Making Risk Feel Real in Flowrate

Flowrate doesn’t have enemies. There’s no combat, no AI ships chasing you, no lasers.

But it’s still deadly.

In Flowrate, the danger is movement itself.

Every Decision Costs Something

Every second you’re moving, you’re burning fuel — and every movement choice comes with tradeoffs:

• Accelerating in space costs a flat 360 tons per second while active

• Even just existing in space drains 10 t/s passively

• Moving around on a planet adds 5–7 t/s

• Hard landings punish you with +15 t/s for the next 20 seconds

• And the kicker: fuel usage increases by 5 t/s every real-time minute, making the game harder the longer you survive

You start with 500 tons of fuel. That sounds like a lot — until you start moving.

Skillful Flight vs Panic Flying

I’m designing the system so better players will fly farther.
If you:

• Glide smoothly into atmospheres

• Avoid unnecessary landings

• Route through low-burn areas like gas clouds

…you’ll last longer. It’s not about twitch skill — it’s about precision and planning.

There’s even an idea I’m playing with where asteroid fields act as space obstacles, forcing you to reroute or slow down to avoid crashing. And if you enter a planet’s atmosphere too fast, you’ll burn extra fuel stabilizing your ship.

It’s Evolving Into a Roguelite

Right now, Flowrate is about surviving as long as possible on a single run.

But I’m planning to make it more than that — eventually adding:

• Procedurally generated universes

• Unlockable modifiers that tweak how fuel or physics behave

• Stat tracking and achievements for each run (planets visited, fuel used, etc.)

• And maybe even light meta-progression or new ship types

Still early, but the core loop is there:
Explore, survive, die, repeat — and get better.

Would you rather fly smooth and slow... or burn fuel fast and gamble on the next planet?

Let me know what you’d want to see in a Flowrate roguelite system.