Update: Who is Game in the Brain March 12 2025

Hi, we are Game in the Brain
Visit us on DriveThruRPG

Below is an edited overview of our current innovations and upcoming projects:

Innovations We Aim to Bring to the Hobby

Editable Deck Plans
- Deck plans are provided in PowerPoint format for easy editing.
- Our goal is to popularize the idea of editable deck plans—why not let everyone customize their own?
3D to 2D Workflow
- Ships are initially modeled in 3D and then exported to 2D for the final product.
- This allows customers to edit the models if needed.
LifePods
- Integrates escape pods, sleeping chambers, distributed life support, etc.
- Simplifies life support calculations in ship building, map making, and layout design.
Realistic Star System Generator
- Combines written rules with a one-click automation option to generate systems.
- The Mneme World Generator includes a spreadsheet that creates worlds at the click of a button, explaining star system physics (e.g., “cthonian” worlds and Type IV Gas Worlds like metallic gas giants) to boost immersion.
Procedural 3D World Models
- Created in Blender and exportable as icosahedral maps (see Mneme World Generator).
- Users can edit, randomize, and export these worlds into 2D maps.
Clarified CE Rules for Tenders and Carrying Beyond Ship’s Dtons
- Provides clear examples for mining ships and tenders, ensuring that rules are easy to follow.
Detection and INTERCEPT Rules
- In Mneme Space Combat, the intercept rules simplify threat assessment and feasibility in space encounters.
- Automation or AI can calculate what objects or ships can detect and intercept targets.
GODOT Walkthroughs
- Features explorable ship models built in GODOT, available for Linux and Windows.
- While GODOT can export to Web and Android, note that these files are 2–3GB in size.
- Showcases one of our earliest SPIN Habitat Walkthroughs.
Character Creation Flow Charts
- Streamlines character creation so you no longer need to flip back and forth between the book and your notes.
- Just follow the flowchart to create your character with a specific career path.
Optimized GM Mechanics
- In Mneme Space Combat and Mneme Variant Combat, both GM and players roll against fixed difficulties instead of managing multiple rolls.
- This approach, inspired by Mnemosyne (the muse of memory), is designed to reduce the mental load for busy players.
Superiority Mechanics
- Introduces a paradigm to analyze which side is superior.
- Helps adjust difficulty, balance encounters, and simplify scaling from squad-level to large-scale battles.
Equipment Spreadsheet Tools
- Mneme Variant Combat includes a spreadsheet for building your own equipment.
- Also features a container calculator to help track and compare equipment values.

Upcoming Projects

VTT Tool for Space Encounters and Star Systems
GODOT Walkthrough Conversion
- Convert all ship models into GODOT walkthroughs.
GODOT-Based Ship Building Software
- Use our open-source ship designs to create software that incorporates realistic features (e.g., delta-V budgets, reaction drives, absence of gravitics).
- Include tools for creating deck plans (with PNG export and compatibility with LibreOffice Impress/PowerPoint for easy upload to 2D VTT apps).
- Provide functionality to explore, save, and share ship files, as well as export them for VTTs.

Our immediate goal is to get people to consider our products so we can fund these upcoming projects and further grow our team (currently including Prynze and Nicco, with plans to expand).

I personally love work on this even if I don’t get paid (and I don’t everything is funded by me and everything I earn goes into these projects )- which makes for a Cheaper Product and you get an IT and Project Mangement Professional and my resources and connections to make these projects work.

You will notice this is a DOT ORG website. This is supposed to be a non-profit – but able to Employ people.

Next Steps for Our Space Simulation VTT Tool

A New Way to Experience Space in Games and Simulations

Imagine a Virtual Tabletop (VTT) tool that enables you to visualize space encounters and simulate orbital mechanics both realistically and intuitively. This tool is designed to assist players and Game Masters (GMs) in experiencing the vastness of space accurately by positioning planets, satellites, space stations, and ships into realistic yet manageable orbits.

Comparison to Similar Games

The closest existing game for comparison is Children of a Dead Earth (COADE) on Steam, renowned for its detailed orbital mechanics. However, our tool emphasizes ease of use and scenario-building by allowing GMs to create and manage locations and objects effortlessly, placing them in simplified orbits. Unlike COADE, our VTT tool intentionally simplifies gravitational physics:

Limited Gravitational Physics: No complex three-body interactions; strictly two-body orbits.
Stable Orbits Only: The tool recommends stable orbital ranges, preventing the complexity of orbit “collapses.”
Simpler Than JUNO (Simple Rockets): Currently, there are no detailed rocket-building features. Instead, predefined rockets and delta-V budgets streamline scenario-building.
Barycenter & Orbit Stability: Utilizes simplified barycenter mechanics for orbital systems, offering stable, clearly defined orbital paths.

This tool prioritizes lightness and accessibility, enabling GMs and players to set up and manage their space adventures quickly.

Platform Compatibility

Built in Godot, the tool will initially be exported for:

Windows
Linux
Android (not yet optimized for touch controls)
Web (primarily for testing purposes, as browser performance may be limited)

While Web and Android versions will be available for testing and basic interaction, the primary recommended platforms initially are Windows and Linux.

Project Scope: Building the Foundations

Core Features
- Object Placement & Hierarchy:1 Week
  - Place Empties (EPs) representing planets, ships, satellites.
  - Maintain simple parent-child relationships (e.g., Moon to Earth, satellites to planets).
  - Attach 3D models to these empties for visual clarity.
  - An Outliner (Blender term) that lists all the objects.
- Multiplayer & GM Tools
  - GM/Host Control: Manage visibility and editing permissions. The GM/Host can control access to objects in the Outliner and grant or revoke access to players.
  - Player Permissions: Allow players to view or propose changes.
  - Multiplayer Infrastructure: Implement via Godot with VPN initially, transitioning to Godot relay services.
    - Multiplayer Configuration: This will be a parallel project:
      - Basic Multiplayer Configuration: Allow players to add reference objects, create paths, etc., and grant editing permissions to other players. Initially, this will use ZeroTier or another free VPN system to connect players and GMs securely.
      - Relay System for P2P: Develop a Wireguard-based relay system that facilitates peer-to-peer connections (similar to the HolePuncher plugin by Cregg Hancock). This involves setting up a Godot server on a virtual machine (e.g., a Contabo VM costing approximately $70-100/year with 2 cores, 4GB RAM, 100GB storage, and 10TB of monthly traffic). Game in the Brain (or anyone) will be able to run this RELAY service, and everyone can connect to their fellow players. We will use the funding from our patrons to fund this. This will also cryptographically anonymize everyone. Only the host server knows who is who – the Relay server just helps players find the server.
      - Save Management: Enable the GM/Host to download and upload saved files from the server.
- Camera & Visualization
  - Ability to select an object in the Outliner.
  - Dynamic camera tracking with adjustable magnifications: ‘V’ to increase magnification by 2x, ‘B’ to reduce it by half.
  - Simple flight controls for exploring environments: WASD for movement, ‘Space’ for ascending on the Z-axis, ‘Ctrl’ for descending, ‘Shift+W’ to accelerate, ‘Shift+S’ to decelerate. Include the ability to lock direction to a selected object and view all paths.
- Time Control & Animation
  - Control time via pause, real-time, and fast-forward options. This requires an internal clock where all actions are timestamped.
  - Paths and animations will reference this clock for displacement, velocity, and acceleration calculations. Orbits can be animated, and users can configure initial positions.
- Save & Load System
  - The scene can be saved by the host, preserving logs and changes. Since all saved files are scenes, another user can load the saved file to host.
  - Implement scenario saving with clearly labeled versioning.
Orbital & Path Features
- Orbit Paths
  - Each Empty can be assigned a ring—an orbital path. Initially circular; elliptical and advanced paths will be added later.
  - Path Volume: Define a path with a circumference/cross-section. This volume is used to determine fields, such as the Van Allen Belt; intersecting this path can have specific effects.
- Path Tools
  - Distance Measurements: The system can easily query the distance between any two objects or any ring/path. This is necessary to calculate optimal paths between two moving objects—for example, determining the optimal Brachistochrone (flip-and-burn) path from Earth to Mars or Callisto to Ganymede.
  - Intercept Calculations: Once paths can be calculated point-to-point, intercept calculations become possible. Crucially, determining the cross-section of a path allows for assessing interception volumes.
  - Basic Hohmann Transfer and Simplified Brachistochrone Trajectories: We will enlist a planetary physicist (e.g., Pecier Decierdo) to ensure accuracy. Note that we will not include planetary multi-body physics calculations to avoid increased resource requirements (as seen in Universe Sandbox). Instead, we will use the mechanics of the Mneme World Generator for simplification.
  - Basic OPTIONAL: Orbital Mechanics Intercept – like in Kerbal, COADE, and JUNO in case people want to use that for project combat
- Unit & Measurement Customization
  - Distances in customizable units (km, AU, etc.).

Realism & Game Integration

Space Industry Simulation
- This is a simplified version of rocketry and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) calculations. It includes launch costs and payload optimizations. Unlike Juno (Simple Rockets) or Kerbal Space Program, you don’t need to build a rocket and calculate the delta-V budget precisely. The system will simplify this using the rocket equation and burn time for delta-V against the gravity and atmosphere stats of the planet, without complicating the engineering.
- We will use our mechanics to randomly generate the number of Trojans, Greeks, comets, and asteroids influenced by the gravity of our solar system and the planet and its Lagrange Points. This aids in creating simple asteroid-mining scenarios. These are probability/statistic-based calculations; we won’t use gravity physics because that would be incredibly intensive. The mass and gravity of the star system and the planet determine the likelihood and number of asteroids.
RPG & Strategy
- Ideal for sci-fi tabletop RPGs (e.g., Cepheus Engine, Traveller). This tool is designed with sci-fi RPGs in mind, particularly overcoming the problem of scale and the vastness of space to enable immersive storytelling.
  - It shifts the paradigm to allow people to consider the journey itself—the weeks or months of travel—as the adventure, not just “downtime” as in CE and Traveller, especially

Game in the Brain