Open Door
The first thing a new player used to see was a full-screen sign-in wall. Black viewport, centered modal, "SIGN IN TO PLAY" in bold. A small "Play as Guest" link sat underneath, easy to miss. Most people left before they found it.
We watched this happen in our analytics. 66% of players who started a session dropped out within 15 seconds. After fixing an unrelated bug that was firing a philosophy prompt at the 5-second mark, we realized the remaining cliff was the auth wall itself — players came to try a game and got an account creation form instead.
No More Gates
v0.20.0 removes the auth wall entirely. You land on the page, you see the title screen, you click NEW GAME, you're mining asteroids. No account. No modal. No friction.
Sign-in surfaces naturally after meaningful engagement — when you've played for 15 minutes, when you try to save your colony, or when ARIA has something to say that requires a real conversation. The idea is simple: earn the ask. Don't demand credentials before someone knows what they're signing up for.
What This Changes
Returning players who already have accounts get seamless automatic login — no change for them. The difference is entirely for new visitors, who now see the game before they see a form. Early data from the manifesto fix (v0.19.1) already showed 100% 30-second retention for players who got past the wall. The wall was the problem, not the game.