Star Atlas development pushes forward despite token price action

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Star Atlas, an formidable sci-fi interplanetary MMORPG, has made strides towards its full launch since its white paper launched again in 2021.

Proper now, there’s a web-based sport often known as SAGE (Star Atlas Golden Period) that’s accessible till the total, immersive 3D predominant sport launches.

In a broader crypto market the place fast hype cycles can dominate narratives, it may be tough for a sport with an extended improvement timeline to retain curiosity — and keep financially afloat.

Michael Wagner, CEO and co-founder of Star Atlas, tells me they’re doing simply tremendous.

“It’s been a wild couple of years, however this 12 months it’s trying sturdy for us,” Wagner mentioned in an interview with Blockworks at GDC. “Issues have recovered fairly nicely post-FTX.”

Final month, Star Atlas launched a considerable patch including issues like Galia mode, which provides single-player house exploration with none loading screens.

“There’s probably not something happening there but. They’re simply barren planets. However you’ll be able to expertise the variety within the biome,” Wagner defined. “[But] what’s actually cool about that is we’re beginning to showcase the seamlessness of navigation by means of Star Atlas.”

I jumped into this mode. Listed below are a number of screenshots from my exploration:

The graphics generally look wonderful total, and flying by means of house was fairly easy. You’ll be able to positively really feel the physics of how gravity adjustments on this sport. I attempted out two completely different ships and encountered some glitches attempting to get out of one in every of them after touchdown on a planet. Undecided if it was my fault or a difficulty with the sport, however hiccups are regular with in-development video games.

Except for Galia mode, there’s additionally Fleet Command, the place you’ll be able to handle ships from a macro viewpoint. They’re additionally including mining inside Galia mode, however with out the crypto rewards at first.

There will even be a staff deathmatch area shooter mode, plus an extraction shooter and zone-based gameplay, all inside the principle sport shopper.

Star Atlas will even have a built-in Solana pockets and in-game NFTs.

“We’re form of a mix between a number of video games,” Wagner mentioned, citing Star Citizen, No Man’s Sky, and Eve On-line. “What we actually like about Eve is [for] one, they’ve a fairly refined economic system in-game, and I believe that’s actually a vital part of what we’re constructing. It’s a part of the worth proposition of Web3 is you’ll be able to interact on this sport, you’ll be able to carve out a distinct segment for your self, and you may produce actual earnings when you’re enjoying.”

However Wagner additionally admitted that the monetary aspect of issues gained’t all the time be up solely.

“We’re largely correlated with crypto markets. I imply, when you have a look at our token charts, they’re not trying nice both. However that’s to not say we’re not contemplating the total utility of the token by means of the sport economic system itself,” he defined.

Supply: Atlas worth over time

The ATLAS token is down over 99% from its all-time excessive, and the mission’s DAO token POLIS has endured the same destiny to date.

Wagner doesn’t purchase into the narrative from some sport devs that simply making a “enjoyable sport” as a substitute of specializing in a sport’s economic system ought to be the principle technique in blockchain gaming, although.

“I’ve pushed again fairly closely on that,” he mentioned, arguing that having an actual monetary mannequin behind a sport is likely one of the predominant causes to even use crypto within the first place. Clearly, he desires Star Atlas to look good and have entertaining sport loops, however the sport economic system is a significant focus.

In-game snaps from others:

Nonetheless, it’s price mentioning that Star Atlas’s sky-high ambitions will not be absolutely achieved.

In the course of the interview, Wagner cited Star Citizen as a comparable mission. Star Citizen’s long-running sci-fi gaming mission (observe: not a crypto one) has drawn an array of detractors who’ve criticized the sport’s decade-plus improvement timeline and gross sales of pricy ship fashions.

It’s laborious to not see echoes right here, particularly given Star Atlas’ formidable — and prolonged — listing of guarantees to gamers.