These intertwined journeys come to occupy the gulf of loneliness surrounding our main characters; they also compel the player through the vastness of space, towards exciting new discoveries.
We’ve just returned from a busy stint at PAX Australia - but today we’re dropping the elevator pitch to go deep into the yet-unrevealed details of a significant feature of Beyond These Stars: settleable planets!
Settleable planets
Space can get lonely - particularly when you’re a hapless Peep emerging from decades of life in shelters, or floating through parts unknown.
This mutual feeling of loneliness, this longing to reconnect with others of their species, forms a spiritual parallel between the journey of the Peeps and that of their Space Whale companion, Kewa. The Peeps of Beyond These Stars continue a legacy of rediscovery that began in the game’s prequel, emerging from generations of (literally) sheltered life to rebuild civilisation among the deserted interplanetary colonies of their Ancestors. Kewa is similarly adrift among the cosmos, long separated from the rest of their kind. Over the course of the game, these intertwined journeys come to occupy the gulf of loneliness surrounding our main characters; they also compel the player through the vastness of space, towards exciting new discoveries.
Among the many celestial bodies and bits of interstellar junk encountered by the player, are Ancestral Planets that the Peeps can settle:
Playable planets may not come as much of a surprise to players of Before We Leave, which did feature its fair share of planetary settlement & travel, but in Beyond These Stars you’ll always be coming back to Kewa. We’ll also note here that because these planets belonged to their Ancestors, the Peeps are effectively reclaiming land that used to be theirs; we took care to ensure no implication that they would be displacing any other beings in the process.
Resources
In Beyond These Stars, Kewa is always your main ride. From a gameplay perspective, we don’t intend for players to divert too much of their attention from our space whale friend; rather, settleable planets largely function as outposts that reinforce the core gameplay on Kewa’s back.
The range of resource types available on Kewa is intentionally limited. You’ll always have access to the materials needed for basic buildings that sustain life & a certain degree of population growth, but more advanced buildings will require you to wade further through the depths of space - to explore beyond just these stars, if you will. (heh)
Interstellar travel introduces you to planets with unique biomes and unusual resources. These new planets will expand gameplay by unlocking new resource types - which in turn are necessary to build new, more advanced buildings back on Kewa. There are further gameplay and narrative implications here, but we’ll be covering those in greater detail later.
Biomes
Each settleable planet is composed of one type of land biome, and one type of ocean biome.
Biomes dictate not just resource availability, but infrastructure opportunities as well. Land can be built upon and traversed, but ocean cannot - nor can it be terraformed (mostly). There are also implications for temperature and climate (more on that further down the track).
Let's take a look at the first settleable planet you'll encounter!
After some exploration, the Peeps eventually land upon a fertile, welcoming expanse of lush vegetation and rolling waves. We start you off easy: this planet doesn't quite present the gameplay challenges of later-game environments, though there are some limitations compared to what you're used to on Kewa. Forests for example are less dense here, and produce less wood per tile.
The combination of basic ocean & fertile land biomes here allow all kinds of interesting resources to flourish. One such resource is the Shell, which your Peeps can harvest by way of the Trawler:
As the unique flora of this planet implies, you’ll discover a greater variety of edible plants and their seeds, which you can bring back to your farms on Kewa. You may also notice a lack of stone & ore deposits. This is intentional: while we want to give you the necessary tools to sustain a basic outpost on each planet, we don’t want you getting too settled in. The game ultimately revolves around Kewa, where you will also have much more buildable space to play around with and nurture. Planet-side resource & space limitations help encourage you to engage with the shipping system we’ll be implementing – more on that in the coming weeks!
We’re also very excited to confirm that you will indeed be meeting some little guys!!
As to what their role is in the resource chain, before you ask: no, Peeps are strictly vegetarian!! But we’ll chat more in our later diaries about the actual function and utility of animals.
Naturally, not all planets will be quite so breezy and idyllic. Some may present far more of a challenge than others. Some might not even contain any water sources at all, which presents obvious environmental consequences - namely in a lack of soil fertility. How will you navigate such harsh conditions? And just how weird are we going to get with it?? (we’re curious to know your thoughts on how strange our future, later-game planets may be!)
New trailer - and a note on Early Access release
We also have a brand new trailer, which features some completely new footage of what we’ve discussed above! Behold:
We’re very much excited for you to explore new and unusual planets in Beyond These Stars, along with other features that we’ve not yet revealed.
Those with keen eyes will have noticed at the end of the trailer an adjustment to our estimated release year. It’s very important for us that we take the time to implement everything properly for our Early Access launch, and that we do so in a way that doesn’t burn out our team. Because of this, our initially projected 2024 release date has had to shift.
We truly love that so many people have been eagerly awaiting Beyond These Stars releasing into Early Access, and we’re working hard to make sure you get the best possible version of the game that we can give. Look to the stars in 2025!
With love,
Lia (Community Manager) 💓
