Well..the demo at least
The demo for the long-awaited Solana-based Space Epic is Star Atlas is now available for play on the Epic Store, well the demo is at least.
Star atlas has just rolled out the first playable demo and its developer released the tools used for the game to help bring more games to the Solana ecosystem.
Star Atlas has been touted as one of the most ambitious projects from the Solana ecosystem to date.. The game is fully NFT driven but unlike most of the games that are out there that utilize NFT technology Star Atlas is fully AAA with enhanced graphics and engaging gameplay. The game has lots of promise with fully immersive space exploration on the horizon.
The space strategy game will still probably take years to be fully fleshed out but players can have a small taste of the excitement via the Epic Games Store. The Epic Games Store is the platform for the demo since the game is being created with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. The demo was launched via a live streamed event Star Atlas : Showroom. The demo is a pre-alpha demo of the Unreal Engine 5 technology that is being used to create and power the game. The showroom allows owners of Star Atlas NFTs the ability to view the environments and vehicles that they own in a 3D environment.
Currently the only people that can view the demo are those that own NFTs from the project. Holders are given an access key by owning a ship and joining a faction. There is also a single non-NFT shop to explore as well as some secret codes given to select non-owners.
Holders need not worry if this would be the only taste they get as the Showroom demo will probably be expanded a bit to include more features like multiplayer, chat , and even flight.
The team of Star Atlas also released a toolkit that can be used to make more Unreal Engine 5 based games to the blockchain. The toolkit is called the Foundation Software Development Kit (F-KIT) ad is an open-source SDK allowing developers to integrate Solana, enabling the signing of transactions.
The CEO of Star Atlas Michael Wagner stated that releasing the SDK enables mainstream studios the ability to bring their products to the Solana blockchain and web3 in general a lot faster. He also stated that he hopes releasing the toolkit allows others to build upon the Star Atlas universe.
During the event the team also announced changes to the governance structure of the DAO and full decentralization of the game economy, there’s also going to be a graphic novel created to establish the lore of the game as well.
The Epic Games Store has proven to be very web3 friendly as more blockchain games find their way to the platform. Recently the online store became home to the first blockchain game Blankos Block Party with another game GRIT due for release sometime this year.
