afterlightSPACE COMMONS
SHARED SPACE / EXPERIMENT 001

Cinder
Belt.

Four captains. One energy field.
Choose how much to extract.

Drag to orbit. Select an object to explore.
SECTOR 07 / CINDER BELT

Cinder

Loading world
1 of your ships in orbitRound 1
Scroll the page to explore the model ↓
FIELD CHARGEBetween rounds
78%
Abundant780 / 1,000 charge units

All four captains draw from this field.

Start 78%→Recharge 82.5%→After fleets 76.6%
The field is still playable.

The 3D view is unavailable on this device. Fleet choices, forecasts and activity work as usual.

Round 1 of 8

Choose your fleet

The other 3 captains are sending 4 ships.

Choose the ships to send. Each option shows your net points this round.
You earn+9.7 points
Field next round78% → 76.6%

Preview your choice, then launch.

THE GAME THEORY

Individual payoff.
Shared resource.

You keep the points you earn. Every ship reduces the stock that all four captains rely on next round.

ROUND 1 · LIVE FORECAST

Extraction exceeds recharge

The field recharges, then all fleets harvest.

Your fleet 11.7Other captains 46.8charge units
Recharge+44.6
−
All extraction58.5
=
Field change−13.9
Your total score 0 points
8-round simulation0 / 8

Compare your final score and the remaining field charge.

THE 30-SECOND VERSION

Take energy.
Leave enough for later.

You and three other captains share one field. You choose how many ships to send each round.

  1. 01

    Choose 0, 1 or 3 ships

    More ships collect more energy. Each ship costs 2 game points; resting costs nothing.

  2. 02

    Recharge, then extract

    The charge rises as the field replenishes. Then all fleets take energy, so it falls. Your launch does not create the recharge.

  3. 03

    Keep your net points. Play again.

    Your energy collected minus ship costs is your score. A lower field means less energy per ship next round.

YOUR SELECTED ROUND · EXACT FORECAST

Why is this game theory?

You receive the benefit of your own extraction. Everyone shares its effect on future catches. In Fish Banks, that resource is fish; here, it is the field’s collectible energy.

This demo has eight rounds and three scripted captains. Full fleets currently give the highest personal score; conservation is visible, but not rewarded with a bonus yet.

MISSION ACTIVITY

Every fleet. Every round.

Follow the shared field and all four captains in this expedition.

You + 3 simulated captains0 rounds completed

Saved on this device when browser storage is available. Starting over clears the expedition. The other captains are simulated.

EXPLORE THE RULES

Less charge.
Smaller catches.

Try a starting charge below. This example sends one of your ships and eight rival ships, using the demo’s final-round rules.

78%
You collect
After 2-point cost
Next charge

This explorer does not change your expedition. The normal eight-round demo stays above 53% charge, even with full fleets every round.

What happens at zero?

Recharge depends on the remaining stock. At exactly zero, growth and catches are zero. Sending ships still costs points. There is no automatic rescue in the current model.

A simple rule for a future scarcity mode

We could pause extraction below 20% and resume at 35%. If a field reaches zero, end that season and seed a new one. These are proposed game rules and tuning values, not findings from the research or active rules in this demo.

SOURCES & LIMITS

The common-pool
resource dilemma

A renewable stock supports competing harvesters. Private returns today depend on a resource that their combined actions change over time.

01 / SYSTEM DYNAMICS

Building the Fish Banks Model and Renewable Resource Depletion

Joseph G. Whelan, compiler · MIT System Dynamics in Education Project · 1994; Vensim additions 2001

This teaching paper builds a fishery model and a one-player fishing simulation, connecting fish populations, harvesting, fleet investment and financial outcomes. It supports learning about feedback and resource depletion through simulation and policy experiments.

The original Fish Banks Ltd. game was developed by Dennis Meadows at the University of New Hampshire. The MIT paper is a teaching resource; AFTERLIGHT is an independent adaptation.

Read the MIT teaching paper ↗
02 / COMMUNICATION & COOPERATION

Covenants With and Without a Sword: Self-Enforcement Is Possible

Elinor Ostrom, James Walker & Roy Gardner · 1991 conference paper

The experiments compare communication and sanctioning conditions in a common-pool resource setting. Repeated communication improved joint outcomes; a single conversation produced mixed, less durable results. Information about individual choices alone did not improve yields in the reported baseline.

This motivates testing player agreements. It does not establish that a one-click pact, an activity feed or a token reward will produce cooperation here.

Read the institutional conference paper ↗
AFTERLIGHT’s adaptation and exact rules

We use one fictional energy field, eight rounds, three fleet choices and three scripted rivals. Our numerical values and simplified equations are original game parameters, not a reproduction of the MIT model. They do not model astrophysics or validate a token economy.

growth = 0.26 × stock × (1 − stock / 1,000)
harvest = min(70% × (stock + growth),
15 × all ships × starting stock / 1,000)
your score += your harvest − 2 × your ships

Recharge is applied before extraction. Catch rate uses the starting stock. Other ships by round: 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8. You choose 0, 1 or 3 ships.

In this eight-round version, full fleets maximize individual score and the charge stays above 53%. It illustrates a shared-resource tradeoff, but does not yet make conservation personally optimal or reproduce fishery collapse.

TOKENS & REWARDS

Play the game.
Know what you earn.

✓
No tokens needed to play this demo.

Ships cost game points, deducted from your catch. No deposit or wallet is needed.

YOUR EXPEDITION SCORE0.0 points

Nontradable points. No cash value or token redemption.

A proposed reward loop

Play a season→Build your score→Earn rewards

Cosmetic ship trails, callsigns and season badges could reward progress. For token seasons, publish a fixed, funded prize pool before play starts. Harvesting would never mint market tokens.

DESIGN PROPOSAL · NOT ACTIVE

Split a season pool between personal performance and a shared field-health bonus. For example, a bonus could require finishing above 60% charge. The split, qualification rules and threshold still need balancing; there are no promised payouts.

Get tokens

The planned launch is on pump.fun, with game rules in AFTERLIGHT. The proposed design keeps basic play free. Token-gated seasons, if added, should show their entry requirement and funded prizes before anyone buys.

PLANNED MARKETpump.fun / Solana

Mint address not announced

Available after a token launch and verified market link. There is no AFTERLIGHT token to buy from this preview.

Game points, prize tokens and the token’s market price are separate. Buying tokens would not guarantee a reward or return.