DEAD STROKE

Dead Stroke — pool slang for the flow state where you can't miss — is a realistic-physics 8-ball game built around one bet: that the market leader (Miniclip's 8 Ball Pool) leaves a clear gap for a game that's actually fair. That means deterministic, true-to-life ball physics, cosmetic-only monetization where nothing in the simulation or rules may ever read a purchased item, and a server that referees every online shot itself rather than trusting the client. 8-ball only at launch, PC first, then mobile.

The idea that makes the whole thing work is a single engine-independent physics core: a plain C# library with zero Unity dependencies, compiled once and used in three places — the offline client (instant play against a bot), client-side prediction (the shooter sees their shot resolve immediately), and the server referee (which re-runs the same library to validate every online shot). One implementation means no desync by design, built-in anti-cheat, and bot AI almost for free. Around it: a Unity 6 client, a .NET 8 minimal-API backend over WebSockets (pool is turn-based — no UDP netcode needed), Postgres for accounts, ELO, cosmetics and replays, and self-built ELO matchmaking with a labeled bot fallback — the whole backend running on a single small VPS.