⌬ Gatewake Frontiers

// Back the Frontier

Command a Solar Empire — From Seabed to Orbit

Most strategy games give you a map. Gatewake gives you a solar system. Zoom out of your capital and the ground curves away into a living planet; keep going and you're in orbit among your fleets, then out into a real Sol. Zoom back in anywhere — the seafloor, the tunnel network, the surface where your cities light their windows at dusk. One continuous world.

The Kickstarter campaign is launching soon. No payment is collected on this page, and there is no live campaign link yet — when the campaign goes live, this page will link straight to it. Until then, the best way to back the project is to play the free demo and spread the word.

▲ Play the Free Demo In your browser, right now ◆ Follow Development The dev log is public
Why This Game

What Makes Gatewake Different

  • True spherical worlds. Planets are globes, not wrapped maps — fly east forever and come home. Day and night sweep the surface; cities light up along the dusk line.
  • Three theaters per world, plus orbit. Surface, underwater, and underground are real playable layers you earn your way into — and an orbital plane holds your satellites and stations: park them, reposition them, or set defense satellites on orbital patrol.
  • A colony that actually works. Power, water, food, oxygen, fuel, sewage, heat, and haulage are designed as interlocking real-world networks — pipes for liquids, cargo for solids, waste heat that defrosts frozen ground or burns careless neighborhoods.
  • Co-op from day one. The demo already runs 1–4 commander co-op with distinct roles.
  • Browser-native. No installer, no launcher. If you have a link, you have the game.
Play It Today

The Demo Is the Proof

  • The free demo already includes: Sol in real 3D, spherical Earth with the full three-theater loop, a 175+ model 3D roster, research, rival empires, co-op lobbies, and orbital combat.
  • What you see there is real and public — judge the project by it, not by promises.
  • The full version is the same codebase as the demo, unlocked — not a separate game that might never ship.
What the Campaign Funds

Finishing the First Version

  • The resource-distribution simulation — power, water, food, oxygen, and fuel as live networks (design complete and public).
  • The full Sol campaign progression: Cislunar Foundation → Ares → Belt Security → outer-moon objectives.
  • Multiplayer hardening: durable sessions, account-linked rejoin, abuse controls.
  • Audio: soundtrack and a full effects pass — the demo is nearly silent today, and that's a funded fix, not a hidden flaw.
  • Polish, onboarding, saves, settings, accessibility.
The Expansion

The Mycelith Brood

  • The second faction: an organic hive empire — chitin, spores, and grown-not-built structures. Living species don't drive tanks.
  • All 22 Brood units and structures already have concept art and 3D previews — see the Factions page.
  • The expansion adds the playable Brood campaign and Brood-vs-Terran skirmish.
  • Included in the campaign's game + expansion bundle tier; a stretch goal brings the Brood playable at launch.
Digital Only

Planned Reward Tiers

  • Every reward is digital. No physical items, no shipping, no shipping delays — ever.
  • $1 — Signal Boost: backer-only updates.
  • $10 — Colonist: your name in the in-game credits.
  • $15 — Early Bird Commander (limited): the full game at release.
  • $20 — Commander: the full game at release.
  • $30 — Beta Commander: game + closed-beta access + backer Discord.
  • $40 — Twin Empires: game + the Mycelith Brood expansion + beta access.
  • $55 — Deluxe Digital: everything above + digital artbook (the real internal art bible) + soundtrack.
  • $80 — Alpha Insider: everything above + closed-alpha builds as they land + monthly dev-stream Q&A.
  • $150 — Unit Namer (limited): everything above + name a unit, building, or colony (subject to approval, seen by all players).
  • $400 — Worldsmith (limited): everything above + design a world with the developer: name, biome, hazards, and its place in a star system.
  • Tier prices are the planned structure and may be tuned before launch.
Stretch Goals

If the Frontier Grows

  • The Brood Awakens: the Mycelith Brood becomes fully playable at v1 launch, not post-release.
  • Eight Commanders: co-op scales from 4 to 8 with new role archetypes.
  • The Modding Gate: the internal mechanics editor — the actual design tool this game is built with — ships to players as a modding surface.
  • Total War Below: full military layers for the underwater and underground theaters — sub warfare, tunnel assaults, seismic weapons.
Honesty Section

Risks, Stated Plainly

  • This is a solo project. The risk is not "can it exist" — it exists, in your browser — but schedule.
  • The demo IS the game: one codebase, so the full version can't drift into vaporware separate from what you can already play.
  • The art pipeline is proven at roster scale (175+ models and counting).
  • If something slips, backers hear it first in the update feed. The public changelog shows the shipping pace to date.