Starside Weekly - 10.31.2025
[p]RAPH EXPLAINS VISUAL UPDATES[/p][p]For months now, we have been working on a big overhaul to the visuals in Stars Reach. This has involved redoing most of the shaders in the entire game, and going back and retouching every asset. We started by redoing all the plant life and flora, and we have hundreds of those assets that had to be redone.[/p][p]Further, they all need to grow, change in response to seasons, be able to catch fire and burn, freeze, shed leaves and die, and so on. The right plants grow in the right places based on the temperature and the humidity and the soil types. [/p][p]All that means that every tree you see in the game grew there, and propagates across the landscape just like real plants. Seeds fall and grow into trees, forest fires happen and so on.[/p][p]
More details are here: Raphkoster.com[/p][p]
STARS REACH LAB PRESENTS: BIOMES UPGRADE VIDEO[/p][p]We continue our series on incoming visual upgrades (and in some cases performance upgrades at the same time.) [/p][p]Gorgeous volumetric fog effects, seasonal changes, reactions to frost and fires, multiple biomes, day/night cycles, hydrology changes, and alien species are visually portrayed. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]FULL RESET COMING WITH GOVBOT UPDATE[/p][p]Our next major update is a big one. We will be calling it GovBot Update and it includes the planet ownership feature first revealed in our Kickstarter reward tiers. More details on GovBot Update coming soon. [/p][p]To implement it (and also to evaluate it), we will need to do full character wipes. Character wipes would also break ownership ties to homesteads effectively orphaning the beautiful constructions on Akacala and other planets. The solution is a full wipe.[/p][p]We are telling you this now so you can plan, screenshot, record video, etc.[/p][p]
MMORPG.COM & MASSIVELY OP NOTE NEW GRAPHICS AND RAPH’S BLOG
“Almost unrecognizable” and “major visual improvements”, they said. [/p][p]They reference and quote Raph’s devblog describing the new updates and how they are being added to the game. And MMORPG explains how the biomes are simulations rather than pre-designed settings.[/p][p]
Please read both articles here: mmorpg.com & Massivelyop.com[/p][p] [/p][p]CODE & CRAFT PODCAST INTERVIEWS LIGHT
Code & Craft sat down with Playable Worlds Technical Designer Light Bates to learn more logic and design philosophy behind Stars Reach. They talked about creative problem-solving, building worlds that feel alive, what it really takes to bring vision and engineering together in modern game development, and about Light’s own journey into game development.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
FIRESIDE CHAT - OCTOBER 25[/p][p]If you missed Dave Georgeson and Rick Reynolds’ Fireside Chat on October 25, we have a recording of the livestream. [/p][p]This is the introduction of Vendor Kiosk Update with some of the thinking behind the features in the update. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]We are testing the Vendor Kiosk Update built and new items include the bank in the TPL starbase, homestead crates providing new storage on your homesteads (limit 3 per homestead), and the titular vendor kiosks you can place on your homesteads.[/p][p]As usual, tests are currently running from Thursday morning straight through to Tuesday morning. [/p][p]
PLAYED WITH THE DEVS LIVESTREAM
If you missed Thursday’s Play-with-the-devs livestream, our plan was to show the new bank in the space station, then move to Akacala and tour the local shopping just added this week. We saw the breadth of offerings, the prices, and the organization. Some folks even placed multiple vendor kiosks side-by-side differentiated by the categories of goods for sale within.[/p][p]We then visit a homestead and built a Homestead Crate for storage and then a Vendor Kiosks so you could see the building and [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p] [/p][p]PLAYABLE WORLDS CO-FOUNDER SPEAKING AT GAMESBEAT NEXT
GamesBeat Next runs Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 & 13 in San Francisco.[/p][p]It's a conference for games industry executives and their support services. [/p][p]Playable Worlds President and Co-founder Eric Goldberg is moderating a panel on Games M&A at noon on November 13.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]The full agenda can be seen on the Gamesbeat website.[/p][p]
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE[/p][p]We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:[/p]
You can visit the store here: Stars Reach Merch Store[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]HOW YOU CAN HELP [/p][p]If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]
More details are here: Raphkoster.com[/p][p]
STARS REACH LAB PRESENTS: BIOMES UPGRADE VIDEO[/p][p]We continue our series on incoming visual upgrades (and in some cases performance upgrades at the same time.) [/p][p]Gorgeous volumetric fog effects, seasonal changes, reactions to frost and fires, multiple biomes, day/night cycles, hydrology changes, and alien species are visually portrayed. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]FULL RESET COMING WITH GOVBOT UPDATE[/p][p]Our next major update is a big one. We will be calling it GovBot Update and it includes the planet ownership feature first revealed in our Kickstarter reward tiers. More details on GovBot Update coming soon. [/p][p]To implement it (and also to evaluate it), we will need to do full character wipes. Character wipes would also break ownership ties to homesteads effectively orphaning the beautiful constructions on Akacala and other planets. The solution is a full wipe.[/p][p]We are telling you this now so you can plan, screenshot, record video, etc.[/p][p]
MMORPG.COM & MASSIVELY OP NOTE NEW GRAPHICS AND RAPH’S BLOG
“Almost unrecognizable” and “major visual improvements”, they said. [/p][p]They reference and quote Raph’s devblog describing the new updates and how they are being added to the game. And MMORPG explains how the biomes are simulations rather than pre-designed settings.[/p][p]
Please read both articles here: mmorpg.com & Massivelyop.com[/p][p] [/p][p]CODE & CRAFT PODCAST INTERVIEWS LIGHT
Code & Craft sat down with Playable Worlds Technical Designer Light Bates to learn more logic and design philosophy behind Stars Reach. They talked about creative problem-solving, building worlds that feel alive, what it really takes to bring vision and engineering together in modern game development, and about Light’s own journey into game development.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
FIRESIDE CHAT - OCTOBER 25[/p][p]If you missed Dave Georgeson and Rick Reynolds’ Fireside Chat on October 25, we have a recording of the livestream. [/p][p]This is the introduction of Vendor Kiosk Update with some of the thinking behind the features in the update. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE[/p][p]
PLAYED WITH THE DEVS LIVESTREAM
If you missed Thursday’s Play-with-the-devs livestream, our plan was to show the new bank in the space station, then move to Akacala and tour the local shopping just added this week. We saw the breadth of offerings, the prices, and the organization. Some folks even placed multiple vendor kiosks side-by-side differentiated by the categories of goods for sale within.[/p][p]We then visit a homestead and built a Homestead Crate for storage and then a Vendor Kiosks so you could see the building and [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p] [/p][p]PLAYABLE WORLDS CO-FOUNDER SPEAKING AT GAMESBEAT NEXT
GamesBeat Next runs Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 & 13 in San Francisco.[/p][p]It's a conference for games industry executives and their support services. [/p][p]Playable Worlds President and Co-founder Eric Goldberg is moderating a panel on Games M&A at noon on November 13.[/p][p][/p][p]
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE[/p][p]We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:[/p]
- [p]The Transplanetary League set[/p]
- [p]The Stars Reach logo set[/p]
- [p]The Infinite Worlds set[/p]
You can visit the store here: Stars Reach Merch Store[/p][p]