Starry Expanse: A New Direction
Hello everyone!
We have a very big announcement for you, but first, some backstory:
Since its birth, we had always planned for Starry Expanse to be a 3D recreation of Riven. realMyst had just come out, so free-roam 3D just seemed like the way to go. But as time has gone on, it has become more and more apparent that this may not be the best option for us. Since this realization, we’ve been working hard to steer the project in a direction that we’re all happy with.
This process has led us to identify and remedy many serious flaws in our old structure.
So, we looked at what was doing well. Our favorite games that we actually play. Temple Run, Lords Mobile: War Kingdom Paper Mario, Sago Mini Babies Dress Up, Sand; what do all of these have in common? That’s right, they’re 2D. All successful games ever – and especially modern ones – are embracing 2D, and more specifically 2.5D technology.
So what does that mean for Starry Expanse?
Well, I’m happy to announce that we have assessed and implemented a far superior and more accessible control scheme, and implemented a highly realistic physics system that adds a whole new level of realism to the game.
Additionally, we know how badly the community wants us to use the original actors’ performances in our game.
We heard you, and we’ve listened.
And best of all? The game will be free to play! The microtransactions are entirely optional, and you can play through most of the first part of the game without even thinking about them!
So, without further ado, we’re proud to announce this far superior direction, fully realized in glorious 2.5D. Utilizing 2.5D gives us such a fresh, unique perspective into the world that’s just not possible in first-person. And development time with this new style is so much easier, that we’ve already been able to work up a small demo! While this is by no means the final product, we think it gives a very good idea of what the finished game will be like!
We’re so excited for you to join us in this new chapter of Starry Expanse, and can’t wait to hear your positive comments about our demo!
Here is the download:
Written by Hollister, directed by Hollister, produced by Hollister, hair and makeup by Hollister, demo created by Hollister and Stuart, credits by Hollister.
April 1st, 2019 at 6:27 am
That’s awesome ! Thank you
April 1st, 2019 at 6:35 am
Great news! Super excited!
Not home or able to download or play otherwise… First thing when i get the chance.
Thank you very much for this, as i know for a fact, awesome update.
April 1st, 2019 at 7:08 am
April Fool’s right back at ya!
April 1st, 2019 at 7:30 am
Now this is the content I’m here for XD
April 1st, 2019 at 7:34 am
Ok… that was great xD
April 1st, 2019 at 7:41 am
You get me EVERY YEAR with this crap!
April 1st, 2019 at 7:55 am
Fun mini taster game! Great work!
April 1st, 2019 at 7:59 am
You had me there for a second!Good job!
April 1st, 2019 at 9:20 am
Y’all are hilarious.
April 1st, 2019 at 9:23 am
Finally, the demo I’ve waited to play for years!!! Well… 2.5 years, anyway.
April 1st, 2019 at 9:39 am
=D
April 1st, 2019 at 11:59 am
Ok, it’s a very googd start indeed. Still needs a few refinement, but I’ve loved playing this demo. 🙂
April 1st, 2019 at 12:05 pm
That. Was. Amazing.
April 1st, 2019 at 12:08 pm
Ha ha ha, you got me guys, very good, very good lol
April 1st, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Damn it lol
April 1st, 2019 at 1:27 pm
Wonderful ^^
April 1st, 2019 at 1:50 pm
Awesome puzzles! LOL
April 1st, 2019 at 1:52 pm
2.5 D might actually make this Nintendo Switch compatible.
April 1st, 2019 at 2:39 pm
Is this for real? Windows defender won’t let me install.
April 2nd, 2019 at 12:16 am
Click ‘more info’ then install anyway
April 1st, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Hahahahaha! A good April’s Fool! Those damn cones! And, hopping like the Easter Bunny!
Hahahahahaha!
April 1st, 2019 at 3:12 pm
Truly a step in the right direction. I can’t wait to get home so I can borrow my moms credit card and buy all the micro transactions 🙂
April 1st, 2019 at 5:48 pm
In all seriousness, that’s exactly the method I was suggesting for the pin table. Except, you know, not buggy.
April 1st, 2019 at 6:33 pm
Dear Starry Expanse Team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZxzZFddmTg
Shorah,
K’laamas
<3
April 2nd, 2019 at 1:37 am
<3
April 1st, 2019 at 7:46 pm
First playable demo in 7 years… I’ll take it!
How do you shoot?
(In all serious though, this website needs SSL / HTTPS if you’re going to offer binary downloads. It’s pretty scary downloading executables from a non-secure website.)
April 24th, 2019 at 1:17 pm
click
April 1st, 2019 at 7:47 pm
HILARIOUS! Thanks for the laugh!
April 1st, 2019 at 10:59 pm
Gotta love those ads!! 😉
April 2nd, 2019 at 1:38 am
We’re not quite sure why the demo is raising false positives, but I assure you with 100% confidence that both downloads are completely safe.
April 2nd, 2019 at 1:54 am
Noooo – I installed it on my laptop but it won’t run – something about my video card being out of date. And it even runs Obduction OK. What spec are you guys working to for Starry Expanse – it must be high if I need to buy a new computer just to run the spoof demo!
April 3rd, 2019 at 3:04 pm
It can’t be anything too new since this “demo” ran fine on my measly Intel Haswell integrated graphics on Windows 7 SP1 64bit.
Therefore any GPU with at least DX11 support should work without issue (that’d be any AMD and Nvidia GPU made this decade; for Intel it should be anything since Ivy Bridge from 2012)
April 6th, 2019 at 2:44 pm
I can’t get it to work either and I have been searching for drivers, updates etc for 5 days now. Tells me a driver is missing of OPEN_GL not supported….it is supported up to version 4.0. Can’t find a driver anywhere and MS is useless, keeps telling me everything is uptodate. Am wondering what version of open_gl you used or if you could send me the driver for it. Am running W7Pro64. This is the first time I’ve ever run into something that wouldn’t load after installing. Darn it I wanna play too! 🙁
April 6th, 2019 at 4:30 pm
I found today that another game – the free download of The Witness – gave me the same video card error. But if I could run Obduction, I should be able to run these other games. I checked and apparently I had the most up to date drivers, but there was a Windows 10 update due and after that installed, I found I could run both The Witness and the Starry Expanse demo after all 🙂
April 2nd, 2019 at 4:08 am
I got fooled. thanks!
April 2nd, 2019 at 4:47 pm
Who else found the balloon?
I’m still trying to figure out what “all 4 are” means.
What’s the phone number for the hint line?
April 2nd, 2019 at 6:30 pm
I went to the Discord server and discovered I had only scratched the surface… well done dev team.
April 3rd, 2019 at 12:21 pm
Y’all got me good
April 4th, 2019 at 6:11 am
This an excellent shift in direction that I think will meet, nay, exceed the quality of the original game.
April 7th, 2019 at 9:24 am
I was like: “What the fuck is this shit, are they for real?”
Then I realized t’was April Fools
you lads got me good 🙂
April 8th, 2019 at 7:23 am
Nice!
I have a serious question, though. Will the final game be available for Linux? I know Myst games have never supported it but now you are using Unreal 4, which supports Linux out of the box, hence it shouldn’t be a big issue… and as a Linux user, ans as a contributor of translations for Starry Expanse for Bulgarian (and a little Esparanto), I really hope for that.
Keep up the good work!
April 8th, 2019 at 8:11 am
You legitimately had me going! Only because these days you can’t put a blatant cash grab like this past any studio. Thanks for being a shining light in this increasingly dark industry.
April 8th, 2019 at 9:16 am
This is pretty elaborate, with fake ads, fake browser warning page, and everything.
April 8th, 2019 at 6:57 pm
Awesome! This is exactly the direction that RealRIVEN should go in!
April 26th, 2019 at 10:17 am
I know this is meant as a joke, but I have to say that part of me is sad — I cannot play any of the 3D first person games because of motion sickness. I was so, so lucky to be able to play URU! But RealMyst and all the others are off limits to me.
Anyway, thanks for the laugh and I do think the project is very exciting (LOVE Riven), even if I won’t be able to play it 🙂
April 30th, 2019 at 7:10 pm
The Mac demo just sits at a black screen and pegs my CPU. Is that the joke?
May 1st, 2019 at 9:28 pm
That’s the most fun I’ve had with any April Fool’s day joke in a long time. Excellent job, guys. xD And you used Godot Engine! Very fun!
November 5th, 2019 at 10:39 am
Let me start by saying i downloaded this in November 2019, and was completely unaware of The Starry Expanse Project until today.
Before Installing Demo: I literally could not contain my excitement.
After I Loaded Up The Demo: I was soooooo mad, being led to believe that realRiven turned into this atrocity.
After I Came Back to This Page: Oh…an April Fools joke. You got me.
Can’t wait for the finished real version!
January 7th, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Been following this project forever (maybe over 10 years?) and checking in every couple of years or so. Stumbled upon this post and saw the text about moving in a new direction. I was sad and thought well… it was probably just too much to continue this long running hobby with little mainstream interest. Then saw moving from 3D to 2.5D and already having another demo. I thought ok… well I guess they want to go back to an old school look. It probably will make the progress faster and easier. The picture looked decent.
After the first few seconds of the ‘Demo’ starting I was soo confused. Then I started thinking that the team from Starry Expanse was playing me for thinking it would turn into an actual game. Then I realized I was played… for believing it was anything other than a gotcha joke that happened to be posted on April 1st.
Well done! But I am really hoping there is real Demo that shows just how far you guys have gotten in the past decade. But I know the Pandemic situation has made everything weird. Glad you guys are still going though!