Jesse.ink

A Solana gaming story that shows how challenging on-chain gaming really is: @staratlas 👇 • 2020 - the vision AAA game: a massive on-chain space MMO not just a game, but a full sci-fi metaverse with ships, factions, economy, and player ownership • pre-launch - foundation led by @at_mwagner (not from traditional gaming) ambition was enormous from day one • 2021 2022 - hype NFT ships generate millions team scales aggressively → ~235 people at peak • 2022 - shock FTX collapse hits hard ~$15.5M lost from treasury, plus other major damage from the same period • 2023 - reality multi-million monthly burn AAA scope proved too heavy to sustain → layoffs ~120 people cut (~73%) → team goes from ~167 → ~45 • 2023 2024 - pivot focus shifts to survival + shipping SAGE (on-chain gameplay) mobile app economy first at times in October 2023, it reached ~15% of Solana daily transactions • 2025 today - rebuild SAGE Labs stays live Holosim adds another playable layer the product becomes more real, even if slower than the original dream • ahead - direction C4 and Zink now look like the next big steps focus is on cheaper gameplay, deeper systems, and the next major releases building games is hard building AAA games is harder building them on-chain is a different level entirely many would have walked away credit to Star Atlas for still being here, still building, and doing it the right way hopefully the future of Solana gaming is built by teams like this 🎮