List of Links

Various videos and blog posts that help better understand the game and the design philosophy behind it.

By Playable Worlds

Teaser and Trailer Videos

• Announcement Trailer, June 28, 2024

Dev Vlog Videos

• Raph's Vision, June 28, 2024
• Announcement Q&A, June 28, 2024
• The Living World, July 3, 2024

Riffs by Raph

These articles were posted in several waves, during the years before the game announcement. They don't contain any concrete details on the game, but a lot on the ambitions and design philosophy behind it.

• Player Driven Economies, April 1, 2021
• Designing for Social Play, April 8, 2021
• Thinking Long-term, April 15, 2021
• What does Cloud-Native even mean?, April 22, 2021
• Online World or Metaverse?, September 2, 2021
• Revealing our Technology, September 9, 2021
• But First, the Game, September 16, 2021
• How Virtual Worlds Work – Part 1, September 23, 2021
• How Virtual Worlds Work – Part 2, September 30, 2021
• How Virtual Worlds Work – Part 3, October 7, 2021
• How Virtual Worlds Work – Part 4, October 14, 2021
• How Virtual Worlds Work – Part 5, October 21, 2021
• Sandbox versus Themepark, September 1, 2022
• What Drives Retention, March 7, 2023

Blogs and Articles by Raph

• The Future of Online Worlds, March 25, 2021
• The Laws of Online World Design, April, 2016
• From Online World to Metaverse: The Future of Online Games and Games Research, March 12, 2023

Stars Reach Game Pillars & More

These were posted in the weeks directly following the game announcement, and contain information on what they plan the game to be:

• Part One: simulation, persistent state, player community & interdpendence, July 10, 2024
• Addendum to part one, July 10, 2024
• Part Two: easy and intuitive controls + interfaces, deep and proven game mechanics, July 17, 2024
• Addendum to part two, on time commitment in MMORPGs, July 18, 2024
• Part Three: Hope, optimism, and fun in science-fiction, July 24, 2024
• Addendum to part three, July 24, 2024

• What is Stars Reach About?, July 31, 2024
• Addendum: A vision exercise, July 24, 2024

• What Stars Reach is and is Not, August 7, 2024
• Addendum: The Neverending Griefing Discussion, August 7, 2024

How Games Get Made, by Greg Costikyan

• Part 1, August 3, 2021
• Part 2, August 17, 2021

Third Party

Pre-Announcement Interviews with Raph

Mostly unrelated, but contain a few mentions of the new company and the new game being worked on.

• Playable Worlds has a 'different mindset' on engagement, October 4, 2019
• Gaming industry veteran on how the Store Wars will end, October 19, 2019
• Welcome Back, Koster: Why an MMORPG vet is back building a new virtual world, October 25, 2019
• Countdown to Classic, December 2019 (Podcast - starting at 37:20)
• The Metaverse is Coming, April 28, 2020 (Video, YoutTube)
• Was haben MMOs alles geändert?, June 5, 2020 (live-stream, German hosts speak accented English)
• Building a game that keeps players engaged for years — and deserves to be subscribed to, August 24, 2020 (Video)
• Metaverse startups must heed the mistakes of the past 40 years of virtual worlds, January 28, 2021 (Video)
• Building the Metaverse, October 6, 2021 (Video)
• Real Talk About a Real Metaverse, January 26, 2022 (Video)
• Real Talk About a Real Metaverse, January 27, 2022 (Text)
• Club Metaverse Podcast, March 20, 2023 (Video)
• Game Design Career Fireside, July 25, 2023
• The Fourth Curtain, August 24, 2023 (Podcast)
• Raph Koster talks metaverse design, September 25, 2023 (Text)
• The Declaration of Rights of Avatars, February 21, 2024 (Text)
• AWS for Games, May 24, 2024 (Video)

Pre-Announcement Interviews with others

• Eric Goldberg on investing and the future of gaming, May 31, 2021
• The Here's Waldo Podcast interviews Gordon Walton, December 12, 2023

Youtube, Post-Announcement

• Rommi Noodles, June 29, 2024
• Redbeardflynn, June 29, 2024
• Kid Lee, July 1, 2024
• Kazhamania, July 1, 2024 (French)
• Controlled Chaos Gaming, July 3, 2024
• Napyet Gaming, July 14, 2024
• Perzival, July 16, 2024