Raph Koster
@raphkoster.bsky.social
Videogames: ULTIMA ONLINE, STAR WARS GALAXIES, METAPLACE, STARS REACH (coming soon!), among others. Tabletop: WADDLE. Books: THEORY OF FUN, POSTMORTEMS, SUNDAY POEMS. Music: AFTER THE FLOOD. Also at @[email protected]
Recommended posts, 2017-2025
It's been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due. As usual this will include talks and interviews as well as articles. Just think of it as "my take on what the best stuff to…
It's been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due. As usual this will include talks and interviews as well as articles. Just think of it as "my take on what the best stuff to…
Recommended posts, 2017-2025
It's been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due. As usual this will include talks and interviews as well as articles. Just think of it as "my take on what the best stuff to look at on the site is."
www.raphkoster.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Recommended posts, 2017-2025
It's been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due. As usual this will include talks and interviews as well as articles. Just think of it as "my take on what the best stuff to…
It's been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due. As usual this will include talks and interviews as well as articles. Just think of it as "my take on what the best stuff to…
I never posted widely about the public health simulator design I wrote as Covid was shutting down the world. Until now.
Looking back at a pandemic simulator
It's been six years now since the early days of the Covid pandemic. People who were paying super close attention started hearing rumors about something going on in China towards the end of 2019 -- my earliest posts about it on Facebook were from November that year. Even at the time, people were utterly clueless about the mathematics of how a highly infectious virus spread.
www.raphkoster.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I never posted widely about the public health simulator design I wrote as Covid was shutting down the world. Until now.
Reposted by Raph Koster
Today we reveal our Stars Reach development roadmap. More than a timeline, this is a full-featured living document. Click on individual cards for more information. Watch as cards move between categories as development progresses. We want your feedback. starsreach.com/roadmap/
November 13, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Today we reveal our Stars Reach development roadmap. More than a timeline, this is a full-featured living document. Click on individual cards for more information. Watch as cards move between categories as development progresses. We want your feedback. starsreach.com/roadmap/
This update went in today. Can't wait to see what people do...
Tomorrow's game update is named GovBot Update. It's mainly focused on setting up township governments but also includes other fixes and changes. For details, see starsreach.com/govbot-update/
GovBot Update
The GovBot
The GovBot is a Transplanetary League construct that serves two purposes:
It’s a sequence of tasks that a group of planetary pioneers can use to establish a township on a new planet, and...
starsreach.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:48 PM
This update went in today. Can't wait to see what people do...
Reposted by Raph Koster
Stars Reach’s latest patch adds Star Wars Galaxies-esque player cities to the alpha
Stars Reach’s latest patch adds Star Wars Galaxies-esque player cities to the alpha
massivelyop.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Stars Reach’s latest patch adds Star Wars Galaxies-esque player cities to the alpha
Reposted by Raph Koster
In Stars Reach, every action or interaction with the planet affects its environment, fauna, flora, and players who play and live in it. But not everybody likes what you do…
youtu.be/nq92JvBVmoM
youtu.be/nq92JvBVmoM
The Servitors - 🧪 Stars Reach Lab #004
YouTube video by Stars Reach
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 4:42 PM
In Stars Reach, every action or interaction with the planet affects its environment, fauna, flora, and players who play and live in it. But not everybody likes what you do…
youtu.be/nq92JvBVmoM
youtu.be/nq92JvBVmoM
Reposted by Raph Koster
Time for the annual rewatch of the @raphkoster.bsky.social gdc talk on creativity
🎲✂️
🎲✂️
November 10, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Time for the annual rewatch of the @raphkoster.bsky.social gdc talk on creativity
🎲✂️
🎲✂️
This is unexpected. Not one, but three versions, and of course I am far from the only author whose quotes are for sale on canvas prints. Looks like three different manufacturers, and no, I do not get a cut. Fair use, I assume :D
November 10, 2025 at 5:12 AM
This is unexpected. Not one, but three versions, and of course I am far from the only author whose quotes are for sale on canvas prints. Looks like three different manufacturers, and no, I do not get a cut. Fair use, I assume :D
Haha, playing Geoguessr in UO. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG1I...
🌎I PLAYED GEOGUESSR... BUT IT'S IN ULTIMA ONLINE!!! #nostalgia #mmorpg
YouTube video by Blade Spirit
www.youtube.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Haha, playing Geoguessr in UO. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG1I...
Well, this landed on the front page of Hacker News! news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4584...
November 7, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Well, this landed on the front page of Hacker News! news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4584...
Reposted by Raph Koster
We are happy to announce a new Stars Reach Video Series that we are going to name Community Power. This first episode will feature the GUNC guild and what they've built on Akacala... but what is GUNC, who are they, when did everything start?
youtu.be/nzIhxevUwAU
youtu.be/nzIhxevUwAU
GUNC Guild on Akacala - ✨ Stars Reach Community Power #001
YouTube video by Stars Reach
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 6:11 PM
We are happy to announce a new Stars Reach Video Series that we are going to name Community Power. This first episode will feature the GUNC guild and what they've built on Akacala... but what is GUNC, who are they, when did everything start?
youtu.be/nzIhxevUwAU
youtu.be/nzIhxevUwAU
Game design is simple, actually. Except when it isn't. Here are the 12 things you need to know.
Game design is simple, actually
So, let’s just walk through the whole thing, end to end. Here’s a twelve-step program for understanding game design. One: Fun There are a lot of things people call “fun.” But most of them are not useful for getting better at making games, which is usually why people read articles like this. The fun of a bit of confetti exploding in front of you, and the fun of excruciating pain and risk to life and limb as you free climb a cliff are just not usefully paired together.
www.raphkoster.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Game design is simple, actually. Except when it isn't. Here are the 12 things you need to know.
Reposted by Raph Koster
Stars Reach’s visual upgrades ensure it barely looks like the same game introduced last year
Stars Reach’s visual upgrades ensure it barely looks like the same game introduced last year
massivelyop.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Stars Reach’s visual upgrades ensure it barely looks like the same game introduced last year
We've been working on overhauling the visuals in STARS REACH for a while. Here's a look at what's coming up!
Stars Reach visual upgrades
For months now, we have been working on a big overhaul to the visuals in Stars Reach. This has involved redoing most of the shaders in the entire game, and going back and retouching every asset. We started by redoing all the plant life and flora, and we have hundreds of those assets that had to be redone. Further, they all need to grow, change in response to seasons, be able to catch fire and burn, freeze, shed leaves and die, and so on.
www.raphkoster.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:49 PM
We've been working on overhauling the visuals in STARS REACH for a while. Here's a look at what's coming up!
Heh, I just got this reply on a Reddit thread about MMO design. :)
October 26, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Heh, I just got this reply on a Reddit thread about MMO design. :)
I've been bad about blogging when stuff got added to my site. So here's a catalog of the last couple of years including a bunch of podcasts and talks!
New stuff on the site
I really have been neglecting the blog lately. But that doesn't mean I haven't been adding content to the site all along. I figured it might not hurt to do a little summary of items that have been added over the last year and a half or more. The last talk I posted up was my GDC talk from 2024…
www.raphkoster.com
October 25, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I've been bad about blogging when stuff got added to my site. So here's a catalog of the last couple of years including a bunch of podcasts and talks!
We have been working for a while on visual upgrades for STARS REACH, and are releasing our first video of those enhancements today! More to come! :)
The Visual Upgrade: Jungle Biome - 🧪 Stars Reach Laboratory #002
Welcome back Reachers!
Today we want to showcase some new plants and vegetation, while also demonstrating how seasons, light, initial player interactions affect the living world.
youtu.be/tZ40i-xLDEY
Welcome back Reachers!
Today we want to showcase some new plants and vegetation, while also demonstrating how seasons, light, initial player interactions affect the living world.
youtu.be/tZ40i-xLDEY
The Visual Upgrade: Jungle Biome - 🧪 Stars Reach Laboratory #002
YouTube video by Stars Reach
youtu.be
October 21, 2025 at 6:49 PM
We have been working for a while on visual upgrades for STARS REACH, and are releasing our first video of those enhancements today! More to come! :)
Reposted by Raph Koster
Take that game idea in the back of your head -- how could it communicate its core idea through mechanics and systems, before aesthetics and narrative?
@raphkoster.bsky.social on the difference between thematic experimentation vs mechanical experimentation.
@raphkoster.bsky.social on the difference between thematic experimentation vs mechanical experimentation.
October 17, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Take that game idea in the back of your head -- how could it communicate its core idea through mechanics and systems, before aesthetics and narrative?
@raphkoster.bsky.social on the difference between thematic experimentation vs mechanical experimentation.
@raphkoster.bsky.social on the difference between thematic experimentation vs mechanical experimentation.
Reposted by Raph Koster
I greatly enjoyed this chat with @raphkoster.bsky.social about fun, cognitive theory, and the massive 3D cellular automata powering the @playstarsreach.bsky.social galaxy.
Broad simulation, player control, and emergent behaviour ➡️ the best stories in games.
Broad simulation, player control, and emergent behaviour ➡️ the best stories in games.
Playing God with Galactic Cellular Automata in Stars Reach - Raph Koster | grokludo 11
YouTube video by The Junglist
www.youtube.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:25 AM
I greatly enjoyed this chat with @raphkoster.bsky.social about fun, cognitive theory, and the massive 3D cellular automata powering the @playstarsreach.bsky.social galaxy.
Broad simulation, player control, and emergent behaviour ➡️ the best stories in games.
Broad simulation, player control, and emergent behaviour ➡️ the best stories in games.
Site updates
It's been quite a while since the site was refreshed. I was forced into it by a PHP upgrade that rendered the old customizable theme I was using obsolete. We're now running a new theme that has been styled to match the old one pretty closely, but I did go ahead and do some…
It's been quite a while since the site was refreshed. I was forced into it by a PHP upgrade that rendered the old customizable theme I was using obsolete. We're now running a new theme that has been styled to match the old one pretty closely, but I did go ahead and do some…
Site updates
It's been quite a while since the site was refreshed. I was forced into it by a PHP upgrade that rendered the old customizable theme I was using obsolete. We're now running a new theme that has been styled to match the old one pretty closely, but I did go ahead and do some streamlining: way less plugins (especially ancient ones), simpler layout in several places, much better handling of responsive layouts for mobile, down to a single sidebar, and so on.
www.raphkoster.com
October 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Site updates
It's been quite a while since the site was refreshed. I was forced into it by a PHP upgrade that rendered the old customizable theme I was using obsolete. We're now running a new theme that has been styled to match the old one pretty closely, but I did go ahead and do some…
It's been quite a while since the site was refreshed. I was forced into it by a PHP upgrade that rendered the old customizable theme I was using obsolete. We're now running a new theme that has been styled to match the old one pretty closely, but I did go ahead and do some…
We recently showed off STARS REACH at a local IGDA meetup, and I also got to do an hour long talk about the history of online worlds, from PLATO to looter-shooters and beyond!
A tour de force presentation on The Evolution of Online Worlds by Raph Koster ( @raphkoster.bsky.social ) at IGDA
The intertwined history of gaming and social interaction.
Slightly older than Raph, this is my lived history from the 70s onwards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=USeg...
The intertwined history of gaming and social interaction.
Slightly older than Raph, this is my lived history from the 70s onwards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=USeg...
Raph Koster at the IGDA - The Evolution of Online Worlds
YouTube video by Stars Reach
www.youtube.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
We recently showed off STARS REACH at a local IGDA meetup, and I also got to do an hour long talk about the history of online worlds, from PLATO to looter-shooters and beyond!
They also talk about Theory of Fun. :)
This week on Get Played Heather, Nick and Matt look back at 40 years of Super Mario Bros! They talk about some of their favorite entries in the series, what makes Mario endure, their first Mario experiences and more! Listen wherever you get tour podcasts headgum.com/get-played
September 15, 2025 at 10:59 PM
They also talk about Theory of Fun. :)
A giant build done by players in Stars Reach. It’s showing us what we need to optimize!
youtu.be/rhvm3enxWkU
youtu.be/rhvm3enxWkU
This player made freighter in Stars Reach is INSANE!
YouTube video by Controlled Chaos Gaming
youtu.be
August 23, 2025 at 3:46 AM
A giant build done by players in Stars Reach. It’s showing us what we need to optimize!
youtu.be/rhvm3enxWkU
youtu.be/rhvm3enxWkU
