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).

After being available through Steam Early Access for just over a year, Bossa Studios has decided to shut down the game.

At Bossa Studios we love taking risks and making stuff that no one dares to do in order to create great original experiences for players. Worlds Adrift was an ambitious undertaking for us: a community crafted MMO built on freedom and player agency with multiplayer physics, set in a huge world. We are proud of what we achieved with the game since development began five years ago out of a humble game jam.

We are immensely grateful for every Traveller that’s come to experience this community crafted world. However, Worlds Adrift just hasn’t reached the level of popularity it needs to continue. The challenges that came with our ambitious project meant that all our work went into making the game work rather than making it the experience we wanted it to be. As a result we failed at making a game that could capture the imaginations of millions. Creating an MMO like Worlds Adrift is a huge financial commitment and unfortunately the game is just no longer commercially viable. 

What does the end of Worlds Adrift mean for its community?

Bossa Studios will be continuing as a developer and publisher of games, but Worlds Adrift is coming to a close. To provide a special experience in the game’s final months, all the cosmetic items in the in-game shop will be given out to every player. Additionally, Worlds Adrift Founder Captains will receive a free copy of Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread as a thanks for joining this journey, and to give a glimpse into the kinds of experiences we’re looking to create going forward. Founder Captains’ names will also be immortalised on the game’s website, which will remain live as a tribute to the world we’ve built together.

Worlds Adrift will not be sailing quietly into the night. We will host an End of the World event which will be live streamed on Twitch and will feature an AMA with the team. The exact date and details of this event will be announced here and on our other community channels (Twitter, Facebook, Steam Forum and Discord) soon.

We know you’ll have questions, so please take a look at our extensive Q&A below.  If you can’t find the answer to your question there, then please contact us. 

We’ve really appreciated all your feedback on Worlds Adrift throughout development and we’d love your ongoing support with our unannounced titles. Our Bossa Studios Creator Club is a group where like-minded and also not-so-like-minded individuals help us make the very best games we can, through surveys, playtests and more. Anyone can join the Creator Club and you can find more details on how to do so here.

Thank you all for joining us on this incredible journey,

The Worlds Adrift Team.

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.