Bossa Studios’ Worlds Adrift launches May 17 on Steam Early Access

Bossa Studios’s massively multiplayer online game Worlds Adrift is based on the concept where if you build it, they will come — and pitch in. The developer is calling it a “community-crafted” game in which players will be able to use tools to create parts of its world as soon as it launches in Early Access for PC on May 17.

Worlds Adrift is a fantasy world with oceans full of archipelagos to explore. For the last year, Bossa Studios has been building it closed beta with a small community of players, who have created items and plots of land with the in-game Island Creator tool. The same tool will be available for Early Access players, who will also be able to team up with strangers and friends in the game world by creating Alliances.

The premise is on emergent gameplay and stories, which leave it up to the players to make their own kind of fun. It’s something that a few other titles are exploring. Some, like Novaquark’s Dual Universe, plop players into a realistic environment so they can mine, engineer, and govern as they like. Media Molecule’s Dreams, on the other hand, gives players the tools to create endlessly imaginative landscapes and worlds.

Worlds Adrift is a departure from Bossa Studios’s previous games like over-the-top Surgeon Simulator and the goofy I Am Bread. It eschews the absurdist humor of its other titles and instead embraces the idea of creating a space where players can express themselves and create their own adventures.

“When we went into closed beta in May last year, we couldn’t have envisioned the sheer amount of quality feedback we would receive from our inspiring community,” said Bossa Studios cofounder and CEO Henrique Olifiers. “At times, this completely shifted our production’s scope, and as a result, helped us truly hone Worlds Adrift’s vision, and has got it to this unique place.”

It will be interesting to see how the game’s world develops as new players begin to add their own creations and change its geography. Though, hopefully the game won’t attract too many trolls — player creativity can be bring both wonder and woe.