The history of SS13
Here's a brief account of the history of Space Station 13. When the path branched, the path that leads to /tg/station is taken.
See List of remakes for a list of remake attempts and games inspired by Space Station 13.
See Codebase History for a timeline of notable commits to the tgstation Github.
2003-2006: The Original SS13
Space Station 13 started as the creation of a person known by the alias Exadv1 in 2003, but not much else is known about them, according to giantbomb.com. It's not like he's a member of the community here or anything like that... ... ...
The first few years the game and game mechanics were kept in extreme secrecy. You could get banned for talking out of character about game mechanics or through other means, which are not in character. The original map (image needed) for Space Station 13 was updated through the years. Generally, the map that predates power and electricity generation is referred to as Originalstation, and all maps after that are referred to as OldStation. Rounds on Space Station 13 were similar to how they are now, eventually ending in the escape shuttle being called. The Player's numbers peaked at 10.
During this period, acquiring server files was a challenging tas. They were distributed as compiled packages (the .dmb and resource files only), with only a select few individuals having access to the original source code. It was also possible to acquire a version with defines, icon files, and the map files. This version allowed you to edit the map, but you had to send the updated map file to someone with the original source, so they could compile it. Never the less, SS13 servers started appearing on byond.com.
After about three years, the popularity (yes, 10 players on a server was considered a popular game) of Space Station 13 started to drop. The few people with the original source files started to lose interest.
2007-2009: The Open-Source Resurrection
A player known as AZA, who had received a compiled version of the game from Exadv1, became involved in some disagreements over the community. In response, AZA proceeded to work with another player, hobnob, to decompile this version and release it. This code was spread around from person to person until someone had the bright idea to start a community called OpenSS13. This was the first open-source version of Space Station 13. This move essentially laid the groundwork for all SS13 variants that would follow. The Something Awful community of "Goons" discovered the game, leading to the creation of several Goon-hosted servers.
In the era from 2007 to 2009, Space Station 13 gained a lot of popularity with communities like Penny Arcade, Goonstation, and OpenSS13 starting to grow. Player numbers reached unbelievable peaks of 18 players! The map everyone played was still Oldstation. Each codebase, however, had its own, slightly edited version. OpenSS13 used the OpenSS13 Oldstation map, while goons used the Goon Oldstation map, the latter of which is now the Derelict. It was during this time that the Goonstation community revised the original SS13 backstory and produced what is now generally accepted as the proper backstory.
In 2009, as Space Station 13 servers were getting up to 25 players at peak time, Goonstation coders and mappers made the biggest advance in years. They created a new, much larger station: Donut Station. As Goonstation was closed source, no other community could use the map, so they stuck with the OpenSS13 version. the popularity of SS13 steadily increased through 2009, eventually leading to the creation of yet another map design in 2010, dubbed Uterus station. The release was accompanied by a rewrite of much of the old Space Station 13 code, much of which was still tainted by fallout from the reverse engineering from years before that.
2010-2016: This is Where /tg/ Comes In
In April 2010, as player numbers on servers were hitting 50, Goonstation decided to release their source under the name Goonstation r4407. This was the latest version of the Goonstation code publicly available for 6 years. After the release of r4407, the flood gates for new servers were open. 4chan spawned /tg/station, Bay12games spawned Baystation, both of which with their own set of coders, spriters and code, based on r4407 of Goon code. The three stations slowly gained player numbers. Goonstation with two servers, /tg/station and Baystation with one server each. The three communities each had their own policies and expectations for players, covering the full spectrum of roleplay.
As player numbers continued to grow, additional communities sprung up: NoX Station, Facepunch, YogStation, /vg/station and others.
2010s:Diversification of SS13 Gameplay
While established codebases like /tg/station and Goonstation continued their development, the 2010s witnessed the significant growth of themed server communities that were diverging heavily from the standard Space Station 13 formula. The first of these servers was Colonial Marines, which remains one of the top servers to this day. Fallout 13 was created to roleplay the Fallout video game series. Civilization 13 also emerged as a departure from the typical format of Space Station 13, instead focusing on long-term worlds where players build civilizations from human history. Despite many of them having nothing to do with space or stations or 13, these servers comprise a significant portion of the SS13 community.
Colonial Marines
One of the first and most prominent variants was Colonial Marines. Drawing heavy inspiration from the "Aliens" film franchise, these servers shifted the gameplay focus from the classic elements of SS13 simulation to a human vs Xenomorphs deathmatch. CM servers typically featured heavily customized codebases with unique mechanics for squad-based combat, the Xenomorph life cycle, atmospheric conditions, and military hierarchy. This specialized gameplay carved out a large and persistent niche within the SS13 community, and CM remains one of the highest player counts of any ss13 server.
2013-2016: /tg/station Transitions
In May 2013, the first transition of website hosting happened in a fairly bad way. The /tg/station forums and wiki were locked with little warning, forcing a scramble to create a new community web site. A large community effort succeeded in the transition of all /tg/station forum and wiki content onto a new site. Unfortunately, however, the old site remained online with no links to the new location. It very quickly fell into disrepair, making visitors think /tg/station was abandoned. Because of this, it took months for /tg/station to return to its former player count.
The new site was only destined to last a year. The explosive growth of /tg/station during this time in both player numbers, administrative team size and developer numbers, as well as the first instances of a "new guard" / "old guard" split, caused tensions in all three groups. Around Easter 2014 this culminated in a series of events, including the creation of a short-lived branch called NT-Station, the forceful removal of head administrators, the forceful removal of head coders and the web host dropping support for the developer community. The turmoil resulted in the creation of a new web site for /tg/station and the conclusion of the first transition of power in the administrative and developer ranks.
2015 and 2016 saw fresh challenges and changes for /tg/. The original server host stepped down from hosting the game server hosting, a new host stepped up and the server became crowdfunded through the community. A second transfer of server hosting went through with very little fanfare a few months after. Player numbers began to push 85+ players per server, the stations are huge and the game saw an explosion of contributions on GitHub from many new developers, as well as some media attention from gaming magazines.
2016: Gooncode Leak
On March 1st of 2016, someone stole the Gooncode and publicly released it - after some deliberation and messages of support from the other codebases, goon decided to make a new public release of their codebase instead of leaving it in a semi legal grey area.
A third server branch of /tg/ was created, using goons code to branch off from the main arm. This went as well as you can expect, the server never picked up a viable player population after the initial honeymoon period, and the server was eventually shut off.
2019-2022: The SsethTide
On Mar 17, 2019, SsethTzeentach made a video on Youtube about SS13 titled Space Station 13 Review | AHELP: Clown Grief Pls Ban He™, which gained millions of views. Additionally, twitch streamers and youtubers have made reactions to the video such as Asmongold and Forsen. This led to a massive influx of players known as known as the Ssethtide. It ultimately increased the popularity of SS13 to about 1000-1800 concurrent players.
2020: The MRP Boom Era
After the SsethTide, the SS13 community experienced a cultural pushback against constant LRP grief and mechanical powergaming. As a result, the Hub saw a massive boom in the popularity of MRP servers, which were seen as accommodating to new and old players alike. Servers like Paradise Station, Fulpstation, and Goonstation's dedicated roleplay servers were massively popularized. /tg/station opened its own MRP server named Manuel, seeking to emulate the success. Featuring an expanded ruleset that required players to act as consistent characters, Manuel slowly developed its own community who would seek to change and improve their new server over time.
2020: Multi-Z
Multiple improvements were made to the Multi-Z system on the tgstation codebase. Two new stations were made featuring multiple z-levels, Tramstation and Icebox Station. This led to the removal of Box Station, a map significant because it had been in rotation since the beginning of the server.
2021: Combat Mode and the Coder-Player Schism
The intents 
system was simplified into just a help and harm toggle with Combat Mode 
, moving grab and disarm to secondary functions. While maintainers argued it streamlined the learning curve, long-time players saw it as dumbing down SS13’s unique identity.
This change became a lasting symbol of the disconnect between the vision of the developers and the experience of the players, fueling the cycle of poor communication and community resentment.
2022: The Curse Is Broken
SS14 was created to be yet another remake of SS13, but this time it was the first to be available on Steam. An entire new engine named Robust Toolbox was developed for the game in the coding language C#, designed to allow other SS13 servers to transition to it and abandon the BYOND engine.
The game and engine had actually been in development since 2017, but 2022 was when it experienced a huge surge in popularity. In November 2022, SS14 had a higher ingame player count than SS13 for the first time. After 2024, the playercount of SS14 usually exceeds SS13 by an average of 500-1000 people, although this does not include SS13 unlisted servers.
It seems that the playerbase of SS13 didn't shift to SS14 as expected of the "sequel"; instead, SS14 drew in a new playerbase. Meanwhile, the SS13 community entered a stranger and more fragmented era.
2023-present: The Narrativizing Fragmentation
The MRP boom of 2020 eventually began to fracture as the large core SS13 gameplay servers began to decline. Paradise Station, Beestation, and even /tg/station suffered a large loss in population. Yogstation shutdown entirely in April of 2025. The exact cause is uncertain, but the DDOS of the BYOND hub for weeks was a significant factor. Some combination of these issues lead to a progressive decline in the LRP US server Sybil and the death of Bagil. With a reduction in overall players we saw large servers become more focused on gaining and maintaining population.
However, the player base didn't disappear. Instead, they decentralized. Forks with unique settings have always existed as a part of the ecosystem, but somewhere around here is when they started to become a dominant force as roleplay-focused players began to migrate away from traditional SS13 MRP servers. Roguetown, which originated as a niche /tg/station fork with fantasy grimdark gameplay inspired by D&D, spawned a dynasty of servers that then comprised arguably the majority of the SS13 player base. This, combined with the growth of dedicated furry and 18+ ERP-focused servers, marked a massive shift in the community. The engine of "Space" Station 13 was evolved past space itself to develop entirely new settings and experiences.
2024: The Wallening
The Wallening was a shift in the art style of /tg/station that introduced tall walls in a 3/4 perspective. It was in progress since 2021, and was merged in an incomplete form on August 14, 2024. However, it was highly controversial, and was ultimately reverted on September 3, 2024 after the problem of "devving on live" became insurmountable. Stress and community outrage generated had a significant impact on the tone of the server and changed how many people thought about the roles of admins and maintainers.
2025-2026: The Host Crisis
In the spring of 2025, the host of /tg/station stepped down to transition powers to the next host, Scriptis. However, due to personal and political fallout between the old host and the admin team midway through the transition process, the server boxes were suddenly shut down, disabling the game servers, the website, and the wiki. This gap in service lead to a drop in players during the weeks-long crisis. The downtime was the final nail in the coffin for the already struggling Bagil and Event servers, which were retired permanently.
This crisis led to the formation of an "operations team", whose job was to manage the community's infrastructure, rather then having that be the sole responsibility of the host. After the situation was resolved, the new host finalized the creation of a 501c3 non-profit organization, the first of any SS13 server, to manage the server's finances. This would legally bind the server's assets and finances to a non-profit board, rather then having that be the sole responsibility of an individual host.