What is Stellar Wasteland™?

Stellar Wasteland™ is a 2D sci-fi sandbox role playing game that I’m solo developing. It’s set in a far-future galaxy where everything has pretty much gone to shite, and everyone’s just doing their best to survive. Hostile aliens and opportunistic factions roam the stars, and humanity’s golden age is long gone – we had our shot at greatness, and we blew it. Now it’s a cruel, broken galaxy… but there are still glimmers of hope.

Amid all the danger, death, and decay, it’s the small things that matter: sharing a cold beer with your crew after a brutal mission; redecorating your ship with pot plants and cozy rugs; trading witty banter with the companions you hold dearest. Those are the moments that make it all worthwhile.

That there is the essence of the world I’m building. I plan to make it as lore-rich and history-filled as my brain can possibly handle – which feels fitting, since Stellar Wasteland actually began as a book originally. My goal is to take inspiration from all my favourite sci-fi universes and stories, give it my own unique twist, and *hopefully* create something truly special that others can enjoy as much as I do.

I’ll spare you the usual marketing spiel and fancy buzzwords since there’s plenty of that elsewhere. Simply put: I love sci-fi. I love RPGs. I love highly-moddable sandbox games. I love(d) The Sims (before EA did what EA does), and I love Firefly. And since I’ve never found a game that really blends all those things into one cohesive, character-driven, content-rich experience… I decided to make it myself.

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When will Stellar Wasteland be released?

The plan is to launch an Early Access version sometime in 2027, once there’s enough content to actually make it worthwhile – meaning multiple locations, quests, and all the main gameplay systems in place. I don’t want to rush out a bare-bones build just for the sake of having one; I’d rather people’s first experience with Stellar Wasteland actually feel like a game, and not just a prototype.

That being said, I’ll still be sharing regular updates and behind-the-scenes looks along the way as development continues – but full Early Access will only happen once it’s genuinely ready for players to dive in and get real value (and hours) out of it.

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Will Stellar Wasteland have mod support?

Hells yeah it will – mod support is one of the core pillars of my entire design philosophy. From day one, everything has been built around moddability: JSON-based data, modular systems, and clean, purpose-built architecture that lets players and modders add or replace content with minimal effort.

I’m doing my best to make as many systems moddable as possible within Unity’s framework. Some things like the core character rigs, or built-in Sprite Libraries, simply can’t be modified at runtime without resorting to hacky or unstable workarounds. So while those few core assets will stay locked, almost everything else will be open to customisation wherever it makes sense.

For the few cases like the above, I’ll still provide the option to disable or override vanilla content, so full overhauls or total world replacements are absolutely possible – they’ll just need to use my existing human bone setups as their foundation.

As development advances, Harmony integration will also be added for script-level mods, and Steam Workshop support for easy sharing and installation.
And yes – Achievements will still be enabled even with mods!

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Will Stellar Wasteland include AI-Generated Content?

No. Stellar Wasteland will never have AI generated content in the game. All code is designed by me. All text is written by me. All art is drawn by me. All audio is composed by me (or, for SFX, purchased by me). If at any time the game does end up including content not made by me – it will be content created by another real human being.

As someone who comes from an artistic background, I am strongly opposed to the usage of generative content made by AI. I feel that human authorship is a core component of any artistic work, and that artists and creators should always be credited for their works; therefore I intend to stand by these ideals throughout the entirety of development and beyond.

I will be clear, I do use Claude for learning, prototyping, problem-solving, and to grasp new design patterns, much in the same fashion as documentation, forums, and Stack Overflow, but ultimately it has zero generative input in the game itself and is entirely disconnected from my IDE. I use it to help me understand new concepts, explore system design ideas, and occasionally to find bugs that I can’t, but all creative and technical content in Stellar Wasteland is written, implemented, and authored by me – not a robot.

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As an unknown developer, do you have any prior experience?

Not any industry experience, but a fair bit of unofficial experience – lemme explain.

I actually learnt game development in a fairly unconventional manner, with high level systems design first and low level syntax later (which really sucks btw). The way this happened was because most of my knowledge was actually gained from on-again, off-again modding – which I’ve been doing for around 14 years now. Some games under the ol’tool-belt include Half-Life 2, Dawn of War Dark Crusade, Fallout 1, Supreme Commander, Arma 2, Skyrim, Medieval II Total War, Fallout New Vegas, Mount and Blade, Fallout 4, Starsector, The Sims 4, Kenshi, Stellaris, and Barotrauma. I genuinely reckon that all that poking and prodding under the hood is the main reason I’m even able to make Stellar Wasteland today, as it taught me most of what I know about how game architecture works. Fun Fact: if you ever downloaded mods from ModDB back in the day; chances are you mighta played one of mine.

Modding alone wasn’t enough to bring it home for the team though, and so I also self-taught myself ‘proper’ programming via C# Courses on Pluralsight. Six whole months of near-full-time study, with humble pen and notepad in hand. Thank god I actually did this, as it turns out that making a game from scratch is FAR harder than modding existing games (who would’ve thought?).

Also, in a surprise twist, Stellar Wasteland is actually my second attempt at making a game, with the first attempt having been all the way back in 2019. That game was also a sandbox space RPG, but top-down rather than side-on, though spoiler alert; it was wayyyy too ambitious. The whole fiasco did teach me a lot about scope creep, burn-out, and unrealistic expectations though – all of which I’ve been quite mindful of this time ’round. And by the way, if you’re interested, you’ll find a few screenshots of the old game by clicking the button at the end of this section.

Anyway, look, I make no pretensions; I am not, and probably never will be, an expert programmer. I am but a humble artist and storyteller, and so programming is just a necessary means to an end to bring my crazy little Sci-Fi world to life. Whilst I respect the craft immensely, as it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to learn, it’s definitely not my main strength. I don’t ever expect to become a programming wizard, nor will my codebase ever be the best in the world – it simply must work, that is all that’s required.

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What software do you use for development and asset-creation?

Here’s a quick list of all the different software and tools I use for development, art, and audio:

Game Development: Unity 6
Programming (IDE): Visual Studio 2022
Art/In-Game Assets: Adobe Photoshop 2021, Affinity Designer, and Paint.NET
3D Art and Assets: Blender and Spacescape
Video Editing: Sony Vegas Pro 14 and Bandicam
Sound Design: FL Studio Producer Edition and Audacity
Planning and Notes: Obsidian, Scrivener, Draw.io, and Stacks

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Can I support development?

At the moment, I’m not at the stage where I can justify paid Patreon memberships or any kind of crowdfunding/Kickstarter campaign. It’s definitely something I’ll consider down the line – but I don’t want to accept any kind of monetary support until there’s substantial progress on the game (as in, when it’s nearing a playable build).

I also want to make sure that, if and when support becomes available, it actually means something, and that anyone who is kind enough to contribute is *actually* getting real value in return. I ain’t about to take anyone’s hard-earned money without myself having earned it first… especially not in this economy, lol.

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What’s with the tentacles?

If you know, you know.