What is Star Atlas? Part I
Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.
-Stephen Hawking
Dear Mortal Readers,
At its very core, Star Atlas aims to be a Serverless Massively Multiplayer Online Game played on the Solana blockchain. I say aims to be because, at the time of writing this article, it is still very early in development. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get involved and begin this journey in some form!
The lore behind Star Atlas begins in the year 2620 where three factions have emerged:
The MUD Territory governed by humankind
The ONI Region as a consortium of alien races
The USTUR Sector controlled by sentient androids
These three factions are constantly in a battle for resources, new territory, and political domination. As a citizen of one of the three factions, you have the power to influence the battle while having many opportunities in both the game and in the real world.
Before I dive into these opportunities, I'd like to first explain the technology behind the game. The game introduces a unique gaming experience through the combination of both traditional core games and blockchain mechanics. (Think of these as the skeleton and body of a mortal being where the blockchain mechanics is the skeleton and its infrastructure and the core game mechanics is the body).
As previously mentioned, it is built using Blockchain technology upon the Solana protocol establishing a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience which means smart contracts, non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, and cryptocurrencies are integrated into the project. The use of NFTs obtained and traded within Star Atlas creates an economy that replicates the tangibility of real-world assets and ownership (At the time of writing, some of these concepts are already in the minigame such as spaceship NFTs, ATLAS and POLIS tokens, and being able to stake your spaceships for ATLAS!).
Core game mechanics such as exploration, territory control, PvP, PvE, and a career system will also be integrated into the game (this can be seen in the minigame where all three factions are recruiting spaceships to go establish borders and explore the space frontier).
In its crowning glory, Star Atlas will be a fully immersive game using Unreal Engine 5, where cinematic quality game visuals will be experienced through VR. Even though we are still years away from this grand vision, the Star Atlas team continues to work hard to be able to bring the community a playable browser minigame where the opportunities aforementioned are plentiful!
I will discuss these opportunities and more in part II of this article but if you have any questions the Star Atlas Discord will be attached along with the Whitepaper where most of this information and much more originates.
Until Next Time!!
