playable worlds
MMO Hype Train: My growing obsession with Stars Reach
As much as I respect Raph Koster for all of his passion and pioneering of MMORPGs, I've rarely crossed paths with his games, notably...
Stars Reach unveils the earliest stages of its player housing homesteading system
Development on Playable Worlds' Star Wars Galaxies-esque MMO sandbox Stars Reach is continuing at an apparently speedy pace: The latest dev blog heralds the...
Stars Reach says it ‘heard you loud and clear on graphics improvements’
Last week's Stars Reach trailer captured a lot of attention - so much that studio Playable Worlds decided to focus this week's dev blog...
Stars Reach’s new trailer shows significant visual improvement – and a partial list of professions
Late last night, Playable Worlds dropped a new trailer for Raph Koster's incoming MMORPG sandbox Stars Reach, along with an update for its NDA.
As...
Stars Reach is dropping ‘a sense of pride and accomplishment’ trophies in tester inventories
Stars Reach isn't just teasing players who want to test it but haven't been invited yet; it's also trolling the people in its test.
"We...
Stars Reach is testing its very Star Wars Galaxies-esque ranger skill tree and combat in this weekend’s playtest
Whether or not - and it's probably not - you're in Stars Reach's upcoming playtest, this week's blog post will be of interest to...
Stars Reach’s world reshaping tool test rewarded curious players with ‘spectacular’ death
Stars Reach is continuing to push onward with playtesting that almost no one is in, but at least we get to hear about it...
Stars Reach’s skill tree system seeks to let players ‘gain experience by being useful’
The dev blogs from Stars Reach that highlight game features continue to roll forth, and the latest one touches on a topic that is...
Stars Reach talks Unity, AWS, and how it avoids ‘endless bowls of oatmeal’-esque terrain generation
This week's Stars Reach development blog is a bit more granular than previous releases, but gamers who are curious about the tech behind the...
Stars Reach’s technical testing provoked emergent landscaping, player creativity, and the lag monster
Playable Worlds - technical designer Light Bates this time, not Raph Koster - has dished out another dev blog on Stars Reach's pre-alpha playtest....
Raph Koster shows off Stars Reach’s updated world graphics in new footage
When Playable Worlds first fully revealed Stars Reach to the public earlier this summer, the one sticking point with a certain segment of MMO...
Stars Reach releases video footage of its movement tech from earliest testing to now
When writing up a post about last week's Stars Reach dev blog on character movement, I kept thinking one thing: This article needs a...
Stars Reach begins testing this weekend as Raph Koster talks playstyle and the anti-endgame
Playable Worlds' Raph Koster is continuing his weekly dev blogs about Stars Reach's intended audience this week - though he does say this one...
Raph Koster on designing and defining Stars Reach: ‘The Tragedy of the Commons is a lie’
Playable Worlds' Raph Koster is back with a new dev blog on Stars Reach, and it's not about game design pillars this time; it's...
Stars Reach’s Raph Koster: ‘We’re going into space, and it’s going to be awesome’
Playable Worlds' Raph Koster is back with yet another batch of Stars Reach game pillars, the driving concepts behind the MMORPG sandbox's design. We've...
Raph Koster’s Stars Reach will offer shorter play sessions specifically to boost stickiness
Playable Worlds' lengthy blog post on Stars Reach's middle quad of pillars earlier this week wasn't long enough, or so Raph Koster suggests, as...
Raph Koster aims to make Stars Reach complex but not overcomplicated – and focused on retention
You didn't think Playable Worlds' Raph Koster was going to stop at just two pillars of design for his new sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach,...
Massively Overthinking: How often do you play human MMO characters when you have other choices?
I've been thinking about this question a bit lately, partly owing to Stars Reach and partly to Project Gorgon. Playable Worlds says Stars Reach...
Raph Koster lays out the (first) four pillars of design for his sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach
I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Raph Koster's Stars Reach is probably a good long while away...
Vague Patch Notes: The stuff that has me excited about Stars Reach
Raph Koster is a smart guy. Not just an experienced one (he's that, too), but a smart one. The man knows his stuff front...
