Stars Reach Unveils the Fae After Kickstarter Hits $600k Stretch Goal

Stars Reach has hit another Kickstarter milestone, unlocking the Fae species for the game. The team has a new behind the scenes look at the Fae, alongside a new dive into crafting the game’s audio.

The Fae are “central to the core storyline” of the universe of Stars Reach. They’re inspired by Celtic myth, though the team wanted to get away from ultimately making space elves in their science-fantasy setting.

“Elves in media have become very human over the years. The thing that was creatively exciting about Fae was the ways in which they could convey deep mystery, because we needed them to carry some of the central mysteries in the lore.”

In the devblog, we go through a number of options as they refined what the Fae would look like, from Tinkerbell to glowing magic visibly coming from them. Ultimately, Playable Worlds has gone for a blend of sharper features, wings that come in a variety of styles, and a sense of otherworldliness. The Fae also vary in size and can be very small if you love playing the short MMO races. 

Some of those mysteries are in their culture(s). There are Space Fae, who hid on Servitor ships and Ground Fae, who snuck on ships and built lives in the wilderness where they landed. 

They believe their homeworld to originally be Tír na nÓg, where their wings let them fly once, due to magic. From a roleplaying standpoint, the opportunities are certainly there. That belief feels real to much of the Fae, though some see their own myths. The Transplanetary League considers the former like religious adherents. 

The team also released a short series on audio, featuring audio designer Kurt Larson. In the most recent edition, he talks about voiceover and background music. While the team hasn’t yet settled on the balance, “Stars Reach will almost certainly not be a voice-over-heavy game,”  though as they develop their plans, variation in the voice overs you hear is going to be important so you don't hear the same lines over and over again.

As for music, variety will also be important. Music helps with the emotional experience of a game and setting a scene and getting flavor to the world, but they won't approach this with traditional looping tracks so the experience and the music feel separated.  They're working on dynamic music so that it will respond to conditions, weather, seasons, how many enemies you might be facing, and other stuff that is intended to give you your own experience.