Solana NFT Game Star Atlas launches playable demo on Epic Games Store

Star atlas is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious NFT-powered games on the horizon, although it may be years before that Solana-based strategy game for outer space is fully taking shape. Avid gamers don’t have to wait that long to get a taste, though: a limited demo has just been released via the Epic Games Store.

Launched today as part of a live-streamed event, Star Atlas: Showroom is a pre-alpha demo of the Unreal Engine 5 technology that powers the game. It allows Star Atlas NFT owners to explore a 3D environment and see the ships and vehicles they have invested in.

Star Atlas currently only offers access to people who own the NFTs: they can earn an access key by owning a ship and joining one of Star Atlas’ in-game factions. Michael Wagner, CEO and co-founder of Star Atlas developer ATMTA, said Decrypt that the demo also has a single non-NFT ship to explore, and that some access codes will be given to select non-owners.

Later this year, the Showroom demo will be expanded to include more features, including multiplayer features, chat functionality and the ability for NFT holders to take their ships out for a flight. An NFT is a blockchain token which represents ownership of a unique item—in this case, digital spaceships and other vehicles that can be used in a video game.

In addition to launching its own first playable taste of Star Atlas, the developer also today released a toolkit to make it easier for other developers to bring their own Unreal Engine 5-based games to Solana blockchain.

The Foundation Software Development Kit (F-KIT) is an open source SDK that allows Unreal Engine 5 developers to integrate the Solana blockchain, allowing users to sign transactions to complete in-game actions. Coming from Fortnite creator Epic Games, the Unreal Engine is widely used in the video game industry, as well as for TV shows and movies.

Releasing F-KIT as an open-source tool means that “mainstream studios,” as Wagner put it, “now have a faster path” to making games on Solana. He said other builders could also take the kit and extend it to other networks, such as Ethereum. For his team, however, it’s also a way to encourage others to “build experiences that expand the Star Atlas universe.”

Star Atlas made a number of other announcements today, including updates to its governance structure via a DAO and the path to full decentralization of the game’s economy and ecosystem, as well as an upcoming digital graphic novel that establishes the lore for the sci-fi game.

Wagner explained that ATMTA is developing two different clients for Star Atlas: the glossier Unreal Engine 5 version that the firm plans to release only through the Epic Games Store — though not in a formal exclusivity deal, an Epic Games spokesperson said. Decrypt—and a simpler web-based WebGL version. All game functionality will be available in both versions, but the Epic Games Store version will require a game-compatible PC to run.

The Epic Games Store is a popular platform for PC gaming, with over 194 million users claimed by the end of 2021. And unlike its main rival, Steam, the Epic Games Store is OK with games that use NFTs and blockchains, as long as they follow the platform’s regulations.

Just recently, Mythical Games launched the first NFT-based game on the platform: Blanko’s Block Party, an online coloring playground that the studio claims had more than 1 million total users before it came to the Epic Games Store. Another NFT-based game, Gala Games’ shooter GRIT, is also set for release via the same marketplace.

Star Atlas: The Showroom Demo is just a light taste of the future, complete gaming experience, which sounds like a much more robust affair than your average crypto game today. Big games take time to develop – and in this case, Wagner envisions another five or six years of development at Star Atlas.

But the Showroom launch suggests the kind of incremental release plan ATMTA has in mind, Wagner said. The Showroom itself will gain more features by the end of the year, and by the end of 2023 the team plans to release a full “vertical part” of the game – that is, a fully functional (but limited) part of the gameplay that shows what the whole game should be like .

We still have a long way to go, he says. “But the idea is to continually release these iterative features so you keep getting more engagement.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify that Star Atlas does not have an exclusive deal in place with the Epic Games Store.