Raph Koster and Playable Worlds announced during their fireside chat this evening that they’re launching a Kickstarter campaign for sprawling sci-fantasy sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach.
“Playable Worlds has announced the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to supplement funding for the next stage of development for Stars Reach, a sandbox MMORPG set in a dynamic, living galaxy. Currently in Pre-Alpha and already playable, Stars Reach invites players to join in shaping the game’s future as it moves toward Early Access. In today’s challenging market, private investment in game development has become increasingly scarce. To keep momentum strong, Playable Worlds is turning to its passionate player community to help bring Stars Reach across the finish line. This campaign offers players a meaningful way to directly support the game’s continued growth and success.”
The press release calls the Kickstarter a “long-awaited Kickstarter campaign,” which raised a few eyebrows around here, as Koster told us last June that the team would need more funding but “[didn’t] have any plans to do a Kickstarter.” Clearly, that has changed along the way.
The campaign is set to launch February 10th and run a month, though we don’t know how much the team will be seeking. The devs do seem cognizant of not making Kickstarter rewards pay-to-win (“all Kickstarter rewards will be thoughtfully designed to avoid impacting game balance or the in-game economy”). Expecting things like naming rights or map imports. Stretch goals are also on deck to potentially get more content into the game before launch rather than after. Don’t expect physical rewards.
During the chat, Koster discussed today’s four-hour test, which sent players to a new planet (the game’s fourth in testing so far) called Pyromycis and had them testing the botany system, as nearly every plant in the game can now be gathered. He said farming development is also underway but not in full testing just yet.
Additionally, Koster says that Playable Worlds has already raised $38M from investors over five years and simply needs to raise more – and right now, money from investors and publishers is hard to come by, presenting a challenge for the studio – hence the Kickstarter looking for help. He told viewers today that he is more than aware that MMO players have been deeply burned by Kickstarters, especially Kickstarters that have little more than an idea, but of course, Stars Reach is already pretty far along, which should make this lower risk.
“We are not that far away from calling this game alpha,” he says – “measured in months, not years. […] Most of the work is done.” He’s also upfront that the Kickstarter will demonstrate to investors that there’s plenty of interest so they will keep funding it and so that the studio can move at an even faster clip – yes, this is just as much about marketing as funding and yes it is “existential” for the company: “This Kickstarter is not intended to fund us all the way through development.”
Koster says there are tens of thousands of testers waiting in line to try it – so many they can’t let everyone in, just because the servers can’t handle it. Obviously, they want to scale up. If the team can’t pull in the money it needs, it might not finish – that’s the reality in the current market, which Koster says hasn’t been so bad since the early ’80s. That said, Koster doesn’t seem that concerned and is clear “this is not a game that needs 10 million dollars to get finished,” given its existing funding, how much the team has already scaled for launch vs. post-launched, and how much is already done.
“I believe we can be in early access by the end of this year,” he says, suggesting alpha can begin this summer. “We are 5/6 of the way through development. […] A lot of the fundamental questions have been answered.” Koster believes given the current state of funding, the game could launch as early as next year.
The Kickstarter lander page is up now if you want to have it notify you when it goes live.
