PlaneShift

PlaneShift gameplay is based on classical Multiplayer Role Playing Game style, with exploration, magic, single player or team based combat and quests. A major goal of the game is to explore and learn. This can either be done by reading books or by learning about the world by speaking with the NPCs. The interaction with the NPCs is based on predefined answers the player can pick from a list, and also a freeform text entry, which uses natural language parsing to interpret the text.

Some of these NPC's provide quests and guidance on how to proceed to gain items and powers. The quests are sequenced to allow character progression in the different skills of the game. There are also events, hosted by Game Masters, that allow for unique quests, festivals and happenings. Players increase their character's skills by completing these quests in the game.

PlaneShift takes place inside a colossal stalactite named Yliakum. Players begin in the main city, Hydlaa, where they will start their journey. In most recent setting PlaneShift has 9 playable races, after returning a playable status to Diaboli, making Kran race playable and removing playable status from Ynnwn. Each race has their own homelands and characteristics.

The races feature standard fantasy types, like elves and dwarves, but also humanoids made of rock and winged amphibians. Though set underground, life is possible because a crystal named the Azure Sun draws light from the surface of the planet.

The PlaneShift project is developed under guidance of Atomic Blue, a Texas-based non-profit organization. The PlaneShift development team is organised in several departments with corresponding leaders.

PlaneShift has been open to players for free since its first public release. The server side engine code and the client code is written from scratch by the PlaneShift team, while the 3D rendering features are based on the Crystal Space 3D engine. In 2018 support for the Crystal Space engine was discontinued, so the decision was taken to move the whole game content to Unreal Engine 4.

Metacritic lists the game with 56 points from one review from mmorpg.com.

PlaneShift has been used in multiple studies regarding development of free software and video games. PlaneShift has been also studied as a collaborative software engineering organizational model.