Damn! I'm glad to hear the game is getting attention but also feel bad about the server issues haha. If you found an alternative to a hundred bucks I'd definitely chip in but maybe the best thing is to let people host their own games?
yeah, you're on the right path there, but unfortunately Photon PUN 2 (the api i use for networking) doesn't necessarily allow for LAN hosted games out of the box
quote from a forum i found : "PUN does not support hosting the game within some client. You always need a dedicated Photon Server for the clients to connect to. There are various pros for this approach and some cons, of course. It's simply the way Photon works."