Yesterday before the play test, the Playable Worlds team held a one hour fireside on Discord to present their plans for their Kickstarter campaign.

The way the team has the Kickstarter rewards laid out required a look into the business model, so in the presentation they gave us, the first slide was a look at that and the state of affairs after the Kickstarter.

After the Kickstarter Slide – Also, Slide Subheader

The business model, as Raph has been saying for a while now, will be free to play with a cash shop and such.  Standard fare.  The twist is that there will be a subscription that they really do not want to call a subscription, which will be the property pass.

In order to hold some land on a planet so you can build your dream space castle, you will need a property pass, which will be good for 30 days (they said that and monthly at various times, but since not every month is the same length I trust the 30 day number) and allow you to have a homestead.

The current estimated price of a property pass will be $10, but that may change.

This comes up because some of the tiers come with a property pass addition, up to and including a lifetime property pass for the $10K tier, but we’ll get to that.

If you let your property pass expire, your stuff will be packed up and put in storage.  It can be retrieved and redeployed if you decide to resume playing/paying.  The mechanics of this are yet to be demonstrated, but the intent is there.

As noted previously, to play in the test phase up to early access, you will need to be a backer of the Kickstarter at a set level.

Then will come early access, which will allow anybody to buy in to play.  Kickstarter backers in the test phase will also be allowed into early access based on their pledge.

And then, when the game goes live and it free to play, everybody can jump in.  Somewhere around then Kickstarter backers will get their in-game items.  Cosmetic rewards will be eternal, while tools, and there is a terraformer, a grav mesh, and a grapple that you can get at different tiers, will have a special look but will otherwise be no better than what an artisan can craft and will wear out and eventually break, at which point they will be gone forever.

So buyer beware.

There was also an estimate given for when they hope to get to more advanced stages of testing.  Right now we are testing very focused and small bits of that larger whole.  The hope is to get to the point of having a more complete/comprehensive version of the game at some point during the summer, real beta (something that could be a stand alone game, feature complete but still needing refinement and fixes) by the end of the year with an eye towards early access next year maybe.

And then we got into the Kickstarter rewards.  No total amount was mentioned, so we’ll have to wait until Tuesday for that most likely.

These are the tiers that were presented at the fireside, changed up from their initial pass at them.  They are subject to change before the Kickstarter goes live… and theoretically until the campaign ends I suppose… so what you see tomorrow may vary from what we were told on Saturday.  All prices in USD.  Kickstarter will convert to your local currency.

• Settler Tier – $1
  • Email Updates – Get news about the project to your inbox
  • Upgrade Ticket – If you decide later (post campaign I assume) you want to pledge at a higher tier, this ticket will allow you to do so

This helps the campaign as the more people pledging, even at the lowest tier, the more likely the campaign is to be featured.

• Citizen Tier – $5
  • The Settler Tier items
  • And unfortunate name that will remind you of that other project
  • Scout Discord role that will distinguish you on the Stars Reach Discord server
  • A set of 4K wall papers

As with the settle tier, helps the campaign gain attention.

• Merchant Tier – $30
  • Benefits from lower tiers
  • A digital poster building item “signed” by the dev team that you can hang on a wall in your base
  • Name in the credits
  • Access to play testing and early access

This is the lowest price point if you want to be part of the play tests and be set for early access without having to buy anything else.

• Explorer Tier – $60
  • Benefits from lower tiers
  • One property pass
  • STL files so you can use a 3D printer to make some of the critters
  • In-game Stars Reach t-shirt like the ones early testers were able to buy
  • Grappling Hook with a special texture and longer range, though no better than what an artisan can make in game and subject to eventual breakage
  • Two spotlights, unique building items that can be used for lighting effects, will not be available at any other time later

Here is where we get to the first mention of the property pass, which is why that had to be mentioned up front.  Also, an in-game tool that has all the limitations of items built in game.

• Ranger Tier – $100 (limited early bird price $75)
  • All Explorer Tier items
  • Two total property passes
  • Unique pet trick emote, will not be available at a later date
  • Fortress Shield defensive item that includes special visual appearance
  • Holographic Globe building item to place in your base, will not be available at a later date
  • Upgraded terraformer with unique look, no better than artisan produced items and subject to eventual breakage
  • Special grappling hook skin… which sounds like it can be applied to any grappling hook you obtain in game

Two property passes, and a terraformer that will break eventually if used.

• 2x Ranger Tier – $190
  • Everything in the ranger tier package times two, for you and a friend or significant other.

We’re now into friends and family options.  There will be more.

• 5x Ranger Tier – $450
  • Everything in the ranger tier package times five, for you and four others

For those of you who have as many as five friends.  If you don’t have five friends it was suggest that, since things can be traded in-game, you might be able to convince a few people to be your friend with the extras.

• Homesteader Tier – $165 (limited early bird price $120)
  • All Ranger Tier items
  • Three total property passes
  • A special pet, not available later, which may be sold or traded in the game later
  • Two tool crates that let you choose one highest durability level tool from each to use in-game, no higher than best artisan quality and will break
  • Special scout ship skin, never to be available again
  • Special building textures, only usable on structures in your own homestead

Some special textures, all of which are said to be one time only.

• 2x Homesteader Tier – $315
  • The Homesteader Tier times two

Another multi-pack

• Traveller Tier – $250 (limited early bird price $175)
  • All Homesteader Tier items
  • Four total property passes
  • Robot Dog companion
  • Extra cosmetic pet slot
  • Grav mesh, no better than artisan quality and subject to eventual breakage
  • Special grav mesh visual effect, presumably can be applied to any grav mesh you obtain later

Here is the grav mesh, my favorite item in the game.  It may not last, but the cosmetic visual effect may go on.

• 2x Traveller Tier – $475
  • The Traveller Tier times five

The five ranger tier discount seems to be better than the two Traveller Tier discount, but not if you divide them by the number of packs.

After this point I am going to post the related slide just to check my work.

• Transplanetary Tier – $995 (limited early bird price $800)
  • All Traveller Tier items
  • Twelve total property passes
  • Grav sled, no better than artisan quality, subject to breakage
  • Cargo Starship with enlarged shipping hold and a Transplanetary skin
  • Interdiction Cloak: Avoids Servitors scans and illicit cargo confiscations
  • Transplanetary spacesuit skin
  • In-game title and Discord role: Transplanetary
  • Launch part ticket and goody bag – does not include travel and lodging, that is on you
  • Digital Plaque in the “Hall of Heroes” in Transplanetary League Starbase where new players pass

Transplanetary Tier Slide

Now we’re getting into some big items.  I am not sure how the cargo starship works, so maybe something worrying?

• Wormgate Trader Tier – $1,500
  • Five Traveller Tier passes hand out which also include:
  • Twelve total property passes
  • In-game title and Discord role: Wormgate Trader
  • Launch part ticket and goody bag – does not include travel and lodging, that is on you
  • Physical thank you post card signed by the team
  • Digital Plaque in the “Hall of Heroes” in Transplanetary League Starbase where new players pass

Wormgate Trader Tier Slide

Now we’re into tiers where you get in-game passes that offer things different from the total tier, so I am not sure exactly how many property passes are actually in play here.  I am also not sure what a wormgate it at this point either.

• Tech Runner Tier – $2,250
  • Five Traveller Tier passes hand out which also include:
    • Smuggler Scoutship with hidden cargo areas
    • Interdiction Cloak: Avoids Servitors scans and illicit cargo confiscations
    • Smuggler spacesuit skin
  • Twelve total property passes
  • In-game title and Discord role: Tech runner
  • Launch part ticket and goody bag – does not include travel and lodging, that is on you
  • Physical thank you post card signed by the team
  • Digital Plaque in the “Hall of Heroes” in Transplanetary League Starbase where new players pass

Tech Runner Tier Slide

Again, not sure what the total of items really is here, but it is a lot.

• Guild Patron Tier – $5,000
  • Ten Traveller Tier passes hand out which also include:
    • Smuggler Scoutship with hidden cargo areas
    • Smuggler spacesuit skin
  • Twelve total property passes
  • In-game title and Discord role: Guild Patron
  • Reserve a guild name
  • Launch part ticket and goody bag – does not include travel and lodging, that is on you
  • Physical thank you post card signed by the team
  • Digital Plaque in the “Hall of Heroes” in Transplanetary League Starbase where new players pass

Guild Patron Tier Slide

Kind of a lot to reserve a guild name, but maybe you and your friends could pitch in… if you have that many friends.

• Galactic Plenipotentiary Tier – $10,000
  • Fifteen Traveller Tier passes hand out which also include:
    • Plenipotentiary Guild Scoutship with hidden cargo areas
    • Plenipotentiary Guild spacesuit skin
  • Own a Planet from day one
    • Choose climate and type of planet from options list
    • Name the planet (naming standards do apply)
    • Assume immediate ownership of the planet on game launch
  • Lifetime property passes
  • In-game title and Discord role: Galactic Plenipotentiary
  • Reserve a guild name
  • Launch part ticket and goody bag – does not include travel and lodging, that is on you
  • Physical thank you post card signed by the team
  • Digital Plaque in the “Hall of Heroes” in Transplanetary League Starbase where new players pass

Galactic Plenipotentiary Tier Slide

A lifetime property pass is something, but the planet thing… I am not sure how I feel about that, if only because, given what I have seen so far, it is pretty easy to wreck a planet.  Granted, we have yet to see any of the planetary governance mechanics in play… and, of course, I am not spending ten grand on a video game Kickstarter, so it is a very theoretical problem to consider.

There it is.  All of the above slides and more are in the video recording linked below.

The Kickstarter campaign is set to start on Tuesday, February 25th at 8am Pacific Time, which is 16:00 UTC.

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