About MSO Games

Who's behind this

Hi — I'm Erik, the solo developer behind MSO Games. I started this project because the classic Microsoft solitaire and Minesweeper experiences I grew up with have been hollowed out over the years by aggressive monetization, intrusive ads, and a creeping focus on engagement metrics over the games themselves. I wanted to play these games the way they were meant to be played: clean, focused, and with the kind of competitive depth that turns a five-minute coffee break into "wait, how is everyone else doing on this same deal?"

Development happens on Linux, with cross-platform builds for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. The Linux build isn't an afterthought — it's the build I run every day.

What we ship

• MSO FreeCell Arena — Competitive FreeCell with shared deals, per-deal leaderboards, replays of the top finishers, group lobbies, daily challenges, and five difficulty bands.
• MSO Minesweeper Arena — The same competitive model applied to Minesweeper: shared seeds, leaderboards, replays, group lobbies, and a strict solvability guarantee on the lower difficulties.

Both games run natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux (Electron, code-signed and notarized). FreeCell on mobile is currently in Google Play Open Testing and iOS TestFlight; Minesweeper on mobile is next on the list. See the roadmap for what's shipped and what's coming.

How it's built

• Desktop: Electron 38 on Windows (Azure Trusted Signing), macOS (Apple Developer ID + notarization), and Linux (AppImage)
• Mobile: Capacitor — same renderer code as desktop, repackaged for iOS and Android
• Game engine: Pure JavaScript, runs in-process or in your browser for the replay viewer at msogames.com/tv
• Server: Flask + PostgreSQL on DigitalOcean, behind HTTPS

What we promise

The MSO Games brand promise is the inverse of the modern free-to-play playbook:

• No ads. Not banner ads, not interstitials, not rewarded ads, not "watch this video to skip a turn." None.
• No third-party analytics. No Google Analytics, no Firebase Analytics, no Mixpanel, no behavioral SDKs whatsoever.
• No data sold. Your data is yours. See the Privacy Policy for the full details.
• No microtransactions. No cosmetics for sale, no coin packs, no "remove the timer for $0.99."
• No dark patterns. No engagement-bait notifications, no "you haven't played in 3 days!" guilt-trips, no streak-loss anxiety design.

How we'll make money

The plan is straightforward and pledged: $2/month or $15/year, flat, forever. No tiers, no premium edition, no price hikes. Modeled on the Microsoft 365 cadence and the Costco-hotdog brand promise — a fair price, locked in, that we never raise.

The games will always be free to play. A subscription unlocks the social features: persistent server-side scores, leaderboards, rivalries, the Hall of Fame, tournaments, and friend groups. If you want to play the games and never see another player's name, that path remains free, always.

We are currently in open beta across all platforms — everything is free while we polish ahead of production launch.

Contact

• Privacy questions / data requests: [email protected]
• General support / feedback: [email protected]
• Privacy Policy: msogames.com/privacy
• Roadmap: msogames.com/roadmap