VINDICATOR

Wake up. The gates are dark. Fold anyway.

Follow development Codex Design notes

What is it

Explore / Fold

Jump gate to gate through a system that's collapsing behind you.

Fight / Modules

Build your ship module by module — every weapon has its own signature.

Economy

Every fold has a price — track the cost live.

Manual & notes

Codex

The player-facing in-game manual — what the systems are, written for the pilot in the seat. Articles unlock through discovery; the site mirror is always fully open.

Open codex

Design notes

Curated systems design docs — the WHY behind economy, fleet, combat, and production art language. Story spoilers stay offline.

Open design

Living sources — the codex ships in the game PCK; design notes are curated from the repo. Site pages regenerate when those files move.

Devlog

What landed 2026-07-16 → 2026-07-25, by area.

Art & Worldbuilding

07-17 → 07-25

Nine races, one visual language each — hulls, stations, and cities settled in a full taste pass.
First complete ship-and-station catalog rendered for every race; the Kithar picked their hull from a four-way sheet — the scarab won.
Homeworlds now read from orbit: per-race terrain shaders with coast-following pinpoint city lights.
Black hole rebuilt with gravitational lensing and doppler shading; the fold reads as suction instead of a whirlpool.

Teralith capital city: black stepped ziggurats flanking a gold processional boulevard — Teralith capital — ziggurats on a gold processional

Kithar scarab hull: iridescent green-gold beetle carapace with a single glowing eye — Kithar hull — the winning scarab carapace

Gorrath city: shingled stilt halls over dark fodder pits — Gorrath — stilt halls

Teralith city: dark pyramid masses along a gold avenue — Teralith — processional city

Trine city: pale nacre bubble domes on a dark sea, lit coral from within — Trine — nacre domes on the sea

Trine ship and station catalog: white machined rings around coral-lit water cores — Trine catalog — nacre rings, coral-lit water cores · scroll →

Teralith ship and station catalog: navy faceted plate with matte gold chevrons — Teralith catalog — navy plate, matte gold chevrons

Ancient ship and station catalog: slate wedge hulls with a cyan centreline, including the Vindicator — Ancient catalog — including the Vindicator itself

Combat

07-19 → 07-22

Heavy Railgun readability: the tracer wake now drags behind the round; an Overcharged variant joins the family.
Energy weapons share one capacitor per weapon family, and a weapon can be authored to wind up before it fires.
A closing doctrine can boost into reach of a retreating gun.

Economy & Stations

07-19 → 07-25

Mining stations you own: place one on a belt, it fills a hold with ore — haul it to market and watch the economy move.
Stations burn Power Cells to stay lit, and can be emptied but never destroyed.
Danger maps to richness in every belt; remote market data sits behind subscription tiers; haulers keep their cargo through gates.

Fleet & Command

07-19 → 07-25

Crew & officers: a slot ladder and three officer types with real effects, run from the dock's FLEET screen — recruits fly hauler and trader routes themselves.
Shift+click and Tab select flights; dock and hail collapse into one interact verb; F9 opens a perfect-scanner inspector.

Universe & Travel

07-21 → 07-25

Every race got an authored home system — starting with Ennead, the Trine ocean home — and the territory-holders now field their own factions.
Six new planet types, survey designations for unnamed bodies, and The Verge: a frontier system built around the mining loop.

Interface & Sound

07-16 → 07-22

Map selection panel and pause menu rebuilt as proper scenes; codex articles now unlock through discovery.
Weapon SFX rebuilt from sourced samples, plus two new retro tracker tracks.