Star Atlas Teases ‘Random Story Encounters’ In Next Major Update, CEO Says Procedural Generation Needed To Populate Universe

• Star Atlas has teased the first look at its ‘random story encounters’ within the upcoming space metaverse.
• However, CEO Michael Wagner told CCN that procedural generation is crucial to achieving the game’s vast scope.
• Each planet will feature unique, on-chain resources that feed into Star Atlas’ play-to-earn economy.

Star Atlas, the ambitious space metaverse being built on the Solana blockchain, has teased its next central feature: random story encounters.

While hand-crafted missions will be critical to the game’s storytelling ambitions, CEO Michael Wagner told CCN that procedural generation is a requirement to realizing Star Atlas’ bold promises.

Star Atlas ‘Random Story Encounters’

In a recently released pre-alpha gameplay walkthrough, players got their first glimpse of how these encounters will function.

The footage included a fully narrated ambush during a seemingly routine flight.

According to the team, these random, scripted experiences will be unpredictable.

Hand-crafted missions will continue to offer curated narratives that unfold over time, guided by established characters and link to the universe’s evolving lore and politics.

However, given the vast scale of the galaxy, handcrafting every detail is not feasible.

Procedural Generation A “Requirement”

In a recent interview with CCN, CEO Michael Wagner discussed the logistical and creative challenges of building a universe that is intended to feel as big as space.

“Populating the universe, there is an intention and plan right now to leverage procedural generation,” Wagner said.

“It’s almost certainly a requirement because we’re looking at thousands and thousands of planets across this universe, and having custom environment art and development on each one of those just isn’t feasible to complete in any reasonable amount of time,” he added.

Procedural generation will be used to create the foundational structure of the game’s universe, planets, star systems, and encounters, which Star Atlas’ internal teams will then enhance.

Narrative designers and artists will layer in unique missions, stories, and planetary traits to give the procedurally generated framework variety and personality.

“To some extent, it’s using our lore and content team to then create story and missions and quests associated with visiting various places,” Wagner said.

On-Chain Resources

Each planet in Star Atlas will also contain distinct resource types that play both narrative and gameplay roles.

These resources will exist fully on-chain , tying them directly into the game’s broader economic systems.

“It’s also populating each of those planets with various resources that would be a driver for people to go engage in,” Wagner said.

Wagner also emphasized the importance of SAGE, the 2D browser-based real-time strategy (RTS) MMO component of Star Atlas, as a foundation for the game’s resource systems.

In SAGE, players use claim stakes to manage land and extract resources—mechanics that will eventually be replicated within the 3D Unreal Engine version of the game.

“Some combination of what we’re building in SAGE, which is going to be replicated with Unreal Engine to determine resource distribution throughout the game—that will be a driver to populate space, because you can extract real value in doing that,” Wagner explained.

These integrated systems aim to ensure consistency and shared progression across platforms.