Starbound

Starbound
Developer(s)	Chucklefish
Publisher(s)	Chucklefish
Director(s)	Finn Brice
Producer(s)	Rosie Ball Harriet Jones
Designer(s)	Stephen Alexander
Programmer(s)	Catherine West Michael Reilly Bart van der Werf Tom Coxon Alex Lawson William Lundstedt
Artist(s)	George Wyman Doris Carrascosa Lili Ibrahim Adam Riches Ricky Johnsonn Jay Baylis
Writer(s)	Ashton Raze Damon Reece
Composer(s)	Curtis Schweitzer
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One
Release	Windows, OS X, Linux WW: 22 July 2016 PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One WW: TBA
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Starbound is an action-adventure video game developed and published 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 Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux, and is in development for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita.

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

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 traveling NPCs.

Development

Starbound was announced by Chucklefish director Finn Brice in February 2012,^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] By May 2013, the Starbound pre-order had reached all three of its stretch goals by raising over $1,000,000.^[7] 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.^[8] Starbound is written in C++ and uses a custom game engine.^[9] The soundtrack was composed by American composer Curtis Schweitzer.^[10]

The game was released out of its early access beta for PCs on 22 July 2016.^[11] The game will also be ported for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One at a later time.^[12][13][14]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 81/100[15] Review scores Publication Score IGN 9.1/10[16] PC Gamer (US) 94/100[17]
Edit on wikidata

Starbound received "generally favorable" reviews upon its release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. IGN praised Starbound's crafting, exploration, and combat mechanics, comparing it to Terraria.^[16] Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer disagreed about the combat mechanics, calling them "lacking", but stated that Starbound was a charming space sandbox that would keep players entertained for hours.^[17] Nathan Grayson of Kotaku also disagreed with IGN about the game's combat, calling it "basic", but praised its exploration elements, calling the universe "strange and unpredictable" enough that players would never quite grow tired of it.^[18]

By December 2016, Starbound had sold over 2.5 million copies.^[19]

Awards

References

External links

• Official website