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Starside Weekly – 11.14.2026
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
*NEW* GOVBOT UPDATE
The GovBot is a Transplanetary League construct that serves two purposes:
- It's a sequence of tasks that a group of planetary pioneers can use to establish a township on a new planet, and;
- It enables the tools that the government of that new township will need to maintain and grow the planet going forward.
Citizenship
Players may (optionally) become citizens of a specific planet. To do so, go to the GovBot on a planet, access the kiosk and choose to become a citizen there.
If you are already a citizen on another planet, you'll have to renounce that citizenship first before you can become a citizen elsewhere.
You cannot access any other GovBot functionality until you become a citizen of that planet.
The First Mission
GovBots have levels, and they start at level 1. To move to the next level, the citizens of that planet must rally together to bring resources and Klaatu to the GovBot. Once they Deposit enough materials and currency in the GovBot, the mission will complete and new functionality will be unlocked for the township.
The first goal is to unlock a Missions Kiosk for the planet.
When the first mission is completed, the Mayor will be notified of the community's success and the next mission will automatically begin.
This is a small fraction of the important information in this update. Please find the rest here:
PUBLIC LIVING ROADMAP
Today, we reveal our Stars Reach development roadmap. We built something more than just a timeline, but a living page!
You can click on individual cards for more information. Additionally, watch cards move between categories (forward and backward) as development progresses.
We want your feedback, so don't be shy and let's hear some typing on those keyboards!
MASSIVELYOP REMARKS ON RESEMBLANCE TO SWG
MassivelyOP warmly compared Stars Reach's new government system to the original government system in Star Wars Galaxies. The commenters agreed with the writer on the strong resemblance to the cherished memories of SWG.
[READ MORE]
MASSIVELYOP SAYS WE'RE HAVING A HELLUVA WEEK!
They watched the new Servitors video by Stars Reach Lab. They checked out our living roadmap, comparing it to a Trello board, but might not have noticed that one can click on a tile and open it for more details.
They are right. We're having a great week!
Explore the full article →
STARS REACH LAB: THE SERVITORS
The Lab series continues with a look at The Servitors.
The old ones left their garden of planets in the care of their faithful Servitors. They care for us, for our planets, and all the flora and fauna living on these worlds.
Endlessly polite, they may still schedule you for termination with the right motivation.
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
Saturday's Fireside Chat is our 50th Fireside Chat. Dave Georgeson will be joining Carneros to break down the new update and talk about our newly-posted development roadmap.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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GovBot Update
The GovBot
The GovBot is a Transplanetary League construct that serves two purposes:
- It's a sequence of tasks that a group of planetary pioneers can use to establish a township on a new planet, and;
- It enables the tools that the government of that new township will need to maintain and grow the planet going forward.
Citizenship
Players may (optionally) become citizens of a specific planet. To do so, go to the GovBot on a planet, access the kiosk and choose to become a citizen there.
If you are already a citizen on another planet, you'll have to renounce that citizenship first before you can become a citizen elsewhere.
You cannot access any other GovBot functionality until you become a citizen of that planet.
The First Mission
GovBots have levels, and they start at level 1. To move to the next level, the citizens of that planet must rally together to bring resources and Klaatu to the GovBot. Once they Deposit enough materials and currency in the GovBot, the mission will complete and new functionality will be unlocked for the township.
The first goal is to unlock a Missions Kiosk for the planet.
When the first mission is completed, the Mayor will be notified of the community's success and the next mission will automatically begin.
GovBot Missions
After the initial Missions Kiosk is unlocked, successive missions unlock the ability for a township to have its own:
- Tools shop
- Public crafting stations
- Planetary bank
- University (skills kiosk)
- Planetary ecology console
- ReLife facilities
- Title shop
Missions that will become available later (after further development) will include:
- Power facility
- Theater
- Spaceport
- Vehicle garage
- Teleportation hub
Mission Rewards
Citizens will earn Citizenship Points (CP) as they contribute to the current mission, and CP may be redeemed for bonuses as you go. There are currently two kinds of rewards you can earn by spending your CP:
- Learning Engrams: These items are consumable and when used, they increase the rate at which you earn XP for whatever tasks you are doing for the next 15 minutes.
- Skill Chits: These items allow you to zero out the cost of a skill unlock at the Skills Kiosk. They are auto-consumed when you unlock a skill if they exist in your inventory.
These mission rewards are tradable between characters. The largest contributor (most CP added) to a task also earns special titles available only to that set of overachiever players. The more times you become the major contributor, the more titles you can unlock.
The First Mayor
A Mayor controls the laws for the planet. The first Mayor for the new township is always the largest contributor on the First Mission.
Is that Mayor going to be in that role forever? Not necessarily. (See "Voting" below.)
The Mayor can utilize the Klaatu that have been contributed during missions to unlock Zoning Lots, acquire Township Kiosks, and also can set general laws for the planet.
Voting
After a Mayor exists on the planet, every citizen has one vote they can cast for the next Mayor.
Every two (real-world) weeks, a new election occurs. A simple majority of votes decides who wins.
When a Mayor is elected, all player votes are automatically changed so they vote for that Mayor. This is intentional and favors the incumbent staying in power unless the citizens of that planet rally together and decide on a change.
To change your vote, just go to the GovBot, choose the Voting option, and change your vote from the current Mayor to another citizen instead. When the next election occurs, the majority winner becomes the new Mayor.
NOTE: If you absolutely do not want to be Mayor, there is a toggle next to your name allowing you to opt out of any future elections.
Mayoral Abilities
The Mayor is the great organizer of options for the township, but a good Mayor will often recognize that it's easier to get stuff done by working with others.
Additionally, a planet that is ripped up, is poorly coordinated, or is just generally unappealing is unlikely to attract many citizens, and without citizens, the government will never progress.
So it's up to the Mayor to make things happen. Here are the tools the Mayor uses to do those things.
Zoning Lots
Zoning lots are, in effect, exactly like Homesteads, but they belong to the township, not to an individual.
The current Mayor always has edit privileges on all Zoning Lots. The Mayor may also set editing privileges allowing other players to edit those Zoning Lots.
All Zoning Lots have greatly increased permission settings. Each of the following options can be set to either "Owner only" (in this case, that's the Mayor), "Citizen only", a specific list of designated people, or "Anyone". The permissions that can be set on that Zoning Lot are:
- Mining
- Lumbering
- Chronophasing
- Paving
- Building
- Burning
- Farming
A clever Mayor can not only set up Zoning Lots for specific types of buildings (allowing groups of selected players to take on construction projects), but can also use Zoning Lots to protect parklands, designate roadways, etc.
Upgrades
As the community completes missions, various kiosks become available to add to the township. The Klaatu that was contributed during those missions is stored in the GovBot and the Mayor can access those funds to purchase Kiosks and to purchase Zoning Lots. These are collectively called "Upgrades" and are accessed via the GovBot.
Kiosks
The Mayor may purchase as many kiosks as desired and those can be placed on any Zoning Lot on the planet. That kiosk is added to their inventory and is placed using the Fabricator. They may be traded.
Zoning Lots
The Mayor can also purchase Zoning Lots. A Zoning Lot object appears in their inventory and can be placed (like a Homesteader object) anywhere on the planet. Zoning Lot objects may be traded.
Global Permissions
The Mayor may also set global permissions for the planet. These include:
- The ability to personally approve citizenship applications
- To allow voting (yes, the Mayor can decide to be a dictator and not allow elections!)
- Setting permissions for specific citizens
- Adding titles to citizens (for example, if the Mayor wants to designate a council)
- Building permissions (allowing/disallowing building)
- Mining permissions (allowing/disallowing mining)
- The ability to spend GovBot funds on Zoning Lots or kiosks
Other Improvements
A lot of our focus this sprint was on the GovBot, but other improvements were made also. Here's a list:
- The wild wormholes are going to close for a bit. (Don't worry, they will return in the future!) You will have four regular planets to play on. After a while, the least used is going to be lost as the Servitors destroy the portal and point it at a new world. It's going to be down to your activity to determine which that is. We are doing this because we need to test the dynamic for the later game. We will not be packing up your homesteads automatically, but we WILL be fixing your used homestead count when it happens.
- The great flora conversion is finally completed. We'll do one last flora wipe this time and then leave it alone in the future (hopefully!)
- There are a few new furniture pieces! A couple of stools, two end tables, a table, a barrel and a canister. This is just a start. A new "Furniture Set" is available for unlock in the Architect skill tree and the pieces are made at the Lathe.
- We added some curved wall pieces to the game also. Large and small curves for walls, windows, ceilings and floors are added to a new "Curved Set" available for unlock in the Architect skill tree.
- Crafting stations and the Ecology Kiosk no longer exist at planetary portals. (You have to earn them via GovBot now.) The ReLife station is still there and you can still refit, of course. So be sure to use your Camps!
- Chef and Medic have been added as titles in the Title Shop.
- Enabled temporal anti-aliasing to create cleaner rendering.
- Added a placeholder map page (it doesn't function yet but people kept asking if we were going to have a map…and the answer is yes.)
- /camp has been removed from the game. If your character gets stuck in the world somehow, use the /stuck command to get moved to the surface instead.
- The Refinery is part of the Camp3 skill node upgrade now and will be placed when you place a camp after unlocking that skill node.
- Fixed an error with the Terraformer that made its extraction mode underpowered.
- The Bank now holds 100 items (instead of 60)
- The Homestead Crates now hold 25 items (instead of 10)
- Terraformer and Chronophaser were improved in effect, buffing them somewhat regardless of PQRV stats. (All stats are lifted equally.)
- Mining tailings in space now evaporate over time.
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Starside Weekly – 11.07.2025
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
IMPORTANT UPDATE NEXT WEEK
Our next content update, scheduled for next week, will be an important one. This will be the "GovBot Update" introducing player self-governance, claiming a planet, choosing a town mayor, the mechanics of zoning your town, citizenship, and much more.
The team has been working hard on this, and we're excited for you to try it.
FULL RESET COMING WITH GOVBOT UPDATE
There is a larger scope to the testing of this next update. After all, the GovBot Update includes the planet ownership feature first revealed in our Kickstarter reward tiers.
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.
We are telling you this now so you can plan, screenshot, record video, etc.
REDBEARDFLYNN COMMENTS ON VISUAL UPDATES
Redbeardflynn is excited for these visual upgrades but also for what comes later down the line when we also update visuals for hard surfaces, creatures, and characters. He calls this a huge step in the right direction (and we agree with him!)
PLAY WITH THE DEVS + CONCEPT ART LEAKS
Yesterday's livestream includes a group play session on Akacala with a break to look at concept art for upcoming kiosks of various sorts. We also looked at the newest in-development version of the drone light providing illumination on a dark night.
These streams are Thursdays at 9:00 AM Pacific/noon Eastern. You are welcome to join us in game, watch us on Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach, or catch the recordings.
NIGHT OF THE VEIL EVENT
Courtesy of the Galactic Union of Natural Conservation (GUNC), we have our first player-created holiday event known as the Night of the Veil. Come along on this video record of the event and see what you missed.
THE LAST DAYS OF AKACALA-VEGAS – AKAVEGAS
Chef Jerek pays homage to the amazing city that developed near the travel portal on Akacala. Very creative, Chef!
COMMUNITY POWER: GUNC GUILD
Join Thomas for the first episode of a new series called Community Power.
The goal of these videos is to showcase what players do or create when playing Stars Reach. We'll interview members to learn the culture, goals, and activities of the group.
This first episode features GUNC, the Galactic Union of Natural Conservation.
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here:
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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Starside Weekly – 10.31.2025
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
RAPH EXPLAINS VISUAL UPDATES
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.
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.
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.
More details are here: Raphkoster.com
STARS REACH LAB PRESENTS: BIOMES UPGRADE VIDEO
We continue our series on incoming visual upgrades (and in some cases performance upgrades at the same time.)
Gorgeous volumetric fog effects, seasonal changes, reactions to frost and fires, multiple biomes, day/night cycles, hydrology changes, and alien species are visually portrayed.
FULL RESET COMING WITH GOVBOT UPDATE
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.
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.
We are telling you this now so you can plan, screenshot, record video, etc.
MMORPG.COM & MASSIVELY OP NOTE NEW GRAPHICS AND RAPH'S BLOG
"Almost unrecognizable" and "major visual improvements", they said.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.
Please read both articles here:
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.
FIRESIDE CHAT – OCTOBER 25
If you missed Dave Georgeson and Rick Reynolds' Fireside Chat on October 25, we have a recording of the livestream.
This is the introduction of Vendor Kiosk Update with some of the thinking behind the features in the update.
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
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.
As usual, tests are currently running from Thursday morning straight through to Tuesday morning.
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.We then visit a homestead and built a Homestead Crate for storage and then a Vendor Kiosks so you could see the building and
PLAYABLE WORLDS CO-FOUNDER SPEAKING AT GAMESBEAT NEXT
GamesBeat Next runs Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 & 13 in San Francisco.It's a conference for games industry executives and their support services.
Playable Worlds President and Co-founder Eric Goldberg is moderating a panel on Games M&A at noon on November 13.
The full agenda can be seen on the Gamesbeat website.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here:
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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Starside Weekly – 10.24.2025
Hello Reachers!
Yes, we have a new update for you to test. We named it after the Vendor Kiosk feature, but it also includes a bank, a storage crate, and a minor Halloween event.
Vendor Kiosk Update
You can now place a kiosk on your claim that you can use to sell things to the general public in game.
The recipe unlock is automatic for the moment and part of the Business skill tree. Everyone gets it for free at the moment.
To create a Vendor kiosk, go to the Lathe and use the recipe you find there for it. Once it is crafted, you can go to one of your Homesteads and place the kiosk there. You place the kiosk with the Fabricator, so you'll need one of those before you can do so. NOTE: You may only have one Vendor kiosk per Homestead.
Any player may open the Vendor kiosk after it is placed and they can buy any item found there.
Only players with editing permissions on that Homestead can post items to sell into that kiosk.
Click the BROWSE button in the upper, left of the screen. All the items that you (or other players with edit permissions) have made available for sale are in those listings. Click on any item to get a Purchase dialog.
To put an item up for sale, click the SELL button in the upper left of the screen. Then just drag-and-drop any item or stack of items from your inventory onto the right side of the screen. You can set the price and authorize the sale.
You need to come back to the Vendor kiosk to collect the money from any sold items. Click the SELL button to see your listings then click the coin icon to collect the Klaatu.
Bank
The Bank is found in the Starbase. You can access the Bank kiosk and then drag-and-drop items, or stacks of items, from your inventory to the bank vault. You can then return to the bank at any time and recover those items by dragging them back into your inventory.
Homestead Crates
You can now create Homestead Crates and place them on your Homestead for additional storage.
You unlock the Homestead Crate recipe by unlocking the Architect skill tree.
You build the Homestead Crate at the Lathe.
After it is in your inventory, you place it like any other Building Tile by using the Fabricator.
Only yourself and people that you give permission to edit your Homestead will be able to access crates placed on that Homestead. (Later on, we'll add more granular permission settings, but that's how it is for now.)
Halloween
We have also included a very small Halloween event but we are not explaining it. You will need to discover it yourself.
More details are here: Vendor Kiosk Update – Stars Reach
We are patching the current build and will open the playtest servers tomorrow. Then we go back onto our usual Thursday-through-Tuesday morning rhythm.MASSIVELY OP AND MMORPG COMMENT ON NEW UPDATE
- MMO specialist press have been keeping an eye on our progress and commented this week. We appreciate their support.
- Stars Reach Adds a Vendor Kiosk to Buy & Sell, New Mission Tiers, More Storage, and a Surprise Halloween Event
CONTROLLED CHAOS CREATED A VIDEO ON VENDOR KIOSK UPDATE
Chaos takes us through the various new functionality and how to use it. He explains one known bug but it might be gone by the time you log into the game.
He also comments on art and terminology changes and smaller things that might go unnoticed
STARS REACH LAB: JUNGLE BIOME
This is a work-in-progress video showing some of the new plants and vegetation, while also demonstrating how seasons, light, and some initial player interactions affect the living world.
PLAYED WITH THE DEVS LIVESTREAM
If you missed Thursday's Play-with-the-devs livestream, our plan was to explain the game, explain the wild wormholes, and take a group to the wild planet.
We did this and explained good resources to harvest on this temporary planet. And of course there were some combat shenanigans.
FIRESIDE CHAT – OCTOBER 25
Please join Dave Georgeson (Qix) and Rick Reynolds (Carneros) at our next Fireside Chat at 9:00 AM on Saturday, October 24, 2025.
We will be introducing the Vendor Kiosk Update and answering your questions.
Join us on Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach. Saturday, October 25 at 9:00 AM Pacific / noon Eastern.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store/
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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Vendor Kiosk Update
Vendor Kiosk
There is now a Vendor kiosk available to you!
The recipe unlock is automatic for the moment and part of the Business skill tree. Everyone gets it for free at the moment.
To create a Vendor kiosk, go to the Lathe and use the recipe you find there for it. Once it is crafted, you can go to one of your Homesteads and place the kiosk there. You place the kiosk with the Fabricator, so you'll need one of those before you can do so. NOTE: You may only have one Vendor kiosk per Homestead.
- Any player may open the Vendor kiosk after it is placed and they can buy any item found there.
- Only players with editing permissions on that Homestead can post items to sell into that kiosk.
Purchasing Items from the Kiosk
Click the BROWSE button in the upper, left of the screen. All the items that you (or other players with edit permissions) have made available for sale are in those listings. Click on any item to get a Purchase dialog.
Posting Items for Sale into the Kiosk
To put an item up for sale, click the SELL button in the upper left of the screen. Then just drag-and-drop any item or stack of items from your inventory onto the right side of the screen. You can set the price and authorize the sale.
NOTE: There is a non-refundable listing fee each time you place something up for sale, and that is currently 5% of whatever the amount you are listing the item for.
There is a minimum cost of ten Klaatu per individual item, so a stack of 100 items will have a minimum sale price of 1000 Klaatu.
You need to come back to the Vendor kiosk to collect the money from any sold items. Click the SELL button to see your listings then click the coin icon to collect the Klaatu.
You can list a maximum of 100 items on your Vendor Kiosk.
Bank
The Bank is found in the Starbase. You can access the Bank kiosk and then drag-and-drop items, or stacks of items, from your inventory to the bank vault. You can then return to the bank at any time and recover those items by dragging them back into your inventory.
Homestead Crates
You can now create Homestead Crates and place them on your Homestead for additional storage.
- You unlock the Homestead Crate recipe by unlocking the Architect skill tree.
- You build the Homestead Crate at the Lathe.
- After it is in your inventory, you place it like any other Building Tile by using the Fabricator.
- Only yourself and people that you give permission to edit your Homestead will be able to access crates placed on that Homestead. (Later on, we'll add more granular permission settings, but that's how it is for now.)
Halloween Event
- There is a (minor) event. But we're not giving you details so there are some surprises. Enjoy!
- It starts when this update goes Live and ends on November 1st.
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Large glass walls and corners are added to the game. These are unlocked through the "Windows and Walls" skill node in the Architect skill tree. If you already have that unlocked, you'll have access to the new tiles.
- Mission and Ecology kiosks have visual upgrades.
- There are now Tiers of missions available on the Mission kiosk. The more difficult tiers will be further away from the portal, requiring more travel time, but rewards are greater also.
- A large number of flora items (trees and bushes) were improved, resulting in higher performance, but we'll need to do another flora wipe to make them show up in game. Apologies to those of you that made gardens.
- If a creature is immune to a status effect, you will now see text flyouts occur letting you know.
- The "Bare" versions of soils that are in the game will no longer generate separate types of doobers. Previously, as an example, there were "Bare Alluvial" and "Alluvial" soil types. Those are still in the game, but you won't notice it as much now because regardless of which type you extract, you will only get "Alluvial" soil now.
- Repeatedly walking the same path across grassy areas will now start to form trails of bare soil.
- The Planetary Health status is broadcast to all players regularly.
- The Chat Pane has been improved and now has two channels. More channels are forthcoming after we test this further and enable a back-end piece that we're still working on currently.
- The "Stunt" function on the Pruning Tool now has a VFX associated with it.
- Hitting ESC will now close announcements and hint dialogs.
- "Inventory" is now called "Backpack"
- Chat pane now defaults to open.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a reference on the Weaponsmith skill tree to say "Corrosion Drones" instead of "Acid Drones".
- Using the "Dupe" function on the Fabricator will no longer allow you to exceed building limits.
- Errors with seed artwork that resulted in them showing random icons instead of the proper art have been fixed.
- Crafting Pharmacology recipes now generates Medical XP (instead of Cooking XP).
- Crafting Power Cell recipes now generates Crafting XP (instead of Cooking XP).
- You no longer get a Health Wound when you die during the first-time user experience hallway.
- We no longer spam the chat pane every time you place a building tile.
- Fauna (creature) totals on the Ecology Kiosk have been corrected.
- Improved calculation and handling of marketplace stack listings.
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Starside Weekly – 10.17.2025
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
With backend service migrations and new update installations planned, our playtest schedule has adjusted for the next week. Bear with us on the complicated test schedule.
A TOUR OF PLAYER CONSTRUCTION ON AKACALA
If you wanted to go on the construction tour of Akacala but missed the stream, we have uploaded a recording to YouTube.com. These buildings are amazing. Highlights for me were the grand piano, the roof terraces, the comfy living rooms, and the curated gardens.
GROKLUDO INTERVIEWS RAPH KOSTER
Jeremy Ray, aka The Junglist, interviews Raph Koster for the Grokludo podcast.
The conversation touches on game design theory, game history, Stars Reach's cellular automata system, sustainability despite player terraforming, the dangers of fire and water, and much, much more.
MASSIVELY OP COMMENTING ON STARS REACH
MassivelyOP points out two separate, unrelated hours of video – both worth watching. One is the tour of the player-built city on Akacala and the other is Raph's History of Virtual Worlds presentation to the IGDA San Diego chapter.Regarding Akacala City, MOP commented that "What's important to note here is that this city and its buildings all sprang up organically from concerted player effort without any specific system features added in the game's test build." Players organized themselves. And they did it on a test server knowing that it would be wiped at some point in the future. This is not yet a permanent world.
CONTROLLED CHAOS INTERVIEWS SOUND DESIGNER KURT LARSON
This interview is a crazy one. Kurt has an immense personality and is a lot of fun. Controlled Chaos earns his name on this interview – even struggling at times with Kurt Harland Larson's name.Come hear Kurt's amazing background and the role he plays on Stars Reach.
PLAYED WITH THE DEVS LIVESTREAM
If you missed Thursday's Play-with-the-devs livestream, we have a recording of the hilarity and pandemonium. Watch us defeat the dreaded Harror while dying repeatedly to many other creatures. For once, the Servitors were not disgusted with us.NEXT FIRESIDE CHAT – OCTOBER 25
Please join Dave Georgeson (Qix) and Rick Reynolds (Carneros) at our next Fireside Chat at 9:00 AM on Saturday, October 24, 2025.
We will be introducing a new game update and answering your questions.
Join us on Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach. Saturday, October 25 at 9:00 AM Pacific / noon Eastern.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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Starside Weekly – 10.10.2025
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
We are currently closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but are open Thursday through Monday.A TOUR OF PLAYER CONSTRUCTIONS ON AKACALA
If you wanted to go on the construction tour of Akacala but missed the stream, we have uploaded a recording to YouTube. These buildings are amazing. Highlights for me were the grand piano, the roof terraces, the comfy living rooms, and the curated gardens.
THE HISTORY OF VIRTUAL WORLDS PRESENTED BY RAPH KOSTER
Raph presented a talk on the history of virtual worlds at the International Game Developers Association – San Diego Chapter's Demo Days event held at Mesa College. This was dense material presented to fellow game developers, not to players or the general public.
A recording of the presentation was posted to YouTube and we hope you will enjoy it.
MASSIVELY OP ANTICIPATING STARS REACH
Justin Olivetti wrote about upcoming MMOs and MMO expansions that are holding his interest these days. Then he shared the top 8 in-development MMORPG projects that he's most anticipating at the moment.
Stars Reach came in between Light No Fire and EverQuest 3 – although he didn't mention if the presentation order meant anything at all.
BYBSIE ANTICIPATES STARS REACH
Polish MMO content creator Bybsie posted an MMO news roundup (in English) for October 2025 that includes Stars Reach among other games. He gets our vision and he understands what to expect in the pre-alpha phase of development.
Stars Reach is the first game he covers at about 1:59 into the video.
NEXT LIVESTREAM THURSDAY OCTOBER 9
Next Thursday we will be rampaging through the wild planet if Bob, the god of wormholes, is willing. We'll be fighting creatures, healing each other, rezzing each other, and just causing havok. If you are non-combat, equip a Harvester or Terraformer, come with us, and casually pick flowers or emeralds next to us while we fight.
You are welcome to join us in game. Just meet us on the back deck of the TPL station in space. Or you can join us for the livestream at Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach.
If you prefer to watch, join us on Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach. Thursday, October 16 at 9:00 AM Pacific / noon Eastern.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
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Minor Update – University Update 1.1
Hello Reachers!
We got a new update for you today; time to list some changes!
Changes
- Building Tiles have had their models updated. This is the first step in a larger update that is aimed at helping with the performance of their assets.
- You may notice that the appearance of some of them has been altered slightly. Keep an eye out for anything that seems out of place and let us know if it helps with performance in areas with a lot of building tiles.
- The planet ecology system has been turned back on after some fixes and tuning. See the University Updates for more information on the system.
- This is only the first pass on the system, and we are excited to see how you all interact with it.
- Added a cancel button on the trade dialogue when waiting for the other player to accept the trade.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that was causing the Named Bosses from public events to spawn multiple times.
- Fixed an issue with grown trees not retaining their size after a server restart.
- Deployed a fix to prevent creatures from dropping power-ups if they were killed by the kill-field below the world.
- Building Tiles have had their models updated. This is the first step in a larger update that is aimed at helping with the performance of their assets.
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Starside Weekly – 10.03.2025
Your weekly update on Stars Reach
PLAYTEST SCHEDULE
We are currently closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but are open Thursday through Monday.
CONTROLLED CHAOS INTERVIEWS JUSTIN STREFLING
The craziest Controlled Chaos interview yet – this time he interviews Playable Worlds Human Resources Manager Justin Strefling. This interview sounds more like two friends having beers after work on a Friday. You will laugh. This is a long, fun interview.
RAPH KOSTER PRESENTS AT IGDA SD DEMO DAYS
Raph presented a talk on the history of virtual worlds at the International Game Developers Association – San Diego Chapter's Demo Days event held at Mesa College.
Rod Haza also brought a demo computer and demonstrated Stars Reach for the attendees alongside other Southern California-made games.
Special thank you to Justamirage for attending and taking photographs and letting us use them.
KICKSTARTER LATE PLEDGES ENDED – THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT!
The late pledges had remained surprisingly popular after the close of the Kickstarter campaign but these have now ended.Be advised that for a period of time there will be nothing offered for sale other than logo merchandise.
It is still possible to sign up for the waiting list for future invitations to playtest. Please visit https://starsreach.com to sign up.
FIRESIDE CHAT WITH LIGHT BATES
Last Saturday, Light joined us on stage to talk about the University Update, what each thing meant and sometimes a bit of why it was interesting.These features are not meant to be finished, shipping quality but are meant to be sufficiently functional for players to tell us what works and does not work about them. We are leaving space to adjust our design before finishing the features. This is an important part of how we want to partner with our players.
Please take advantage of this temporarily-stored video on demand:
NEXT LIVESTREAM THURSDAY OCTOBER 9
Next Thursday we will be touring the buildings and homes on Akacala in a nod to EverQuest's famous old home tours.
You are welcome to join us in game and come attend (or guide) the tours with us.
If you prefer to watch, join us on Twitch.TV/PlayStarsReach. Thursday, Oct 9, 2025 at 9:00 AM Pacific / noon Eastern.
LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE
We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:
- The Transplanetary League set
- The Stars Reach logo set
- The Infinite Worlds set
You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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.
Stars Reachstarsreachteam2024-05-30T13:05:17-07:00