Starbound

Last updated

Starbound
Starbound Logo.png
Developer(s) Chucklefish
Publisher(s) Chucklefish
Director(s) Finn Brice
Producer(s)
  • Rosie Ball
  • Harriet Jones
Designer(s) Stephen Alexander
Writer(s)
  • Ashton Raze
  • Damon Reece
Composer(s) Curtis Schweitzer
Platform(s)
Release
  • Windows, macOS, Linux
  • 22 July 2016
  • Xbox One
  • 24 October 2024
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Starbound is a 2016 action-adventure game by Chucklefish. Starbound takes place in a two-dimensional, procedurally generated universe which the player is able to explore in order to obtain new weapons, armor, and items, and to visit towns and villages inhabited by various intelligent lifeforms. Starbound was released out of early access in July 2016 for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and for Windows via Xbox Game Pass in December 2020. It was also released for Xbox One in October 2024.

Contents

Synopsis

Starbound begins with the player inside a spacecraft after the destruction of Earth, home of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization known as the Terrene Protectorate, while just having graduated from its ranks. With nothing to guide it, the shuttle shoots into space without direction, becoming lost in a sea of stars. The space shuttle orbits a habitable planet and an adventure begins that takes the player hurtling across the universe. Starbound contains both quests and story driven missions, buried inside its vast sandbox universe. [1] The space shuttle acts as the player's vehicle while exploring the galaxy, containing a teleport pad the player can use to teleport down to the planets the shuttle is visiting, a ship locker for storing items, a fuel panel for refueling the ship and a cockpit for piloting the ship. The interior of the ship is also fully customizable, with items and blocks able to be freely placed within the ship.

Gameplay

Starbound (2).jpg
Starbound (1).jpg
Exploration and settlement gameplay in Starbound. Players can navigate, explore and mine procedurally-generated terrain (left) to gather resources and create settlements, including constructing houses and leasing rooms to NPC tenants and villagers (right).

Many gameplay elements and features, such as items, enemies, and planets, use procedural generation in order to provide a variety of content. [2] The game features story-based missions, quests, free world exploration, enemies to fight, and the ability to interact with and terraform the environment. Player class is defined by items that the player is wearing. [3]

The player also has the ability to farm and sell crops, build buildings, and charge rent to tenant NPCs who can live in those buildings.

In update 1.0, a story was added to the game. The story uses a formula that consists of sandbox exploration to scan a set of items, such as human items, then going through a story dungeon to fight a boss. [4]

In update 1.3 [UNSTABLE], mechs were added to the game. Mechs are modular and allow the player to equip various weapons and tools such as guns, shields, and drills. You can also equip various bodies to the mechs, which set how much energy and health your mechs have. One of the main uses for mechs is the exploration of outer space areas, such as asteroid fields and space ships. [5]

Development

Starbound was announced by Chucklefish director Finn Brice in February 2012, [6] with a tiered, Kickstarter-style, pre-order opening via the Humble Store on 13 April 2013. Tier options included a copy of the game, an invite to the beta, and a download of the game's soundtrack, as well as game-related "rewards", such as naming an in-game non-player character, designing a hat or weapon, and having a statue of oneself designed to be placed in the game. [7] Within 24 hours of the pre-order opening, over 10,000 people backed the game, contributing over $230,000 to fund the game's development. [8]

By May 2013, the Starbound pre-order had reached all three of its stretch goals by raising over $1,000,000. [9] The game entered an early access beta on Steam on 4 December 2013, receiving over $2,000,000 in pre-orders prior to its launch. [10] Starbound is written in C++ and uses a custom game engine. [11] The soundtrack was composed by American composer Curtis Schweitzer. [12] The game was officially released out of early access on 22 July 2016. [13] In 2013, it was announced that the game would be ported to the Xbox One at a later time. [14]

In August 28 2024, Chucklefish announced an early playtest for the console version was now available on the Xbox Insider App until September 4, and also claimed that Xbox console edition was 'finally almost ready to launch'. [15] This Xbox version officially launched on 24 October 2024 for Xbox One. [16]

Volunteer exploitation controversy

In 2019, Chucklefish were accused of exploiting around a dozen voluntary contributors during Starbound's development, sometimes logging hundreds of hours with no compensation and completing the same tasks as paid members of the team. Many of them were teenagers at the time and stated that they felt their inexperience was exploited by the company's director, Finn Brice. The allegations were supported by former members of the team, including game developer Toby Fox. [17] In a statement, Chucklefish responded that the contributors were "under no obligation to create content, work to deadlines or put in any particular number of hours. Everyone was credited or remunerated as per their agreement." The contributors partially refuted that statement, saying that they were subject to deadlines. They further added that their disagreement is over the ethics of their treatment, not the legality of it. [18] [19]


Reception

Starbound received favourable reviews upon its release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. [23] IGN praised Starbound's crafting, exploration, and combat mechanics, comparing it to Terraria . [21] Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer stated that Starbound was a charming space sandbox that would keep players entertained for hours. [22] Nathan Grayson of Kotaku praised its exploration elements, calling the universe "strange and unpredictable" enough that players would never quite grow tired of it. [24]

By December 2016, Starbound had sold over 2.5 million copies. [25]

Awards

AwardResult
Indie Game Magazine's Most Anticipated Game of 2013Won [26] [27]
No. 1 Indie of the Year 2013Won [28]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CryEngine</span> Game engine by Crytek

CryEngine is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in Far Cry, and continues to be updated to support new consoles and hardware for their games. It has also been used for many third-party games under Crytek's licensing scheme, including Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 and SNOW. Warhorse Studios uses a modified version of the engine for their medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Ubisoft maintains an in-house, heavily modified version of CryEngine from the original Far Cry called Dunia, which is used in their later iterations of the Far Cry series. The Dunia engine would in turn be further modified and used in games such as The Crew 2.

<i>Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic</i> Video game series

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is a media franchise of space opera role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, IOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. The franchise takes place in the fictional universe of Star Wars by George Lucas.

<i>Terraria</i> 2011 video game

Terraria is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows and has since been ported to other PC and console platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting, and combat with a variety of creatures in a procedurally generated 2D world. Terraria is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling 58.7 million copies as of 2024.

Hawken is a free-to-play multiplayer mech first-person shooter video game. The game features five game modes: Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Co-op Bot Team Deathmatch, Siege, and Missile Assault. It follows the freemium model of game monetization, where in-game purchases are the main source of revenue.

<i>Disney Infinity</i> (video game) 2013 toys-to-life sandbox video game

Disney Infinity is a 2013 toys-to-life action-adventure game published by Disney Interactive Studios. It was announced on January 15, 2013. The game used collectible figurines that were then synchronized with the game, unlocking characters from Disney and Pixar properties that interact and go on adventures. The game was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS in August 2013. A PC version of Toy Box was also released on November 14, 2013. The game had a budget approaching $100 million. A sequel, Disney Infinity 2.0, was released on September 23, 2014. The third edition, Disney Infinity 3.0, was released on August 30, 2015, and introduced support for the Apple TV. This game was also later released on Microsoft Windows in 2013.

<i>7 Days to Die</i> 2016 video game

7 Days to Die is a survival horror video game set in an open world developed by the Fun Pimps. It was released through early access for OS X and Windows on December 13, 2013, and for Linux on November 22, 2014. Versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in 2016 through Telltale Publishing, but are no longer being developed. A 1.0 version was released for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 25, 2024.

Space Engineers is a voxel-based sandbox game, developed and published by Czech independent developer Keen Software House. In 2013, the initial developmental release of the game joined the Steam early access program. During the following years of active development, Space Engineers sold over one million units. In total as of 2024 the game has sold over 5 million copies In May 2015, for approximately a year and a half, the game's source code was officially available and maintained by KSH to assist the modding community. On December 15, 2016, the game entered Beta and was later officially released on February 28, 2019.

<i>Starpoint Gemini 2</i> 2010 space trading and combat video game

Starpoint Gemini 2 is a space trading and combat simulator developed by the Croatian-based Little Green Men Games development studio. It is a direct sequel to Starpoint Gemini, which was released in 2010.

<i>No Mans Sky</i> 2016 video game

No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in November 2020, for Nintendo Switch in October 2022, and for macOS in June 2023. The game is built around four pillars: exploration, survival, combat, and trading. Players can engage with the entirety of a procedurally generated deterministic open world universe, which includes over 18 quintillion planets. Through the game's procedural generation system, planets have their own ecosystems with unique forms of flora and fauna, and various alien species may engage the player in combat or trade within planetary systems. Players advance in the game by mining for resources to power and improve their equipment, buying and selling resources using credits earned by documenting flora and fauna or trading with the aforementioned lifeforms, building planetary bases and expanding space fleets, or otherwise following the game's overarching plot by seeking out the mystery around the entity known as The Atlas.

<i>Pixel Piracy</i> 2014 video game

Pixel Piracy is a 2014 side-scrolling action-adventure game with roguelike elements, developed by Quadro Delta and published by Re-Logic. In the indie game, players construct a pirate ship, hire and train a crew, and guide their crew toward notoriety by defeating the four pirate captains in a procedurally-generated world full of islands. The game features several difficulty modes.

<i>Solar 2</i> 2011 open world sandbox video game

Solar 2 is an open world sandbox video game developed by Australian developer Jay Watts' video game studio, Murudai. It was released on 17 June 2011 on Steam for Microsoft Windows and on 19 June 2011 on Xbox Live Indie Games for the Xbox 360. The game was developed with Microsoft's XNA tools, and its development was inspired by indie games such as flOw. The game follows the player in their mission to accumulate enough mass to become several astronomical objects, eventually becoming a Big Crunch, which then produces a Big Bang.

<i>Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime</i> 2015 video game

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a space shooter video game developed by Asteroid Base for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, Linux, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The project is part of the ID@Xbox program. The game's title is a reference to the Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time".

RimWorld is a construction and management simulation video game developed by Canadian game designer Tynan Sylvester and published by Ludeon Studios. Originally called Eclipse Colony, it was initially released as a Kickstarter crowdfunding project in early access for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux in November 2013, and was released on October 17, 2018. The game was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as RimWorld Console Edition on July 29, 2022, with development and publishing being handled by Double Eleven. Rather than a test of skill or a challenge, the game is intended to serve as an AI-powered "story generator", where the game is used as the medium for players to experience narrative adventures.

<i>Planet Coaster</i> 2016 video game published by Frontier Developments

Planet Coaster is a construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Frontier Developments for Windows. It was released worldwide on 17 November 2016. Frontier had previously worked in the amusement park construction and management genre with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Thrillville, Thrillville: Off the Rails, and Zoo Tycoon. A version for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, known as Planet Coaster: Console Edition, was released worldwide on 10 November 2020. The PlayStation 5 version was released in North America and Australia on 12 November 2020 and in Europe on 19 November 2020. A macOS version, developed by Aspyr, was later released on 17 November 2020 on both Steam and Mac App Store.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chucklefish</span> British video game company

Chucklefish Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based in London. Founded in 2011 by Finn Brice, the company specialises in retro-styled games. Chucklefish is best known for developing Starbound and Wargroove, as well being the former publishers of Risk of Rain and Stardew Valley.

<i>Stardew Valley</i> 2016 video game

Stardew Valley is a 2016 farm life simulation role-playing video game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. Players take the role of a character who inherits their deceased grandfather's dilapidated farm in a place known as Stardew Valley. The game was originally released for Windows in February 2016 before being ported to other platforms. Stardew Valley is an open-ended game, allowing players to grow crops, raise livestock, fish, cook, mine, forage, and socialize with the townspeople, including the ability to marry and have children. It allows up to eight players to play online together.

<i>Starfield</i> (video game) 2023 video game

Starfield is a 2023 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. In the game, the player character joins a group of space explorers who must venture to various corners of the galaxy to acquire mysterious artifacts. The game features an open world in the form of an area within the Milky Way galaxy, containing both fictional and non-fictional planetary systems.

<i>Starsector</i> 2013 video game

Starsector is a top-down single-player indie role-playing game developed and published by Fractal Softworks for PC, with the Alpha released in 2011. Set in the year 3126, the player commands a fleet of spaceships and engages in trade, exploration, and combat in a procedurally generated world.

Titanfall is a media franchise that mainly features first-person shooter games. The series was created by Respawn Entertainment and debuted on Xbox and Microsoft Windows; it has expanded to other consoles and platforms.

References

  1. ↑ "About | Starbound". Chucklefish Studios. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Twitter / Tiyuri: "So, Fridays will be "tweet ..."". 13 July 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Nathan Meunier (24 May 2012). "Preview: Starbound". GameSpy.com. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  4. ↑ mollygos (22 July 2016). "Starbound - Starbound 1.0 is out now!" . Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  5. ↑ mollygos (31 May 2017). "Starbound - Starbound 1.3 [UNSTABLE]" . Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  6. ↑ Priestman, Chris (17 February 2012). "Tiyuri Unveils His Upcoming Game 'Starbound'". Indie Game Magazine. indiegamemag.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  7. ↑ Rossignol, Jim (13 April 2013). "Starbound Pre-Orders Prove Somewhat Popular". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Sykes, Tom (13 April 2013). "Starbound pre-orders bring in over $230,000, game seems 'bound' for success - News - PC Gamer". PC Gamer. pcgamer.com. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  9. ↑ "Starbound Pre-Order". Playstarbound.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (4 December 2013). "Starbound beta lands on PC, Mac and Linux today". EuroGamer. eurogamer.net. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  11. ↑ "FAQ - Starbound". Chucklefish. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Reilly, Michael (16 June 2012). "Music in Starbound". playstarbound.com. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "Starbound is Leaving Orbit on 22 July". playstarbound.com. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  14. ↑ Morris, Tatiana (4 August 2015). "ARK: Survival Evolved, Starbound and more headed to Xbox One, Windows 10". GameZone. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "Join the Starbound Xbox Playtest – Live Now". Starbound. 28 August 2024. Archived from the original on 28 August 2024. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  16. ↑ "Starbound now available for Xbox One". Gematsu. 24 October 2024. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  17. ↑ Nesterenko, Oleg (2 September 2019). "Starbound developers accuse Chucklefish of labor exploitation". Game World Observer.
  18. ↑ Chalk, Andy (31 August 2019). "Chucklefish responds to allegations it exploited volunteer Starbound developers". PC Gamer. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  19. ↑ Campbell, Colin (2 September 2019). "Young developers on Starbound say Chucklefish exploited their free work". Polygon. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  20. ↑ Tack, Daniel. "Starbound". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  21. 1 2 Plagge, Kallie (24 March 2016). "Starbound Review". IGN . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  22. 1 2 Livingston, Christopher (27 July 2016). "Starbound Review". PC Gamer . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  23. ↑ "Starbound". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  24. ↑ Grayson, Nathan (4 August 2016). "Starbound: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  25. ↑ Wawro, Alex (23 January 2017). "Chucklefish's Starbound surpasses 2.5 million copies sold". Gamasutra . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  26. ↑ Gnade, Mike (2013). "The Best Indie Games of 2012 Chosen by You in Issue 30". The Indie Game Magazine (30): 14. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  27. ↑ Mike, Gnade (4 February 2013). "IGM Readers Choice: The Best Indie Games of the Year 2012". indiegamemag.com. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  28. ↑ "Indie of The Year 2013 feature". Indie DB. 27 December 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.