Why I built Metaplanets

I wanted to build a planet.

That is the real reason I built Metaplanets. I do not have a more elaborate explanation. There was an intuition, a feeling that this was something I wanted to make, and I followed it.

It is tempting to give a project a tidy origin story. Find a problem, identify a market, explain the opportunity. Make the beginning sound as deliberate as the thing eventually becomes.

My beginning was simpler. The idea of building a planet held my attention. I wanted to see what would happen if I took it seriously.

A place I could make.

A planet gives you room to imagine. A landscape can keep going beyond the horizon. You can think about its terrain, its atmosphere, the view from the ground and the view from far above it.

I like that change of scale. One moment you are looking at an entire world. The next, you are thinking about a small detail on its surface. There is always somewhere else to go, and another part of the idea to work out.

Metaplanets has grown to include terrain, weather, flight and tools for creating worlds. Those possibilities grew around the original impulse. Wanting to make a planet gave me somewhere to begin; building it gave me more things to become curious about.

Let curiosity start the work.

I think we sometimes ask an idea to explain itself too early. Before we have tried anything, we want to know what it is for, who needs it and where it will end up.

Those questions can become useful as the work develops. At the beginning, curiosity can be enough to take the first step. Make a small part of the thing. Look at it. See whether you want to keep going.

Intuition gives a direction. Making something gives you a way to explore it. You still have to do the work: solve problems, pay attention to details and keep returning to the parts that need care.

For me, the reason to start was simply that I wanted to. I wanted a planet to exist that I could build.

Metaplanets is what came from following that feeling.