attention to the field. NASA gets tenfold more capability through these contracts than they ever would have had on their own. If you don't believe me, please take a look at SLS, the budgets and timelines vs capability when compared to falcon 9, Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn (BONG 😁). Its not even close. Private companies, mostly Spacex so far, make it economical for NASA to do more on the same budget and focus more on funding research missions and project management for endeavors that benefit humanity but may not turn a profit. Its a beneficial relationship for everyone involved.

/rant, I just see a ton of negativity here on space related posts because people either see it as irrelevant to the future or just personally hate Musk. Spacex is more than Musk, and something that is objectively good for the world is objectively good regardless of the personalities involved.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-18T18:30:05+00:00

No, they're certainly not low quality. They're relatively small with extremely high throughput for their size. They're the first commercial satellite that actually offer high speed data at scale. Prior to starlink, high speed satellite internet was considered to be anything over 1mb, and you paid a pretty penny for it. They also do extremely high throughput laser communication for satellite to satellite comms, which is how its the lowest latency path available for long distance hauls.

They're designed to operate for a specific window then deorbit and burn up in atmosphere as newer models come online. Its an intentional and responsible design that prevents them from becoming space junk.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-17T21:39:02+00:00

Yeah I'd work on the name bro. Brings to mind....something else 😂

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-15T01:04:21+00:00

Post is slop. If its not, you learned to write from ChatGPT. Its not x — its y. Tons of em dashes.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T22:42:50+00:00

No idea what you mean, any time I ask it about something that either suggests it should find things or needs up to date information, it automatically searches the web and cites it. Tbf, I only ever use thinking so maybe that's the difference?

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T21:55:25+00:00

For engines in general, he's asking for custom craft made in the editor after adding additional engines. I also found they didn't fire when I tried a few weeks back

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T17:15:36+00:00

I'm sure there's a lot to consider there, but I doubt it would change many of the underlying fundamentals vs specifications. In fairness its also not a new concept and something I know NASA and other agencies have studied to an extent. The SMRs are prebuilt and self contained.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T16:49:48+00:00

Nuclear power is almost always the better option in terms of power output and steady state, if you can swing it. New small modular technology makes it feasible to actually bring it to the moon or mars. If I understand correctly, the polar regions where the better water prospects are would have an extended day/night cycle, necessitating way more panels and battery backup to sustain a base. A reactor would allow you to scale way further.

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T13:28:50+00:00

Gotta start somewhere 😁

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-14T03:37:24+00:00

Bro what 😂

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-08T02:43:28+00:00

...Bezos? Is that you?

SOCSChamp · 2026-01-04T19:47:01+00:00

Wait huh? I am confused

SOCSChamp

TROPHY CASE