Stars Reach News

What goes into the art and style of Stars Reach?

And what can you expect in the future?

Join us as we interview Magnus Hollmo, the Art Director of Stars Reach, to uncover the creative vision behind the game!

https://youtu.be/QYTD0gENtSk

The Hyugon species has been one of the trickiest for us. We knew we wanted to have one “alien” species derived from classic Greens and Grays in some way, or for them to at least echo the spirit of older sci-fi back when special effects for aliens basically consisted of simple prosthetics and funky colors of makeup.

But Greens and Grays don’t have much to work with for character customization! And if we weren’t careful, we’d end up crashing into Andorians from Star Trek or Mantis from the MCU.

The big black eyes of course made us think of insects, so we market-tested down those lines. Turns out, people don’t like the idea of playing as a bug, if it gets too insectile. And it got insectile pretty quick.



On the other hand, there was something very much in keeping with our sci-fi inspirations in the Hyugons. The “vibe” of retro sci-fi that we wanted was there, when we played around with them. We did several takes on them that were basically very human, except for skin color and antennae.

Interestingly, they were great inspirations for clothing and fashion. In fact, eagle-eyed testers may have spotted a Hyugon long ago on our website, hiding in plain sight – one of the ones below! She’s gone now, but still there in our hearts.



Playing with marrying the green, the big eyes, and the notion of insectile antenna ended up promising. There’s a lot of variation you can do that can convey different silhouettes at a distance. And silhouettes is one of the most important qualities in creating a cool avatar. Especially in a game where you can dress any way you like, it matters that the body shape and unique characteristics convey something readable at a decent distance.



On the other hand, we have another couple of species that make use of head attachments – not antennae, but the Gertans for example have horns. So making sure that all three sets of head attachments were visually distinctive was a key thing.

For a while we explored making them “chibi,” but it didn’t feel right. Greens and Greys are elongated, not short. Players do tend to want at least one choice that is very short, so we’d have to find a different way to fulfill that desire.



Green also led us to explore plant-like qualities in them. This opened up new and (we think) fresh ways to offer distinctive touches. Little leaves, thorns, and different shapes for the antennae give a very different quality than insectile does.



Candidly, we don’t think we are done with the Hyugons! It feels like there is still more to explore visually, and we want your feedback. I’ll tell you though, the exploration yielded one of my favorite bits of concept work we’ve ever done. We did it fairly early on, when we had not yet really explored all the variations, and the Hyugons still looked more human than anything else. Even so, it landed so much of the vibe that I still love it.

Plus, it shows off some of the customization choices that our regions system allows in the clothing!

We just unlocked the Hansian species as one of our stretch goals for our Kickstarter. We have been working on developing the other species we want in the game for a long time now, and have always hoped to have eight in place. Eagle-eyed players spotted the appearance of a Hansian in our recently posted lore story “Interdicted.”

When we started out, we set in place some guidelines for player species:



We had to stick to relatively humanoid shapes, so that we can share all the clothing and other assets across all of them. For a small studio, having eight times the load on every player animation, piece of clothing, or hairstyle would be prohibitive. We knew that players would probably be a bit unhappy about this, because everyone loves variety, but it’s just a reality of development.



We also wanted each species to represent a bit of a personality archetype we could play with – something easy for players to identify with, but also something they could contradict and play against. For the Hansians, this is very much about being a free-spirited, go-with-the-flow people.Many of the concepts we worked on didn’t have that vibe: they instead came across as stern, or old, or threatening, none of which were the personality type we wanted.

Lastly, we also want all our player species to be cosplayable on a budget. There are designs that are just outright very hard to make work as costumes, and we want to think for the long term and plan for success.



For all of our species, we have been quietly running focus tests with small groups for years now. A lot of the images you see in this article are from those tests. We would provide a few alternates to the panels, we’d ask them to rank them against each other and also against other species, and so on. The written feedback would inform the directions we took.

Our earliest versions were very very fishlike, but feedback showed that relatively few people actually want to play as something quite that alien. The farther you go from human, the more important it is that the result be compellingly cute or appealing in some way.



The breakthrough came with the image above, what we ended up calling the “princess” take on the species. We had always wanted to reflect the colorful variety of tropical fish. In fact, we used cosplay reference where the cosplayer used glitter makeup applied through netting to create the illusion of scales. That ended up reflected in the speckled pattern on the forehead.

That first take was visually appealing and hit the marks we were aiming for, but it wasn’t really set up to work with character customization, which adds an additional layer of constraints. This is where you move from pure concept work unbound by restrictions and more in the direction of pre-production, where you have to make some compromises in order to achieve the feature set you want. So the next stage was all about iterating in ways that got us the features and still captured the spirit we wanted.

In the end, we are pretty happy with where we landed – including the ways in which we can push color, support diverse hairstyles, and support varied body shapes.



[h2]HOMEWORLD: BONSURF[/h2]
[h3]CULTURE[/h3]

Hansians learned to “go with the flow” from their nomadic ancestors. Once one large tribe, Ancient Hansians learned to live with the whim of their planet, whose weather patterns and currents left Hansians sailing in search of dry ground. The nature of change and “going where the water [i.e., life] takes you” is something Hansians appreciate, and everyone from philosophers to artists to scientists to pop singers have waxed poetic about it.

Hansians are also big on sharing, something else they learned from their ancestors. Because Ancient Hansians were often low on resources, if they did not make sure everybody had enough to eat or proper clothing, friends and family wouldn’t survive. While sharing is an important part of Hansian culture, there is a phenomenon dubbed “Hansian caring,” which is the equivalent to the Terran “Minnesota nice.” Sometimes, one just wants to be selfish, even though it’s taboo. Hansians are great at hiding their selfishness and willingness to not want to share.

Homeworld Bonsurf limited Hansians to mostly seafood, fruits, and vegetables. Going off-world exposed them to the wonders of other cuisines and ingredients, and many Hansians consider themselves foodies. Hansians have their own takes on the cuisines they’ve been introduced to. They find noodle and pasta dishes especially versatile and an excellent showcase for traditional Hansian ingredients. Hansian ramens are popular dishes across the Garden.

You’ve only seen “basic crafting” so far, and it’s not even complete yet. So let’s start this article with a brief overview of the sections for crafting.

[h2]ACQUIRE THE RECIPE[/h2]
Recipes are known by everyone (with rare exceptions). But having the skill to actually craft that recipe is something you have to unlock by climbing one or more of the Artisan skill tree branches. Once you know how to craft something, you go to the next step.

[h2]CHOOSE YOUR INGREDIENTS[/h2]
Different resources have different characteristics. The recipe you’re building will result in an item that is greatly influenced by the characteristics of the ingredients you choose to use. For example, using Aluminum in a tool might influence its weight, but using Titanium will make it stronger, and Cobalt might change the appearance of the weapon in interesting ways. Additionally, the Titanium (for example) that you find on “Rodin IV” might differ significantly in statistics from the Titanium you find on “Gaiamar”.

Once you’ve decided which resources to use, you’ll use the basic crafting system to make the item. After it’s created, it is stamped with your Maker’s Mark and you’re done with the basics.

At this point, you’ve already made some appearance choices, depending on the ingredients you chose and how they are applied to the item. (For example, that laser pistol barrel that you used Cobalt for might have a blue sheen to the metal, whereas if you made it from Iron instead, it might appear a gunmetal grey. Did you choose wood or metal to make the pistol grip? Etc.)



[h2]ARTISAN CRAFTING[/h2]
When you decide to push your design forward with more effort, you enter into the Artisan Crafting section. There’s a lot to this section, but suffice it to say that what you’re doing here is tinkering with the design and trying to find ways to make the device more efficient, the widget stronger or lighter weight, or the clothing more durable (as examples).

The process isn’t foolproof and you might even end up destroying the item you’re working on, but the goal is to make something that’s a standout achievement, a truly Artisan-level item.

Once you’re successful at that, then you finally get the option to fine-tune the appearance of that Artisan item.

[h2]ARTISAN ITEM APPEARANCE CUSTOMIZATION (THE STRETCH GOAL!)[/h2]
Your device is already stamped with your Maker’s Mark, but there’s a lot more you can do to customize the appearance of your items.

Every crafted item has regions on it that can be visually customized with appearance paints, dyes, and you can even select from textures. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a power station, a shirt, a quantum rifle, or a starship engine, you can craft the appearance to be the way you want it at this point.

From clothing to weapons to tools, you can colorize and texture your items extensively.

There may also be some modular aesthetic choices you can make as well (like swapping out a barrel or power supply style, or having a high collar on a coat instead of a low one).

Everything can be aesthetically customized…even building tiles.

When you’re done with all of your aesthetic choices, you can then name your item, and write a description for it, all of which will be available for your customers to see if you sell it to them (or just to make you grin when keeping it for yourself).

Since players are always interested in both stats AND appearance, and because you, the crafter, get experience based on how often a player uses the items you create, it is absolutely in your best interest to create things that are strongly appealing to other players.

These aesthetic and lore elements you add to your items will definitely assist you in the goal of becoming a world-reknown crafter.

We did a deep dive into extreme modular functionality, but the crafting process
was inordinately complicated and the art burden was just too great. Maybe next game. 😉

Stars Reach will be a free to play game at launch, with a Property Pass that you buy monthly. The Property Pass gives you the ability to own land within the game.

As with other F2P games, there will be an MTX Store. We are opposed to pay-to-win and are avoiding it in our business model.

The gameplay features that you get to on your owned land will also be available via public facilities for all players.

You can earn a loyalty currency through game play which can be used to obtain Property Passes (and other shop items), so you won't necessarily have to use real money to get them. You can also share homesteads with other players, or trade or gift Property Passes.

Join us! www.kickstarter.com/projects/starsreach/stars-reach