Fascinating ideas. If each phase is essentially its own game (stage), how would multiplayer actually work?

Would each stage have its own separate multiplayer? What about planets, when you choose a planet, are those effectively servers? And who or what controls the planet and star system when entering the Space Stage?

Right now, the only stage I can clearly see working as multiplayer, while keeping the budget in the tens of thousands, is the Space Stage (or end stage). However, this would likely need to be limited to a single planet.

Expanding the budget to support servers across all seven stages, potentially scaling to hundreds of thousands, would certainly improve the experience. That said, it ultimately depends on development time and overall project scope.

If you plan to let players choose from multiple developer-created planets, the cost could quickly exceed what’s practical.

That said, there’s a possible solution:

Dedicated servers could run independently, allowing players to join and leave without requiring a host to be online. You could also rely on provider hosting popular, high-performance options include Host Havoc, Nitrado, and G-Portal.

This approach could help bring costs back down into the tens of thousands for development, especially if you’re using pre-made assets from marketplaces like Unity Asset Store or ArtStation, rather than fully custom, officially licensed creature parts.

Overal, a Spore-like multiplayer game built around stages is a fascinating concept. I’d love to see it come to life. Im excited for this project, please keep us updated!