Old Stars

Grand-strategy space 4X - the scale of a galaxy, the length of an evening. Old Stars runs in hours, not weeks. It's a real-time 4X built for a single satisfying evening - explore, expand, exploit and exterminate at a pace that respects your time, then spin up a brand-new galaxy tomorrow. All the depth of the genre, none of the 60-hour commitment. Forget endless attrition. Take rival systems the way empires really fall - march your fleets down the hyperlanes, besiege a world, and break it. Conquest is decisive and readable, closer to than to the genre's usual stalemates. Your government isn't a stat sheet - it's a set of abilities that bend the galaxy's rules. Peacekeepers freeze enemy fleets the instant they enter their space. Isolationists sever hyperlanes to wall off their borders. Silent states field cloaked fleets and hide entire colonies until first contact comes far too late. Pick a government and the whole galaxy plays differently. Every colony is a hex-tile world you shape tile by tile - place buildings, unlock jobs, and grow your pops into a productive engine. Early choices compound. One well-built world can decide a war. At the heart of the galaxy waits a supermassive black hole. Push to the galactic centre, claim it, and win - a victory condition all its own, standing alongside conquest and score. And you are never the only empire racing there. Tune everything: galaxy size up to 1,000 stars, game pace from a quick skirmish to a long campaign, and an optional 3X mode that switches diplomacy off entirely for a pure explore-expand-exterminate run. Steam Workshop support for icons, empire presets, events and UI themes - all data-driven, no recompiling required. Make the galaxy yours, then share it. Native on Windows, Linux and macOS, with single-player and multiplayer across platforms.