mai-digital

VORHALT

no respawn.

A multiplayer shooter with nothing to sell you.

Every weapon and every model, for everyone, from the first minute. No crates, no tiers, no subscription. You pick a server from a list — the way it used to be.

Early development What you see here is a glimpse of what is to come — not the finished game. The graphics are placeholders, and there is a long way still to go.

The map “station” from above: petrol station with canopy, shop and workshop, vehicles, a tanker, a container and four figures at the spawn.
Today Map “station” — a petrol station on the arterial road, built mirrored so both sides have the same distance to cover. The layout is there; the looks are a long way off.
The game

Rounds, not respawns

VORHALT is a round-based multiplayer shooter of the kind that existed at the start of the 2000s: two teams, one life per round. Die and you are out until the round ends, watching. That makes every corner matter and every mistake expensive — and it is why two minutes of one round can beat a whole evening of endless respawning.

Before every round you buy your gear with money from the last one. Modes: plant or defuse the bomb, rescue hostages, escort a VIP, or break out. If players are missing, bots fill in — at four levels, from forgiving to nasty.

Modes
4

Bomb, hostages, escort, escape

Maps
5

Petrol station by day and by night, market, basin, proving ground

Weapons
35

in five classes, plus knife and grenades

Factions
8

four units, four invented groups, four models each

Weather
24

six kinds times four times of day — looks only, never an edge

Props
539

as lines of text, many of them destructible

All of this exists in a first version. Much of it will be rebuilt, some of it will go again.

Pictures

An early look

Captures from the current development build, not retouched. The graphics are deliberately basic: blocks instead of finished models, computed surfaces, figures made of boxes. The game has to be right first — netcode, hits, rounds, balance. The looks come after that.

So the pictures show where this is heading and how the maps are built — not what VORHALT will look like in the end.

The same petrol station at night in the rain, street lamps on, shop closed.
“stationrain” — the same site at night in the rain, with a different layout: the shop is shut, the way in is round the back.
Under the petrol station canopy: pumps, a tanker behind, the workshop's roller doors on the right.
Under the canopy: eight pumps as cover, the workshop's roller doors on the right.
The map “market” in the morning: houses with red roofs, a car park, trees and market stalls.
“market” in the morning — houses, car park, market stalls.
The map “basin” on an overcast evening: walls, lorries and containers between two bomb sites.
“basin” on an overcast evening — lorries, containers, two bomb sites.
First-person view with display: round clock at the top, health and armour bars bottom left, ammunition bottom right.
The in-game display: clock and score at the top, health and armour as bars, magazine bottom right. Nothing else.
Line-up of the units: four rows of four figures; the vest shows the side, clothing and headgear tell the models apart.
Four units with four models each. The vest shows the side; clothing and headgear make the silhouette.
The main menu: emblem and wordmark VORHALT with “no respawn”, below it Play, Settings, Controls and Quit.
The main menu with its emblem and a stencil typeface of its own. The game itself is in English.
Status

What is — and what is still to come

VORHALT is at an early stage. The framework stands, and a round can be played in a small circle. Turning that into a game you could recommend to someone is still a lot of work.

There is no release date and no pre-order. Instead of deadlines there are stages, and one only counts as done once a test rig proves it — not when it feels finished.

  1. in place

    Foundation

    Server and client from one source. Movement is computed on the server and predicted on the client; hits are rewound to the moment the shooter actually saw. Enemies behind walls are never sent in the first place.

  2. in place

    Playing a round

    Freeze time, buy phase, round clock, side swap. Four modes, five weapon slots, crouching, aiming down sights, grenades. Bots that buy gear and pursue their objective. Menus, display, rebindable keys.

  3. first version

    The world

    Five maps, weather and time of day, lights inside the buildings. Props that splinter, topple or burn. Animals living on the map. Invented brands on signs and billboards. All there — but all still rough.

  4. first version

    Ready to hand on

    One run builds Windows, Mac and Linux, plus a server program for each system: one file, no window, no extra packages. Maps, props and animals ship as text files — build your own if you like.

  5. in progress

    Testing together

    First rounds with test partners over the internet. Plus the polish you only notice there: leaner packets, smoother corrections, bots that find their way across the map instead of walking straight ahead.

  6. open

    The real look

    The biggest job. Proper models instead of blocks, figures that move, weapons with weight, surfaces with character, sound with depth. Today's shapes are placeholders: they show where something stands and how big it is.

  7. open

    Polishing the game

    Balancing weapons, prices and maps until a round feels right. That takes many evenings with real people — no calculation replaces it.

  8. open

    Open to everyone

    The public server list, finding servers on your own network, a lean access service. Then the game can be downloaded here — free at first.

  9. later

    One price, once

    Once the servers are full, VORHALT will cost money once. No subscription, no shop inside the game.

Engine
Godot 4
Systems
Windows, Linux, Mac
Distribution
Direct, no store
Price
Free first, one-off later
The name

Don't aim where he is

„Vorhalt“ is the German word for leading a moving target: you don't aim at where the other player is standing, you aim at where he is about to be. The bullet needs time, the enemy doesn't wait — get that feel and you hit. Aim behind him and you hit the wall.

Plate A Leading a moving target
Diagram: the shooter aims ahead of the running target; bullet and target meet at the same point. 0 m 10 20 30 40 YOU travels 0.32 s he is here you aim here
The bullet is in the air while the enemy keeps running. Both arrive where the crosshair already sits — not where the figure can be seen right now.
The skill

The edge is learnable, not purchasable

Under sustained fire every weapon climbs along a fixed pattern. Fixed means: the same for you as for everyone else, the same every round, the same after every update. Learn the pattern, pull against it, and you land your shots at thirty metres. It is the only advantage this game lets you build — and no shop sells it.

Plate B Recoil pattern, 30 rounds Example
Diagram: the impacts of sustained fire follow a fixed, repeatable pattern. 1 8 14 21 30 ≈ 25 cm at 20 m Pattern: fixed Spread: none Randomness: none → learnable
No dice roll decides where the eighth shot goes. The same pattern, every time — which is exactly what makes it trainable.
Equal terms

Everyone starts with the same thing

Nothing in this game makes you stronger because you bought it, unlocked it or pulled it from a crate. Weapons and models are open to everyone from the first launch. What is left to tell players apart is what they can actually do.

What there isn't

  • Loot boxes and crates
  • Battle pass and unlock tiers
  • Subscription or season fee
  • Paid advantages in a firefight
  • Daily quests, streaks, login rewards
  • A matchmaking queue
  • Advertising IDs, behavioural profiling, data resale

What there is

  • Every weapon and every model, from the first minute
  • A server list with ping and map
  • Your own servers, basement ones included
  • Mods and your own maps
  • Fixed, learnable recoil patterns
  • An account, purely so you can join a server
  • Later a price. Once, not monthly.
The servers

No matchmaking. A list.

No system decides for you who you play against tonight. You see a list, you see the ping, you join the server where the people you know are. A regular haunt instead of an assignment.

Anyone who wants to run one needs no permission: the server is a single file for Windows, Linux or Mac, with no window and no extra packages, and runs on any rented machine. An operator may even switch the access check off — those servers simply don't show up in the public list.

Plate C Server list Draft
Server Map Players Ping Check
Feierabend Stuttgart #1station14/2011on
LAN-Keller Ostfildernmarket9/168on
Nachtschicht 24/7stationrain20/2024on
Werkstatt — nur Freundebasin3/1231off
Übungsserver Vorhaltproving2/1014on
This is what choosing looks like: names somebody thought up, maps somebody built, and a ping you can judge for yourself. The list itself is still being built.
Who for

For everyone who had this once

It is meant for people around thirty to forty who lived through all of it once already: the server list, the regular server, the same names every evening, and a game that was finished on the day you bought it.

And just as much for younger players who don't want to slide into subscriptions, be measured, or be kept busy by mechanics whose real job is holding on to them. You don't have to be forty for that. Being fed up is enough.

Why

Why I am building this

I wanted to know whether I could. Mai Digital is my after-hours project; so far that meant browser games. A multiplayer shooter is another matter entirely: net code, prediction, lag compensation, running servers, an access service of my own. That is the part that appeals to me.

The other part: I wanted a game whose programs and servers belong to me. Not to the platform it happens to sit on, and not to a rulebook that looks different next year. If that means it takes longer — fine.

Steffen Mai, mai-digital