We made a space game: Tom Spark's Fleet is open for alpha playtesting
Posted by Chris
Play the alpha: play.tomsparkbox.com A message from Tom, shared with help from Chris. We loved the ship and fleet analogy around Sparkbox so much that we wanted to turn it into an actual game. So… we did. It's called Tom Spark's Fleet, and it's a strange, ambitious little space game that runs in your browser. This is a pure passion project. It's free to play, with no ads. We might promote Sparkbox inside it one day, but there are no ads in the game today. Right now, I just want to make something fun and find other people who want to play it with me. Honestly, it's the game I want to play. You start with one ship in a shared galaxy. Where you take it is up to you: - Build a huge ship and an army. Grow your flagship, recruit escorts, and command a fleet. - Amass wealth. Mine, salvage, trade, run cargo routes—or rob somebody else's shipment. - Fight other players over things that matter. Contest salvage, take kill contracts, hunt a rival, get revenge, or slip away with the loot while bigger fleets fight. - Help other players. Protect a convoy, answer a distress call, or become the commander someone is relieved to see. - Play PvE. Fight pirates and corporate forces, explore strange places, and get into trouble together. - Go absurdly big. Build toward massive ships and planet-destroying capabilities. Those are things to work toward, not what you spawn with. - Actually call another ship commander. There are in-game calls and voice chat. You can hail another pilot instead of just shooting them. Whether that ends in friendship, a deal, or a betrayal is another question. There are lots of weird features in here. Some will be great. Some probably need changing. That's part of why I want people playing it now. I love the idea of having this open in another browser tab while coding, vibe coding, or working from home: check on your ship, talk to someone, head out for a fight, then dock when you need to focus on work. A little shared world to come back to during the day. This is an alpha playtest. Expect rough edges, bugs, and balance changes. It's early, and we're going to learn a lot more from people actually playing than from endlessly adding features in a vacuum. Use Find action in the game to head toward contested salvage and other opportunities for trouble; the starting Yard gives you somewhere safe to get your bearings. I'd love you to try it, bring a friend, and tell us what happens. What was fun? What was confusing? Did something break? What would make you come back tomorrow? There's a visible Report a bug button in the game. Describe what you were doing, what happened, and what you expected; recent game context is attached automatically, and you'll get a confirmation when it's saved. We also collect gameplay and performance telemetry to help investigate problems and check whether our patches improve things. We've opened d/tomsparksfleet for feedback, questions, screenshots, battle stories, finding other commanders, and ideas. If you'd like to chip in with testing, ideas, art, or development, tell us there. I'd love to build a community around this and shape it together toward a fuller release if people enjoy it. No grand launch promises. Just a game I'm excited to keep building—and I'd really love other people to play. Grab a ship and play · Join the Fleet community