---
title: "OreBound"
slug: "Space mining game"
url: "https://haakony.no/posts/Space%20mining%20game"
date: "2026-06-21"
updated: "2026-07-17"
categories: ["development"]
tags: ["app", "game", "development"]
reading_time_minutes: 3
description: "Making small games is so much more funn now"
---

# OreBound

# How Orebound Is Built
Stage - In Development

Orebound is a space mining command game — you manage a mining fleet, refine ore, research upgrades, and fight off waves of enemies as you jump between star systems. It ships on iOS and Android, but the game itself is a web app wrapped in a native shell.

## One codebase, two platforms

The stack is deliberately simple: React 18 and Vite for the app shell, Capacitor to package it for mobile, and plain JavaScript + Canvas 2D for the actual game. There’s no game engine framework — no Unity, no Phaser. The simulation is hand-written.

That choice keeps the project small and fast to iterate on. You develop in the browser (npm run dev), then sync the built bundle into Xcode or Android Studio with Capacitor.

{{< youtube wLBwmz6yb94 >}}


# Development
For this project I am considering using only AI, or as much AI as I can, to make this.
Example: 
Claude for design (gfx)
Cursor for the main programming
Suno for music


## Progress
When the app was sent to Apple for review, they indicated that performance was low, so I went down a rabbit hole of detecting performance issues and reducing elements when performance got bad. I then started implementing PixiJS for GPU acceleration. 
It's incredible how easy it is to just do a complete rewrite of the engine.
It looked like a kid had drawn it afterward, but we got that fixed along the way.


## Interesting Problems
As I test the game, there are immediate things I notice:
1. The game is too easy.
2. There is no point in playing the game more than once.
3. Players don't understand how to play the game.
4. Graphics.
5. Expanding gameplay with "addicting" minigames that might hook some players into watching ads.

1. Tackling the first has become some kind of ultimate challenge, increasing wave numbers and enemy health. I think there is a smarter way of doing this. 
I am considering using machine learning to find what works best, but we will see where we land. 

2. The second problem is that there is no point in playing more than once, so I made an endless mode. Still, there is nothing to gain from playing it more than once. So we need some way of gaining something over time that we can use to upgrade things permanently. 

3. Even though I had a tutorial, players gave up trying to understand things, so I had to rethink the progression and tutorial, and we are going to try a new tactic by hiding and gatekeeping features until later. The campaign will then unlock more and more features as they progress. I also think maybe we will do some kind of minigame to unlock them.

4. Without having 2D graphics and relying on AI to make what I need, it's been a challenge to make graphics that fit, and I even might end up getting some human-built packs of sprites to fit in the game. But for now we are going to press on. 

5. Realizing the fact that people aren't going to spend much time on the main game, I am expanding the game with some minigames. For now I am testing various things and how to fit them into the current systems. 


# updates
After adding a large number of features and minigames i relize i needed a break from this so the rest is on hold. 
The game is out on IOS and Android and can be played. But i will have to work more on this later. 


## Expanded gameplay

![iphone-6.9-5.jpg](https://haakony.no/media/18)

![iphone-6.9-4.jpg](https://haakony.no/media/19)

![iphone-6.9-3.jpg](https://haakony.no/media/20)

![iphone-6.9-1.jpg](https://haakony.no/media/21)

![iphone-6.9-2.jpg](https://haakony.no/media/22)