It is an incredibly ambitious project, especially for a small team like Chucklefish, and that’s nowhere more evident than in lead developer Tiy Brice’s post last month about what the future holds for the game.
There’s a raft of survival mechanics layered on top of increasingly complex mining, crafting and building systems, and that’s before you get started on the procedurally generated monsters. Along with the instrument system, there’s the hunger system, the farming and cooking abilities, and the way you get cold at night and extremely cold on moons. It’s dizzying in its details already, to the point where simply attempting to list all the systems in the game would make this article read like a wiki entry. “I hope we would be seen as helping to define the tropes of this new genre.” It’s not about games copying each other, but building on each other.”ĭeveloper Bart van der Werf agrees. But actually it’s becoming more of a genre. “People will always draw similarities - it’s this in space or it’s that in 2D - when anything new comes out. Community manager Molly Carroll says the comparisons are probably inevitable. And it’s proud to wear its influences on its sleeve. Starbound owes a great deal to a few enormous, procedural games that have preceded it, particularly Terraria and Minecraft. And playing the trumpet, of course.Įach planet offers a lush landscape to explore Photograph: /PR Photograph: PR It’s about killing all the robots, converting their vaults into a multi-level farm, and throwing a feast for everyone who shows up. Like Minecraft, it’s at its most enjoyable when you can do these things with your friends, and make stories together. It’s more even than a game of survival on unforgiving worlds. You might just find a calm spot to do a bit of mining, and only later discover strange caverns of flesh deep, deep underground.īut it’s more than a game of exploration and discovery.
#THINGS TO DO IN STARBOUND FULL#
You might find dungeons - deep underground structures full of angry floral people with cattle prods or apes with laser guns - or villages, full of similar characters but much, much less angry.
You might find a lush green forest world full of trees with eyes, or a desert world where bird-people stand guard over a mausoleum. The worlds are persistent but randomised, each one distinct and fascinating. Starting out with just a ship, a matter manipulator that gathers resources painfully slowly, and a vague sense of optimism, you’re given a small starting planet within a small solar system in an impossibly vast universe. But you can team up with your friends and use it to take part in a harmonic rendition of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, and that’s why it matters so much.Īt first glance Starbound, which sold its millionth copy a couple of weeks ago despite only being available in early beta form, is all about striking out into a strange and almost unwaveringly hostile universe. You can’t eat it or use it to keep warm (though you can plant a farm and warm yourself at a campfire). You can’t use it as a weapon (though there are plenty of those to be found). In this procedurally generated universe of technocratic apes, evil sentient flowers and obscure and concerning monsters of many varieties, not once will the trumpet assist you in solving your problems. The most important thing you should know about Starbound is that you can play the trumpet.Īt no point will this come in handy.