FOR·NAX
Persistent · cooperative · browser only

Build an industry
in a galaxy that
keeps running.

Claim a world. Sink a mine into it, refine what comes out, and turn it into ships. Everything you start keeps going while you are logged out — Fornax has no tick you have to be present for, and nothing in it is for sale.

Join the Discord Alpha is small and invite-led. The Discord is where it happens.
A banded gas giant seen from orbit
2,312
systems in a shard
2,719
lanes between them
24
named regions
0
things for sale
What it is

An industrial game with a real economy underneath it.

Not a clicker with a space skin. Ore is gated by how dangerous the space it sits in is, refining and fabrication are separate stages, and storage is measured in volume — so what you choose to hold is a decision rather than an inventory slot.

Time is the currency

Extractors run, refineries consume, research advances, officers train — in real time, whether you are watching or not. You cannot buy your way past any of it, because there is nothing to buy.

Two-stage industry

Raw ore becomes refined material becomes components becomes hulls. Every step has a structure that does it, a level that limits it, and a bill you have to actually have on hand.

Solo-viable by design

Nothing requires a group. But a sector built by four people develops faster than the same infrastructure raised by one — the arithmetic rewards company without ever demanding it.

Threat you can lose to

Pirate incursions build in a region and decay on their own. Fights resolve from a stored seed, so an after-action report is a replay you can step through rather than a summary to take on trust.

What it looks like

The whole thing runs in a browser tab.

No launcher, no download, no separate client. These are the actual screens, not renders of them — click any one to see it full size.

The galaxy

Distance is measured in jumps, never in space.

A shard is a hex field of a couple of thousand systems joined by lanes, divided into named regions. Where a region sits decides what can be dug out of it and how much protection you can expect.

Hi-sec

Patrolled, forgiving, and poor. The common ores and a place to learn the chain.

Med-sec

The working middle. Better material, real incursions, and help that takes a while to arrive.

Low-sec

The exotic end. Strongholds sit in it, response is slow, and the payoff matches.

A region is a shared place

  • Development is collective. Everything built in a sector raises it for everyone based there — including services nobody could unlock alone.
  • Threat is regional. It rises where people are careless and falls on its own. It is not a difficulty slider; it is weather with a cause.
  • Fleets travel the lane network. A crossing costs fuel and takes real hours, and where a fleet is at any moment is derived, never guessed.
  • Syndicates, contracts and a light market. Enough economy for players to matter to each other, without a trading terminal for a hobby.
A dreadnought-class hull
Dreadnought · the far end of a long chain
A refinery structure
Refinery · stage one of two

What a base actually is

  • A body you claimed, with a fixed number of structure slots and a terrain that decides what it is good for.
  • Power and population both have to balance before anything new runs.
  • Volume, not slots. A hold full of ore is a hold with no room for the components it was going to become.
  • Automation you configure, not scripts you write. Supply routes, standing orders and mining loops are part of the game, and the rules ban the alternative.
What is actually in it

Systems, not a roadmap.

Everything listed here is built and running today. Nothing on this page is a plan.

Industry

  • Ore extraction, gated by the security band the region sits in
  • Refining and fabrication as two distinct stages, each with its own structure
  • Volume-limited storage and cargo, so what you hold is a decision
  • Production orders that starve honestly when an input runs out
  • Staged construction against a bill stored at the price you agreed
  • Research and blueprints that unlock the next tier
An orbital shipworks structure
Orbital shipworks · where hulls come from
An ore prospector vessel
Ore prospector · finds what a survey missed

Space

  • ~2,300 systems on a hex field, per shard, joined by a lane network
  • Prospecting and survey — a body keeps its contents secret until you look
  • Fleets with fuel, cargo and transit measured in real hours
  • 17 body types, each with terrain that decides what it is good for
  • Colonise from the map: pick a system, pick a body, settle it
  • Mining loops that keep working a field while you are elsewhere

People

  • Syndicates with a shared board, and development you raise together
  • Officers who train in real time and cannot be rushed
  • Contracts and standing with the Frontier Authority
  • A light player market — enough to matter, not a second job
  • Direct mail, contacts and blocking that works retroactively
  • Rankings, for the people who want to know
An officer portrait
An officer · specialised, and slow to replace
The Cinder Reavers' emblem
Cinder Reavers · one of three, and the least subtle

Pressure

  • Regional threat that rises where people are careless and decays on its own
  • Incursions, patrols and strongholds, each worth a different fight
  • Three pirate factions, each countered by a different weapon
  • After-action reports you can replay, derived from a stored seed
  • Repair, salvage and debris — a bad fight leaves something behind
  • Supply routes and standing orders, so a siege does not idle your industry
Where it is right now

Alpha. Small, private, unfinished — and playable.

Fornax is one developer's project. The galaxy generates, the industry chain runs end to end, fleets fly, fights resolve and the world keeps its own time. What it has not had is players, which is the only thing that can tell us whether the numbers are any fun.

  • It runs in a browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install, no launcher.
  • It is online-only and server-authoritative, because a persistent shared galaxy cannot be anything else.
  • Player-versus-player is not in it. The threat is the frontier and the pirates in it; conflict between players is a later question, deliberately.
  • Nothing is for sale, now or at launch. No store, no premium currency, no paying to skip a queue.
Join the Discord Ask questions, watch it get built, get a shard invite when there is one.