In the SciFi MMO Stars Reach, you can expect a universe filled with countless creatures that reproduce, age, and die. Through your actions, you can even influence the fate of the species.
How does the wildlife work in Stars Reach? Behind all things and beings in Stars Reach is a simulation based on physical laws, predetermined traits, and individual behavior patterns.
Looking at the numerous creatures of the SciFi MMO, this means that they can reproduce among themselves and build up growing populations – potentially leading to a planet-wide plague. However, they need a suitable habitat for that.
If the player community of a planet agrees to pave over that habitat to build a metropolis, the native species there could just as well go extinct and completely disappear from the game.
How is the universe created? In the procedurally generated universe of Stars Reach, no planet is alike – this also applies to its inhabitants. In a conversation with MMO legend Raph Koster (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies), I asked how they want to prevent the planets from being overly generic and interchangeable.
With a lot of work. We invest a lot of time and energy into that. Planets differ greatly in terms of climate and topography. Also, we design the various topographies manually, so they turn out unique, diverse, and interesting. […]
To create a planet, we then select various manually designed topographies and mix them with customized parameters to create a completely new world.
Raph Koster in conversation with MeinMMO
The parameters not only provide variety, but also ensure that planets are playable, that the local creatures differ in their behavior, and that details like day length, climate, seasons, and so on ultimately create an individual planet.
The Alpha already shows enormous potential
How does this affect the player experience? Although the MMO is still in its alpha phase and Early Access on Steam is set to start sometime this summer, Stars Reach is already generating plenty of remarkable stories from the community.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Raph Koster explained that one of the largest alpha guilds has founded an animal protection organization that aims to preserve the various animal and plant species of the universe.
This is possible, for example, by establishing sufficiently large conservation areas with the available terraforming tools in suitable regions. There are also already large cities with zoos, public parks, and community gardens.
Professions like botany and xenobiology help to understand and protect the fauna and flora of the universe. Or you can get elected as the governor of a planet and help create regulations that protect the local species.
What else do I need to know about Stars Reach? For our Grindfest theme week in 2026, Raph Koster showed me the SciFi MMO for the first time and answered many questions. We can expect essentially No Man’s Sky as a sandbox MMO, with the creative possibilities of Minecraft. Whether all this potential and freedom will ultimately result in a truly good online RPG remains unclear to me. But the simulation behind it all has impressed me: The creator of Star Wars Galaxies wants to reinvent MMOs, and his new game impresses us primarily with one thing
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