What happens when a tiny indie studio tries to clone one of gaming's most complex universes? Perpetuum thought they had the perfect plan: copy EVE Online's winning formula, add terraforming, and watch the players flood in. Instead, they created one of gaming's most expensive lessons about why copying success is harder than it looks. In this episode, Michael Stevens breaks down how a $2 million dream became a cautionary tale about ambition, inexperience, and the brutal reality of game development. 🎯 What You'll Learn: • Why Perpetuum's single-server architecture was both genius and fatal • How a team with zero game development experience raised $2 million • The real reason players abandoned ship despite solid terraforming mechanics • What EVE Online actually did right that copycats keep missing 👤 Perfect for: gamers, entrepreneurs, and anyone fascinated by ambitious failures that teach us more than easy wins. 📍 Chapters: [00:00] Michael Stevens introduces gaming's $2M disaster [01:45] The EVE Online clone that sounded foolproof [04:20] How complete beginners raised serious investor money [06:50] Terraforming: the feature that should have changed everything [08:30] Why copying a proven formula still failed spectacularly [11:10] The harsh lessons about complex game development 🔔 Never miss an episode: Follow When Rome Burns on your podcast app and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite disaster story is one tap away. 🔍 Topics: game development, EVE Online, indie gaming, startup failures, MMO history

Stream the full show at When Rome Burns

------ Keywords: byzantine empire, cultural disasters, founding fathers, paper money

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices