Open Netquel and you're a dot in dark space, surrounded by lazy asteroids and the faint hum of other players doing the same thing somewhere just over the visible edge. Hover the mouse to stop. Drift it to move. Mine a rock, sprout another module, and suddenly your little ship is a small fleet trailing behind you like ducklings with laser cannons. Then someone bigger shows up and turns those ducklings into confetti.
Netquel is part of Softbear's ongoing experiment in shipping real-time multiplayer browser games entirely in Rust, compiled to WebAssembly, drawing through WebGL with effectively no JavaScript on the hot path. The result is a game loop that feels suspiciously close to native, on a tab you can close in one keystroke.
The best way in is to play one round, watch the netcode carry your fleet through a real fight without a hiccup, then go read how a two-person studio keeps shipping polished multiplayer in a stack most teams wouldn't touch.
