The Kickstarter campaign of the SciFi MMORPG Stars Reach by developer veteran Raph Koster has successfully ended. The team behind the game was not only able to raise several times the targeted amount but also welcomed a new investor.
How did the Kickstarter campaign go? MeinMMO reported in late February 2025 that the
“Playable Worlds” team of the SciFi MMORPG Stars Reach was able to reach its minimum goal of 200,000 US dollars within the first hour of their Kickstarter campaign.
Meanwhile, the campaign has ended, and the ticker on kickstarter.com shows 752,936 US dollars (approximately 698,550 euros). 5,318 supporters have backed the project with their money. But it is not only for this reason that the crowdfunding initiative of Playable Worlds is a success.
In a post on mailchi.mp, the developers explain that thanks to the successful Kickstarter campaign, they were able to welcome an initial investor who is bringing in a sum that is expected to exceed the crowdfunding results on Kickstarter.
This allows Playable Worlds to have at least 1.5 million US dollars to finalize the MMORPG, which is already playable in a pre-alpha version.
A first trailer for Stars Reach from the pre-alpha:
700,000 Dollars for Playable Vampires
Which stretch goals are financed? In Kickstarter campaigns, it is common to unlock additional development milestones when certain amounts of money are raised through crowdfunding. MMORPG fans who have an eye on Stars Reach can look forward to a total of 7 new features.
These include alliances for guilds, visual customization options for crafted items, a comprehensive expansion of the building system, and four races. It has already been clear for a while that the Hansian, Hyugon, and fairies will be included in the game. However, shortly before the end, a vampire race called the Stokadi also qualified for the launch. A new blog post on kickstarter.com shows the first artworks.
Who is behind the project? The industry veteran Raph Koster was the lead designer of Ultima Online (released in 1997) and the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies (2003). The veteran is also known for his expertise in development: In an interview with MeinMMO, Koster spoke about the development of MMOs and explained that WoW killers almost killed MMOs.
But many other veterans are also part of the team, having worked on titles such as EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Eve Online, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, StarCraft, StarCraft 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rift, Age of Conan, and many other well-known games.
What do I need to know about Stars Reach? The ambitions for the Galaxy Sandbox MMORPG are great. There are to be hundreds of worlds that should feel alive and can be changed. The game aims to feature an action-packed yet also tactically demanding combat system.
However, there should also be peaceful ways to have fun with Stars Reach. You should be able to create planetary maps that can then be turned into profit. Or you could become a miner, a chosen governor, or pursue a completely different profession within the player-driven economy.
As the ultimate challenge, you should even be able to claim a whole planet and build an infrastructure on it. The ambitions of the team are shown in the following announcement from July 2024: Stars Reach aims to do for science fiction what World of Warcraft did for fantasy.
