The purpose of these dev updates is to share systems currently in development and to give insight into the early stages of design as the project evolves. What you're seeing right now are the foundations and skeletons of systems, nowhere near their final versions.
Things like names, values, stats, and organisation are often placeholders or early iterations. My current focus is building the core structure and functionality of systems first. Refinement, balancing, and polish come later in development.
Because of this, please keep in mind that everything shown in dev updates is subject to change. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, but constructive feedback with reasoning is far more helpful than simple reactions.
Welcome back, Guardians. Happy Pride Month to everyone celebrating - hope June is treating you well. Another Monday, another update - and this one has quite a bit to cover. Before we get into the Vault System, there are some significant team changes to share, some proper building progress to show off, and a look at some Director maps that have just been put together.
To everyone joining fresh - welcome. The response the project has been getting lately has been genuinely heartening. If you want to help, read the section below on how to get involved. If you just want to follow along, every Monday is a new update.
We recently discovered an issue where one of our Discord bots went rogue and was inadvertently kicking all new users from the server after one week. This was happening from 11th May onwards without our knowledge, and we are sincerely sorry for any confusion or distress this caused.
The issue has now been identified and fully fixed. I have personally reached out via Discord DM to every user affected. If I was unable to DM you, I have sent a friend request. These messages will come from me directly - @CNTDarthgaming on Discord. Anyone else claiming to be me is not.
If you think you were affected, check your DMs and friend requests from @CNTDarthgaming. You are welcome to rejoin at any time using the Discord link at the bottom of this article - you will not be kicked again.
Founder status reinstatement: If you held Founder status before being kicked and you rejoin before 2nd June 2026, your status will be fully reinstated.
A Note on Founders
On the back of the above, it's a good time to clarify a few things about how Founder status works - including some policies that are worth being transparent about.
Grace period for leaving: It's common for users to join the Discord - sometimes as a Founder - and later leave. For those users, we allow a one week grace period before their Founder status is revoked and passed to the next most recent eligible person. This exists to make sure that when the Founders Playtest arrives, active players are the ones being rewarded. If you leave and come back within that window, your status is safe.
Once the Founders Playtest begins, this policy changes. From that point forward, those who leave will retain their Founder status - no more will be given out to new joiners, and the pool is locked.
Claiming your title in-game: During the first Founders Playtest, Founders will need to claim their Founder title inside the game itself. If you leave the server after the Playtest begins and have not claimed your title, you will not be able to redeem it in the future.
Rewarding active community members: We know that some of you will end up deeply invested in this project - active in the Discord, contributing ideas, spreading the word - and may have joined later than the original wave. That matters, and we want to recognise it. From now on, we will be granting additional Founder statuses to users who demonstrate genuine, sustained activity in the community. More details on how that works in the Founders FAQs.
The Team
This week brings some goodbyes and some exciting new arrivals. Let's start with the latter.
Haker joins as a modeller, working on weapons and items. Great to have the modelling team growing.
Captain Saturn joins as a concept and promotional artist as well as a composer, adding to the creative team. Seven pieces of concept art are already out - and there's more in the pipeline. You can see a selection below.
Captain Saturn has already produced seven released pieces of concept art - and that's not counting what's locked in the vault. Here's a first look:
Ghost Model
Alongside the concept art, Haker has also delivered the project's first completed Ghost model. This Ghost will serve as the face of the Main Menu. More on how Ghosts work in Destiny Playground, including customisation, is coming in a dedicated dev update on 19th July. For now, here it is.
Now the harder part. Following last week's team checkup, two members of the staff team are stepping away.
Qewl contributed to the early construction of The Last City. Thank you for the work put in - and best of luck with D2MC.
Fursia produced the Director art that has been part of the project's visual identity through development. Thank you for that work.
Thank you to both for the time they gave to the project. If you have skills in building, modelling, art, coding, music, or anything else - the section below covers how to get involved.
Get Involved
To everyone who has reached out asking about ways to contribute - genuinely, thank you. It's deeply appreciated and means a lot to know there are people who care enough to want to be part of this. Builder and modeller applications have just been updated - if you've been thinking about getting involved in either of those areas, now is a good time to apply. Here's what we're looking for:
- Builders - helping recreate Destiny locations in Minecraft. Experience with large-scale Minecraft builds is the main thing we're looking for.
- Modellers - helping build out the weapon, enemy, and asset model library. Blockbench modelling experience relevant to Destiny and Minecraft's visual style.
Both application forms are in the Discord. If either of those sounds like you, don't talk yourself out of applying - we'd rather hear from you and find out than not at all, and we have routes for those with minimal to no experience.
If you think you could contribute in another way - pixel art, coding, or anything else - join the Discord and send a DM to @CNTDarthgaming with full details of what you'd offer and examples of your previous work. I absolutely cannot guarantee any outcome, but if we think there is room and you'd fit we will happily take you on.
One other thing on the topic of community and contributions - there have been some early discussions around bringing a certain client-side mod to Destiny Playground, similar to what you may have seen in another Destiny Minecraft server. Nothing to announce yet, but it's something being actively thought about. More on that when there's something concrete to share.
And if you haven't already, the FAQ page has just had a significant overhaul - over 80 new questions answered, with all the previous entries reviewed and updated. A lot of information from recent dev updates is now in there, alongside amendments to things stated previously and some entirely new information. Worth a read if you want the most up-to-date picture of the project.
Building Progress - Trostland
With the builder team currently down to essentially just myself, the focus this week has been on getting as much done on the EDZ as possible. Trostland has been the primary target - the ruined town at the heart of the EDZ that players will pass through from Mission 01 of Act I onward, and one of the most recognisable locations on Earth.
The progress over the past week has been really good. Here's a day-by-day look at how it's come together:
Midway through the week, a one-minute day/night timelapse of Trostland as it stood at that point was put together. It's a good snapshot of the scale of what's being built.
Director World Maps
Alongside the building work, the Director world maps have been coming together. Four are now done - the EDZ, Europa, The Last City, and an Earth orbit view. These are the in-universe maps that form the visual language of the Director, the screen players will use to navigate between destinations and activities. Note that for the EDZ, we have split it into East and West EDZ - more on why in the Campaign Overview Dev Insight Video. On-top of that, great progress on abilities has been happening and we currently have one fully working subclass.
The Moon and Mars world maps are not currently in progress. Both destinations are still early in their development - the direction for each isn't fully settled yet, and it wouldn't make sense to commit the maps before the destinations themselves have more shape. More on both of those in time.
Soundtrack Releases
Destiny Playground's official soundtracks are starting to release. Over the coming weeks, three tracks composed by Emi and one track composed by Captain Saturn will be dropping alongside the weekly updates, and we wanted to properly mark the occasion rather than just slip them into a roadmap entry.
Original music has always been part of the vision for this project. Destiny's soundtracks - from Marty O'Donnell's iconic compositions through to everything that came after - are as much a part of what made those games feel the way they did as the visuals or the writing. Getting that right for Destiny Playground matters. The fact that we now have composers on the team producing original work specifically for this world is awesome.
Here's what's coming and when:
- Loose Variable - releasing alongside the Destinations Teaser Trailer, 8th June
- Cabal Stomp - releasing alongside the Sparrows System dev update, 15th June
- Reminisce - releasing alongside the Ability Showcase Teaser Trailer, 22nd June
- Husk of The Summing Pits - releasing alongside the Campaign Overview Dev Insight, 29th June
Updated Roadmap
The roadmap has had a significant update this week. The schedule now runs all the way through to mid-July, with a couple of things worth highlighting specifically.
Week VI is no longer a standard dev update - the Campaign Overview on 29th June will be a Dev Insight Video. Rather than a written article, it'll be a more relaxed, personal format of me talking through the campaign - the story, the structure, the Acts. Less polished presentation, more behind-the-curtain conversation.
The full current schedule:
Vault System
This week's main systems content. The Vault is your persistent gear storage - the place where everything you earn but aren't currently using lives between sessions.
What the Vault Is
The Vault is a persistent storage space that holds your gear between sessions, between prestige resets, and between seasons. It's accessible directly from your in-game menu, and also physically from the Tower.
It is not the same as your character inventory. Your character carries a limited number of items at any given time. The Vault is where the rest lives.
Pages and Slots
The Vault is structured around pages. Each page holds 27 slots. You start with a single page, and additional pages can be purchased from Xander-44, the Vault Quartermaster - a dedicated vendor whose entire purpose is managing your Vault capacity.
The total number of pages available is still being decided, but the intention is that the Vault never becomes a wall you hit frustratingly early. Xander-44 gives you control over how much space you invest in, at your own pace.
Organisation
Each Vault page can have its icon customised - letting you visually label pages however makes sense to you. One page for weapons, one for armour, one for exotics, one for seasonal gear - the structure is yours to define. The icon system is designed to make navigating a large Vault feel intuitive rather than chaotic.
Access
The Vault is accessible in two ways:
- Your menu - directly, from anywhere, at any time.
- The Tower - physically, via any of the Vault terminals.
What Can and Can't Be Vaulted
Most items can go into the Vault. Some cannot - specific items will be flagged as non-vaultable where relevant, and the reasoning will generally be clear when that's the case.
Specific values - page costs, total page limits - are still being finalised and will be confirmed closer to launch once the economy has been properly tested.
