You and your ragtag band wander from island to island on your cobbled-together airship, scouring for lost technology and scavenging for resources. You are constantly trying to improve your ship, keep it fueled, and keep it repaired. Sky predators, storms, and other travelling bands—all of which could be a threat to your ship—will dominate your thoughts. But in the back of your mind, you still ask yourself questions: How did your world become this way? What calamity, a thousand years ago, could have shattered the world into a thousand pieces? Deep down you know that the world was not always this way, and your questions are what drive you onward and upward, towards the endless skyline.

First, Worlds Adrift is set in a persistent, shared multiplayer environment. That means anyone who plays the game will be in the same enormous world. (Due to the increased importance of low latency in a game with physics, however, the current plan is to have separate servers for different geographic regions—we can’t overcome the speed of light, I’m afraid).

Bossa Studios is accepting applications for the next playtest of Worlds Adrift. Successful applicants will be able to experience new additions to Worlds Adrift including new creatures, cooperative sky-ship piloting and dangerous weather patterns, along with new items, character looks and performance and user interface improvement.

“Worlds Adrift is a hugely ambitious game,” said Henrique Olifiers, Bossa Studios’ co-founder and Gamer-in-Chief. “We are building a persistent world with realistic physics and true multiplayer, where players can cooperate, fight and explore with a freedom of agency that has never been achieved before. The feedback we get from our playtests is absolutely vital to shaping the future of the game – we couldn’t make Worlds Adrift without our community.”

Players will be able to experience a range of new elements, including:

• Crew System – The first iteration of the crew system has been implemented. Playtesters can now can start the game with up to four friends and explore the skies together
• New Islands – Many new islands have been introduced to the game – many of which have been created by fans using the free Worlds Adrift Island Creator currently available on Steam
• Creatures –crustaceans and flying manta rays now threaten ships and their pilots
• Weather – will ships survive a journey through a ferocious storm wall?
• Plus lots of new clothing items to try on and an improved UI for the game

The deadline for signing up to take part in the playtest is 29th August, and the playtest is currently limited to North America and Europe. To sign up, players need to create an account on WorldsAdrift.com. After activating their account, they will receive a link to the Alpha application survey. The deadline for the completed survey is 29th August. Players who already have an account on WorldsAdrift.com and have not applied for a previous playtest, will also receive an email with a link to the application survey.

Secondly, the world will live and breathe. Worlds Adrift will not be an MMORPG as we know them. There are no quest hubs and no NPCs standing around forever, waiting to give you tasks. There are no low-level zones and high-level zones, because there will be no levels. There are no static, choreographed environments and events that replay for every new player.

Instead, there will be creatures that eat and live and die, and trees that grow, and ruins that hold secrets, and wreckage that rusts and rots, all inside a world that doesn’t revolve around you, but that can be permanently affected by your actions. You are a part of the world, and it’s up to you to decide which part that is, and how it relates to all the other parts.

Lastly, the world will behave according to believable physics. Ships are constructed of pieces — each of which can be snapped off if there’s a strong enough impact. Much of the world will also behave like this: creatures, wreckage, loose objects on the ground. And of course there will be plenty of rope physics involved in player movement.