Show HN: Reviving my $15,000 browser arcade with Astra (eggverse.co)

Back in 2021, I put roughly $15,000 into a project called Anbu. The original idea was a decentralized cloud gaming platform, but I scaled it down to what I could afford with no cofounders... a browser arcade where people could play games with friends.

I designed the platform myself in Figma, hand-drew the original art and logos, and commissioned development, pixel art, music, sound effects and some 3D models. That budget got us one game "Egg on the Run", along with game lobbies, friend invitations, chats, and a publishing platform.

The plan was to attract players with the first game, have them bring friends, and eventually bring in other developers to publish their games.

BUTTT it never got that far lol and the first game wasn’t compelling enough to attract much interest, and the cherry on top was the EC2 hosting cost around a fortune. AWS credits covered it initially, but once they ran out I couldn’t justify the expense so I shut it down never thought to see i'd see again.

But then while working on my other startup Sky, I picked it up again as a weekend side project. I still had the original assets, and I wanted to see how much I could do with Astra.

Now I am OBSESSED... EggVerse is now back online with an expanded arcade of 18 multiplayer games and more on the way!

What’s been satisfying is returning to ideas I previously had to cut because I couldn’t afford to develop them. The original artwork and commissioned assets gave me a substantial starting point.

Whether people enjoy it enough to return is still an open question.

You can play at eggverse.co

P.S. I’d suggest starting with Neon Nest (think mariokart) or grab a couple buddies/co-founders/employees and play Bag Egg (think imposter).

I’d be interested to hear what you tried and whether you wanted to play another round. Looking forward to some feedback