BitCraft Open Sourcing - Phase 1 Announced!

Last year, we shared our intention to open source BitCraft’s code. At the time, we focused on the why. Why we believe open source can make the MMO genre more accessible, why BitCraft itself will benefit from transparency and collaboration, and why giving back to the open source ecosystem matters to us.

If you have not read that original announcement yet, we recommend starting there. It lays out the philosophy and long term thinking behind this decision, which has not changed.

Since that post, BitCraft has entered Early Access and for the past six months our primary focus has been on shipping the game, stabilizing it, and supporting a growing live community. With that foundation now in place, we are ready to move forward on the next step.

Phase 1 is coming next week

Phase 1 of BitCraft’s open source rollout will be released next week on January 21, 2026. It will be available at https://github.com/clockworklabs/BitCraftPublic once it is made public.

This is the first phase of a multi-phase plan to ultimately open source the entirety of BitCraft’s codebase. We are committed to seeing this through, and Phase 1 is an important and substantial step in that direction.

What Phase 1 includes

Phase 1 consists of the entire BitCraft server module sub repository.

This repository represents virtually all of the game’s core logic. In practice, this is everything that runs inside SpacetimeDB, including both the global and region modules, which together allow BitCraft to scale its worldsize indefinitely. For those unfamiliar, SpacetimeDB is the backend solution we developed to power BitCraft.

With this code, developers will be able to explore how BitCraft’s world simulation works, how its systems interact, and how a large scale sandbox MMORPG can be built in a way that is extensible and capable of scaling to tens or even hundreds of thousands of players using SpacetimeDB.

While this does not include the client, it does provide a complete view into how the game actually functions at a systemic level.

Why the client is not included yet

At this stage, we are only open sourcing the server module due to a combination of licensing and technical constraints on the client side.

The BitCraft client includes assets, shaders, and tooling that we do not currently have the rights to open source. While virtually all of the art and code in the game today is our own work, there are still remnants in the project from early prototyping phases where we relied on third party assets. Untangling, replacing, and properly sandboxing these pieces takes time and care.

We want to do this correctly, rather than rush out a partial or messy client release. This is not a question of willingness, but of making sure that when we do release the client, it is clean, legally sound, and useful to the community.

What comes next

Phase 2 will focus on open sourcing the server sidecar services that support the main server module. This includes systems such as the Relay server (facilitates communication between the modules), Mob Manager (responsible for AI entity behavior control), Map server (generates and serves the images of the map), and related services that sit alongside the core game logic.

Our current expectation is to release Phase 2 within roughly six months of this Phase 1 release. Beyond that, additional phases will follow as we continue working toward fully open sourcing BitCraft’s codebase. We expect there to be around 3-4 Phases total. While we do not want to lock ourselves into exact dates too far out, this is an active and ongoing effort.

What you can and cannot do

As discussed in our original announcement, open sourcing BitCraft does not mean there are no restrictions at all. To avoid any confusion, here is a clear summary.

You can:

• Read and study the code to better understand how the game works
• Modify and experiment with the code locally
• Run your own version of server modules for testing or experimentation
• Use it as a reference for building your own projects
• Make (and sell) a game similar to BitCraft with your own IP (art and themes) using our code as a basis

You cannot:

• Use BitCraft’s art, game content, music, or other protected assets
• Use BitCraft’s IP or present forks as official
• Share information about any discovered exploits in the game with anyone other than us
• Operate official, unofficial, private or any otherwise competing BitCraft servers
• Do anything that violates the open source license

At this time, the game’s assets and IP remain protected, and all forms of playable BitCraft servers will continue to be operated by us.

Contributions and expectations

We want to be very clear about how we view contributions at this stage.

The primary purpose of open sourcing BitCraft right now is to share the code with the community. This is about transparency, learning, and exploration. We are not attempting to crowd source development of the game, nor are we shifting BitCraft into a community run open source project.

What we do welcome are reports of serious bugs, security issues, or unintended gameplay behaviors that could meaningfully impact the live game. These kinds of findings are extremely valuable to us. In the case of discovery of an exploit, we ask that it be reported privately rather than a public github issue or pull request so that we can fix it promptly without impacting the live game.

We are not looking for pull requests focused on refactors, new features, or minor performance improvements. In most cases, any suggested fixes will be reviewed and then implemented internally by our team. This allows us to maintain a stable development process and avoid both accidental disruption and the risk of malicious changes hidden in otherwise helpful looking contributions.

BitCraft will be open sourced, but it will continue to be developed and directed by our team.

Looking ahead

This is a meaningful milestone for BitCraft and for us as a studio. Very few commercial MMORPGs have ever taken this step, and we are excited to finally put this code into the hands of the community. We believe, with this resource, the ability for others to try their hand at making an MMORPG on SpacetimeDB will become even more accessible!

We are looking forward to seeing what developers learn from it, and what you might create from it. Open sourcing BitCraft is part of a broader vision for the game’s future, and 2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year with more major announcements still to come.

Thank you to everyone who has supported BitCraft so far, whether by playing, building, sharing, or simply following along.

We will share more details and links when Phase 1 goes live next week.

Minch, Alessandro, and the BitCraft Team

⭐️Explore and build in the world of Starfell ⭐️Start your journey and play BitCraft Online today! ⭐️