Server Survival is an interactive 3D simulation game where you play as a Cloud Architect. Your mission is to build and scale a resilient cloud infrastructure to handle increasing traffic loads while fighting off DDoS attacks, managing your budget, and keeping your services healthy.
Survive as long as possible! Manage your Budget ($), Reputation (%), and Service Health.
- Earn Money by successfully processing legitimate traffic requests.
- Lose Reputation if requests fail or if malicious traffic slips through.
- Maintain Health - Services degrade under load and need repairs.
- Game Over if Reputation hits 0% or you go bankrupt ($-1000).
| Traffic | Color | Destination | Reward | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STATIC | Green | S3 Storage | $0.50 | Static file requests (images, CSS, JS) |
| READ | Blue | Database | $0.80 | Database read operations |
| WRITE | Orange | Database | $1.20 | Database write operations |
| UPLOAD | Yellow | S3 Storage | $1.50 | File uploads |
| SEARCH | Cyan | Database | $0.80 | Search queries (CPU intensive) |
| MALICIOUS | Red | WAF (Block) | $0.50 | DDoS/Attack traffic - must be blocked! |
Build your architecture using the toolbar. Each service has a cost, capacity, and upkeep:
| Service | Cost | Capacity | Upkeep | Function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAF | $40 | 30 | Low | Firewall. First line of defense. Blocks malicious traffic. |
| SQS | $35 | Queue:200 | Low | Queue. Buffers requests during spikes. Prevents drops. |
| ALB | $50 | 20 | Medium | Load Balancer. Distributes traffic to multiple instances. |
| Compute | $60 | 4 | High | EC2 Instance. Processes requests. Upgradeable T1→T3. |
| Cache | $60 | 30 | Medium | Redis Cache. Caches responses to reduce DB load. |
| Database | $150 | 8 | Very High | RDS. Destination for READ/WRITE/SEARCH. Upgradeable T1→T3. |
| S3 | $25 | 25 | Low | Storage. Destination for STATIC/UPLOAD traffic. |
| Action | Money | Score | Reputation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static Request | +$0.50 | +3 | +0.1 |
| DB Read | +$0.80 | +5 | +0.1 |
| DB Write | +$1.20 | +8 | +0.1 |
| File Upload | +$1.50 | +10 | +0.1 |
| Search Query | +$0.80 | +5 | +0.1 |
| Attack Blocked | +$0.50 | +10 | - |
| Request Failed | - | -half | -1 |
| Attack Leaked | - | - | -5 |
- Base Upkeep: Each service has per-minute upkeep costs
- Upkeep Scaling: Costs increase 1x to 2x over 10 minutes
- Repair Costs: 15% of service cost to manually repair
- Auto-Repair: +10% upkeep overhead when enabled
The core experience - survive as long as possible against escalating traffic with constant intervention required:
Dynamic Challenges:
- RPS Acceleration - Traffic multiplies at time milestones (×1.3 at 1min → ×4.0 at 10min)
- Random Events - Cost spikes, capacity drops, traffic bursts every 15-45 seconds
- Traffic Shifts - Traffic patterns change every 40 seconds
- DDoS Spikes - 50% malicious traffic waves every 45 seconds
- Service Degradation - Services lose health under load, require repairs
New UI Features:
- Health bars on all services
- Active event indicator bar at top
- Detailed finances panel (income/expenses breakdown)
- Service health panel with repair costs
- Auto-repair toggle
- Game over analysis with tips
A fully customizable testing environment for experimenting with any architecture:
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget | Set any starting budget (slider 0-10K, or type any amount) |
| RPS | Control traffic rate (0 = stopped, or type 100+ for stress tests) |
| Traffic Mix | Adjust all 6 traffic type percentages independently |
| Burst | Spawn instant bursts of specific traffic types |
| Upkeep Toggle | Enable/disable service costs |
| Clear All | Reset all services and restore budget |
No game over in Sandbox - experiment freely!
- Constant Intervention Mechanics - Game requires active management throughout
- Service Health System - Visual health bars, manual/auto repair options
- RPS Milestones - Traffic surge warnings with multiplier display
- Active Event Bar - Shows current random event with countdown timer
- Detailed Finances - Income by request type, expenses by service with counts
- Game Over Analysis - Failure reason, description, and contextual tips
- Retry Same Setup - Restart with same architecture after game over
- Interactive Tutorial - Guided walkthrough for new players
- Left Click: Select tools, place services, and connect nodes.
- Right Click + Drag: Pan the camera.
- ESC: Open main menu and pause game. Press again or click Resume to close menu (stays paused).
- Camera Reset: Press
Rto reset the camera position. - Birds-Eye View: Press
Tto switch between isometric and top-down view. - Hide HUD: Press
Hto toggle UI panels. - Connect Tool: Click two nodes to create a connection (flow direction matters!).
- Valid Flows: Internet -> WAF -> ALB -> SQS -> Compute -> Cache -> (DB/S3)
- Delete Tool: Remove services to recover 50% of the cost.
- Time Controls: Pause, Play (1x), and Fast Forward (3x).
- Block Attacks First: Always place a WAF immediately connected to the Internet. Malicious leaks destroy reputation fast (-5 per leak).
- Watch Service Health: Damaged services have reduced capacity. Click to repair or enable Auto-Repair.
- Scale for Traffic Surges: RPS multiplies at milestones - prepare before ×2.0 at 3 minutes!
- Balance Income vs Upkeep: Start lean, scale as income grows. Over-provisioning leads to bankruptcy.
- Use Cache Wisely: Reduces database load significantly for READ requests.
- Buffer with SQS: Queue helps survive traffic burst events without dropping requests.
- React to Events: Watch the event bar - cost spikes mean hold off on purchases, traffic bursts mean ensure capacity.
- Core: Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+)
- Rendering: Three.js for 3D visualization.
- Styling: Tailwind CSS for the glassmorphism UI.
- Build: No build step required! Just standard HTML/CSS/JS.
- Clone the repository.
- Open
index.htmlin your modern web browser. - Start building your cloud empire!
Join our Discord server to discuss strategies and share your high scores: Join Discord
Core Gameplay Changes
- Game now requires constant intervention - no more "solved state" after a few minutes
- Aggressive RPS scaling with milestone multipliers (×1.3 at 1min → ×4.0 at 10min)
- Random events every 15-45 seconds (Cost Spike, Capacity Drop, Traffic Burst, Service Outage)
- Traffic shifts every 40 seconds with different patterns
- Service degradation under load requiring repairs
Balance Adjustments
- Reduced all reward rates (~40% reduction) for tighter economy
- Reduced service capacities: WAF 100→30, ALB 50→20, S3 100→25
- Reduced reputation penalties: Failed -2→-1, Malicious passed -8→-5
- Added +0.1 reputation gain on successful requests
- Faster DDoS spikes: every 45s (was 90s) with 50% malicious (was 40%)
Service Health System
- Services now have health (0-100%) that decays under load
- Visual health bars appear above damaged services
- Manual repair: Click damaged service (costs 15% of service cost)
- Auto-repair toggle: Heals services at +10% upkeep overhead
- Critical health (below 40%) reduces service capacity
UI Improvements
- Active Event Bar: Shows current event type with countdown timer
- Service Health Panel: Lists all services with health %, repair costs
- Finances Panel: Detailed income/expense tracking by type with counts
- RPS Milestone Display: Shows next traffic surge multiplier and countdown
- Time formatting: h:m:s format for all time displays
- Enhanced intervention warnings with animations and sounds
Quality of Life
- Retry Same Setup: After game over, restart with same architecture
- Game Over Analysis: Shows failure reason, analysis, and 4 contextual tips
- Removed skip tutorial confirm dialog
- Better tooltip with health percentage on services
Built with code and chaos.