r/PBBG

I'm working on a browser RPG. It's my first time making a game, so I'm curious what other devs here track besides logins and player counts.

Retention is something I'd like to understand better. Do you check how many new players come back the next day, a week later, etc.? Do you look at what they actually did before they stopped playing?

Say a bunch of people reach level 10 and then disappear. I'd like to know whether they hit a boring grind or got stuck on something, rather than just seeing the player count drop and guessing.

Also thinking about crafting recipes nobody uses, everyone farming the same resource because the alternatives aren't worth it, or gold piling up because there's nothing to spend it on.

I could probably spend ages tracking stuff and then never look at half of it. What do you actually check regularly? Any examples where the numbers surprised you and made you change something in your game?

What are some of your favorite old-school browser games from the early to mid 2000s?

I used to play a bunch of them. My favorites were:

• Scherbenwelten
• Yohoho
• Music RPG

I really wish Yohoho still existed. It was a pirate game and I remember having a lot of fun with it.

Music RPG was kind of weird, but weird in a fun way. You had to build up your music career, form a band, record music and organize gigs.

And Scherbenwelten was the big one for me. I played it for around 10 years until it shut down in 2015.

I’m actually rebuilding that one at the moment, and it’s already pretty far along, but that’s probably a story for another post.

What did you guys play back then?

I was using reddit ads for a while and found them to be poor for signups and my register page is quite appealing so this did surprise me

- Do you use all the recommended settings google suggests such as auto adding and dropping keywords? what settings work best for you?
- Have you used reddit ads and google ads and do you think I will have more success with google?

So far it is giving a much more professional feel for myself

Additionally any feedback on the register page attached and what you would change / don't like might help me improve it - I did recently, this week, make a few change to it but happy to listen to all suggestions!

https://warfare.cz/register

Hey everyone. I’m a game engineer by trade, and I originally started Wayward Sun back in 2021 as an Unreal project.

Over time I realized the game I actually wanted to make was better suited to the browser: a persistent, systems-heavy space game you can check in on throughout the day instead of needing to sit down for hours at a time.

It’s inspired by EVE Online, RuneScape, Melvor Idle, and Star Citizen. The focus is on long-term progression, ships and fitting, crew, industry, exploration, combat, markets, and theorycrafting.

The main reason I built it is pretty simple: I love deep games, but I no longer had MMO amounts of time to play them. Now that the kids are older I am able to spend more time making the game I wish I had.

The current version is now in early beta and I’m looking for a small first group of players. I’m starting with 25 beta keys because I want to work closely with those people while I’m still focused on balance, usability, and polish. I'm hoping we can work together to make something really fun.

I also just finished an interactive Your First Steps guide that recreates the opening loop — mining, refining, selling your ore, fitting a salvage beam, and heading out to salvage — without requiring an account:

https://waywardsun.app/guide/

The guide is a simplified recreation of the current opening tutorial, so a few details may differ from the live game.

If it looks like your kind of game, you can join the beta Discord here:

https://discord.gg/2eYSmJGdbZ

You can request a key there. If the first 25 are gone, the bot will automatically add you to the waitlist.

I’m especially interested in players who enjoy deep systems, optimization, and theorycrafting, but don’t necessarily have hours every day to play.

Small transparency note: some of the current artwork is AI-generated placeholder art. My intention is to replace it with commissioned artwork as the project grows and I can afford an artist.

I've been working on Monster Foundry, a multiplayer browser RPG built around one simple idea: an RPG you can actually enjoy at your own pace.

No downloads. No gaming PC. No need to spend three hours preparing for a raid.

Just open your browser and play.

Monster Foundry combines a lot of the RPG mechanics I personally love: exploring, fighting monsters, collecting loot, leveling skills, crafting, gathering resources, farming, upgrading gear and building up your character over time.

There's also a multiplayer side to it. You share the world with other players, trade through the player economy, compete on leaderboards and interact with other adventurers — while still being able to play completely at your own pace.

I'm trying to capture some of the charm of the old-school browser and text-based RPGs, but with a much more modern interface and more visual gameplay.

The goal isn't to make another MMO that demands your entire evening.

Play for five minutes. Play for two hours. Make some progress either way.

It's still in development and I'm very interested in hearing what RPG/MMO players think of the concept.

Would you play a browser RPG like this?