Probetheus · Retrospective

Distance becomes part of the production line.

Probe travel and hub queues make the space network behave like a system with visible bottlenecks.

Development through · Published · Keaton Anderson

Results

Full Chromium test suite green, 218 tests, as recorded in commit d820821 on June 11, 2026.

Actual Probetheus application captured September 13, 2026; replaces the earlier visual direction study.
Actual Probetheus application captured September 13, 2026; replaces the earlier visual direction study.

Travel should cost time

The latest retained June milestone makes probe travel depend on distance. A first-in, first-out intake queue gives arriving work an explicit order.

Together they make network placement and hub congestion part of the same decision.

Let the player set the lesson's pace

The tutorial uses Back and Next controls instead of timed transitions.

Related fixes address three parts of the interface:

  • The time-control layout.
  • Floating labels that showed undefined.
  • Closing the throughput panel.

These are small interface changes with a shared purpose: make the simulation easier to inspect.

Replace the mood board with the game

Jalyper's old card used a visual direction study. The new image, at the top of this page, is a capture of the actual local application.

Concept art: the word PROBETHEUS in thin gold letters over a dark violet void, with New Game, Continue and Settings beneath it, faint gold lines joining scattered points, and one glowing gold probe at lower right.
The mood board this replaced. A generated visual-direction concept, one of three made to choose the art direction, and the image Jalyper's old card used. It is not a capture of the game. Committed to the Probetheus repository June 11, 2026.
The Probetheus start screen: PROBETHEUS in wide white letters, a thin gold rule, the tagline The Network Is The Factory, New Game and Load Game buttons, faint constellation lines on a near-black background, and the note progress saves automatically in the corner.
The game, June 11. The shipped start screen built in that direction, a capture kept in the repository as the style reference. Committed June 11, 2026. Later that day the tagline changed to "Probe the Unknown".

The project remains in development. This retrospective does not claim a new distribution or measured improvements in player retention.

What I learned

A throughput display is useful only when travel and queuing obey understandable rules. The tutorial also needs to wait for the person doing the learning.

Sources & development context

Probetheus commits d820821, dfa80d6 and 7953023; current index.html and game systems. Work date follows June 11 history. Local application screenshot captured September 13, 2026. Figures: docs/design/concepts/direction-C-void-premium.png (the generated concept on the old card) and docs/design/concepts/start-screen-reference.png (a start-screen capture), both committed to the Probetheus repository June 11, 2026.

This retrospective separates the original work date from publication. Historical test results are not claims of a new test run.

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