What I personally want from a character progression system in an RPG comes down to two things: The ability to make a character that feels uniquely my own. And that’s true both for the personali...

Let’s talk about grind in games. Grinding and “too much grind” is often (but not necessarily always) seen as a negative thing. Repetitive, monotonous, boring, exhausting. It’s often described as l...

Welcome to the third Stars Reach Deep Dive. This time we will take a closer look at some crafting recipes found in version 8.5.0.8701 of Raph Koster’s new, currently in-development MMORPG. I say “...

Over the last few weeks, I’ve closely observed the Steam Early Access launch of a game. Regardless of the game in question and whether that one game specifically was ready for EA or not - I strongl...

This is my second Stars Reach Deep Dive - a series in which we take a closer look at the intricacies, game design and gameplay mechanics of Raph Koster’s new, currently in-development MMORPG. “Wai...

In this first post of what could become a new series, we are going to take a closer look at the intricacies, design philosophy and gameplay effects of the Recipe Book (and it’s limit) in Stars Reac...

This is it. The final PAT - the last pre-alpha update ever. The Stars Reach pre-alpha playtest is coming to an end, and less than two weeks from now, the game will officially start being in alpha -...

The patch update 8.1.5 “Exterior Decorating” for the Stars Reach pre-alpha playtest landed this tuesday, just before midnight (in central European time, that is). Ever since the developers announce...

Report on an Unidentified Space Station is a science fiction short by J.G. Ballard, an “English novelist and short-story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of...

I know I’m a little late with my blog post on this update - but only because I was busy finishing up my retrospective of year two since the game announcement. The update landed last Thursday, the 2...