// SPACE.COM — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
'OGame' developers explain how the browser-based sci-fi game has lasted 24 years ahead of the huge Orion update
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
If you were on the Internet in the early 2000s looking for free browser games to play, OGame was a blooming sci-fi strategy sensation that couldn't be ignored. With online servers providing the structure for a living and evolving universe where players fought, traded, and created empires from scratch, its limited visual presentation was no issue.
Times have changed, but GameForge hasn't gone anywhere. OGame has been ported to mobile devices, and content updates have kept it alive and fresh for much longer than a plethora of installable MMO games.
With the Orion update, which will hit the newly launched universes (servers) on November 6, OGame is introducing conflicts against non-player-character (NPC) enemies, wave-based battles, co-op missions, and completely new systems that can also be disrupted by other players.
The game's endurance and such a major reinvention are stunning achievements, so we asked GameForge's Martin Liedtke (Director, Products of Browser Games) and Enrico Mareth (Senior Project Manager for OGame PC and Mobile) about the many challenges of working on OGame alongside the community for so long, what Orion is bringing to the table, and what's next for this worldwide phenomenon.
Some quotes have been editorialized and lightly trimmed for better flow.
"OGame has an enduring core: You build an interstellar empire, and your decisions matter... Keeping it fresh means adding meaningful choices to that foundation," said Liedtke. "Orion adds missions against automated opponents (PvE) alongside missions open to other players (PvP)... It supports different appetites for risk."
The GameForge veteran noted, however, that it's the community that "supplies another kind of freshness" after the studio releases the new content. "We develop the systems; players create much of the history."
Part of this approach is keeping tabs on how very different kinds of players approach what's available. "Some commanders concentrate on their economy; others enjoy expeditions or carefully coordinated fleet operations... Orion follows that approach; more experienced players can dig into fleet composition, progression, and cooperation. The aim is to offer worthwhile choices."
Liedtke also noted that "OGame's PvP has become a sophisticated contest of information and coordination" over time. Some players like to scout targets and organize combined attacks when enemy fleets are vulnerable. Those battles resolve automatically, but it's the planning that "can be remarkably intricate," especially after so many years of updates.