By Nathan Grayson on October 31st, 2012 at 9:00 am.
A quick refresher: Starbound is the Terraria pseudo-successor (Edit: Some of the same talent’s on board; it’s not directly affiliated, though) that lets you generate your own planet. That in mind, I suppose it only makes sense that an inhabitant of one of its many worlds would be militantly anti-ape. After all, apes + a planet = Planet of the Apes. It happens every time. I’m sure, though, that you’ll be able to discriminate against other creatures as well, seeing as Starbound’s co-op building system is looking as impressively versatile as, well, everything else about the strikingly ambitious wonder. Wiser people than I once said, “If you build [a break], they will come [and watch a new Starbound trailer].” Truth be told, I’ve never really understood that saying, but it’s starting to make a little more sense now.
Are you impressed? You should be impressed. I mean, given the sheer volume of elements Chucklefish is hoping to pack into this game – from randomly generated creatures, biomes, and foliage to interaction with every object in the universe to chaotic combat to space penguins – you’d think depth for each individual feature would be out of the question. But the building system looks to be quite powerful – especially when you have friends in the mix. Observe:
“Each player is equipped with a gun that can levitate, place and remove blocks and items. It’s capable of placing single blocks or blocks in groups of 4. So you can very quickly fill the space you need to fill whilst having the option to tweak smaller details. Every object that looks as if you can stand on it or place another object on top of it functions as you’d expect. Any block can be placed in the foreground or the background, left click places/removes blocks from the foreground whilst right click places/removes blocks from the background, allowing you to quickly alternate between the two.”
Fingers crossed that this is indicative of how much detail Chucklefish is putting into every fiber of Starbound’s crisscrossing web of systemic DNA. Well, mostly. I mean, the potential downside to that would be a release date several billion years from now, and I enjoy games the most when I’m alive. So hopefully Chucklefish works its fishy magic a bit more quickly than that. Somehow.
31/10/2012 at 09:05 Crius says:
Everytime something comes out i try to throw money at/to/on/onto/in/under/around/whatever the monitor. And nothing happens with my great disappointment.
—
fix’d for english speaking people who just know their native language and feels good when they can free the little grammar nazi inside them. :) :) ;)
31/10/2012 at 09:07 darkath says:
MONEYFACE !
31/10/2012 at 09:21 The13thRonin says:
WARMONEY !
31/10/2012 at 09:22 Emeraude says:
You silly, that’s because, if you want it to work, you don’t send money “at” the monitor. No, for it to work you send money “to” the Monitor.
31/10/2012 at 11:05 zebramatt says:
I’m sure you could try throwing money “to” the monitor but I’ve no idea how you expect it to catch it…
31/10/2012 at 11:14 Emeraude says:
I have a feeling you’ve missed something capital.
31/10/2012 at 10:29 f1x says:
Oh man, for foreigners like me: AT, TO, IN, ON = Fucking pain,
perhaps because I didn’t study enough english back then but I’m always confused when to use each
On the other hand : this game looks promising!
31/10/2012 at 10:39 Zanchito says:
It’s not just you, my friend, it’s not just you…
31/10/2012 at 14:21 Kestrel says:
YES IT IS
31/10/2012 at 16:33 Droopy The Dog says:
Yes AT is, surely?
31/10/2012 at 14:25 Joshua Northey says:
English is about as inconsistent a language as you will find. So many exceptions to everything. It can be a real pain to learn for people who don’t have a background in Romantic or Germanic languages.
31/10/2012 at 17:11 darkath says:
If you think English is a pain, that’s because you don’t know about French.
31/10/2012 at 19:51 socrate says:
French is extremely precise usually and other then the slang thats usually talked in all their country at its root its very precise in its wording and pointing out exactly what you are talking about…..but who would give themself that much trouble nowaday.
English is slang to start with which make it a pain sometime for people to learn it well,but easy to really understand the basic and get started(easy to learn,hard to master i guess).
31/10/2012 at 19:53 Joshua Northey says:
French is more or less internally consistent. For people with a logical mind it is much easier. English has to be learned brute force because there are so few rules.
01/11/2012 at 08:12 Derppy says:
Oh please, here’s the 2000+ variants of “shop” in Finnish, have fun learning which one to use in which context. http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~fkarlsso/genkau2.html
31/10/2012 at 09:26 Hunchback says:
Shut up and take my money!
31/10/2012 at 09:26 Pemptus says:
Terraria was a joy to behold, I sunk like 50 hours into the thing.
Want.
31/10/2012 at 09:47 Spoon Of Doom says:
I put around 40 or 50 hours into Terraria, and I can easily see myself spending just as much (or probably more) with this game, if they keep what they’ve promised so far. I didn’t think I could be so excited for a “simple” 2D platformer/building thingy, but I can’t wait to get my hands on this!
31/10/2012 at 10:01 Screwie says:
At first I was disappointed when they stopped updating Terraria, but this looks so much better! Cannot wait.
31/10/2012 at 10:05 NathanH says:
I never thought I’d watch a game video and react with “omg, stairs! Certain purchase!”
31/10/2012 at 12:25 slerbal says:
^^ my favourite comment of the day :)
I also agree with you! Ah, simple pleasures.
31/10/2012 at 14:26 Joshua Northey says:
hehe
Yeah building structures in Terraria while awesome, could be a bit of a pain.
31/10/2012 at 10:14 killuminati says:
I keep on checking their website for a hint of a release or at least, a beta release. I’ve payed 8 Euros for Starfarer (check it is really nice) still alpha build and got my money back on the sheer amount of fun I had with it and it is still a alpha.
I imagine doing the same with this one and enjoing the various build untill the final released products.
So in the end.. make a beta client to sell for a resonouble amount and you’ll get founding and we’ll get FUN!
31/10/2012 at 10:19 Nathan Grayson says:
I’m attempting to send them questions and things. Hopefully they’ll reply to me with answers and not videos of them playing a polished build of the game while laughing derisively.
31/10/2012 at 10:31 killuminati says:
Good to know! looking forward to those reply
31/10/2012 at 10:44 rustybroomhandle says:
Try hanging out in their IRC channel. The devs are there often. And don’t mention Terraria, ever.
31/10/2012 at 11:36 Sian says:
Is this because everybody mentions Terraria or did things with Re-Logic end in hostilities?
31/10/2012 at 12:01 gladius2metal says:
+1
31/10/2012 at 13:30 rustybroomhandle says:
Despite some thematic similarities, the project shares only one person with that of Terraria, and they really want to stand alone rather than to come with any of the associated baggage.
31/10/2012 at 18:02 Vander says:
Yeah, but that’s a little difficult when your game is so close to Terraria in visual and gameplay…
01/11/2012 at 01:06 JuJuCam says:
Heh, a bit off topic but I did as you said and checked out Starfarer, immediately had a feeling of deja vu and searched my email inbox and what do you know, I’d already preordered it in May of last year! Can only vaguely remember playing it but obviously it will be much different now.
31/10/2012 at 10:39 -Spooky- says:
APEFACE is no JOKE!
01/11/2012 at 02:35 I want to stab you to death and play around with your blood. says:
When new creatures APE your FACE, Hybrids opened up the door.
31/10/2012 at 10:40 antoniodamala says:
Damn, i hate their pixel art. It is so bland and generic. Terraria really turned me off with that awful pixel art, this new one at least is bearable, but barely stands out from anything. Besides that, at least building now is faster, which is years light better.
31/10/2012 at 10:54 MOKKA says:
Dude, you sound really edgy with that statement.
31/10/2012 at 11:20 Emeraude says:
I can understand where you’re coming from, though bland may not be the word I’d chose.
That being said I can also understand the appeal how the non-expressive, Hello-Kitty-esque void art.
As always, just a matter of preference here.
31/10/2012 at 11:38 Sian says:
The first time I saw screenshots of Starbound, the art style repulsed me, but its growing on me everytime I see something new. I liked Terraria because it reminded me of my favourite Final Fantasy games, but this was so different. Now I can’t wait to play it.
31/10/2012 at 14:28 Joshua Northey says:
If I want to look at art I will go to a museum. I play games for the you know…gameplay.
31/10/2012 at 14:33 Lanfranc says:
Design = art + function. We’ve got art all around us. Why not in our games as well?
31/10/2012 at 15:37 Joshua Northey says:
Lots of games do have art, they don’t all need to. I don’t mind that my desk is made of cinderblocks and a counter-top because it was inexpensive, durable, easy to clean, easily moveable, adjustable in height, and 15 other awesome things.
What it isn’t is artistic, pretty, or good looking. Not everything needs to be art. I certainly enjoy pretties in games, but I come and stay for the gameplay, the pretties lose their impact after just one view.
Everyone is of course entitled to their own values, but games would be much more successful and enjoyable if they spent less money on pretties and more on gameplay. But people are irrational about their purchasing decisions so pretties reign supreme.
31/10/2012 at 19:41 socrate says:
What people call art in game is usually graphic,art usually have history behind them and not just a pretty painting just like the black square for example.
There is never any form of better graphic a game being good end up relying on its gameplay and if you always limit yourself to its graphic then you are 1.stupid and 2.missing out on alots of good game out there.
In the end all the people ive seen that are looking at game only for certain graphic type have been small minded people and have been extremely uninteresting person,yes indubitably muahahaha.
01/11/2012 at 11:50 antoniodamala says:
Jesus, people. I also don’t play games only by their graphics, i spent most of my time playing old games and text baseds. The thing to me is: if you can’t do something that’s at least bearable, then don’t try to do something fancy. Minimalism is pretty much the best solution for almost any case. VVVVV, Towerclimb, Sword & Sworcery, Hotline Miami, all of them use very simple art and it works perfectly. While even Terraria’s font is awful. Also it’s combat is very repetitive, and the construction part is not half as interesting as in Minecraft.
31/10/2012 at 15:30 squareking says:
Opinions!
31/10/2012 at 17:18 wodin says:
Well I really like it…one mans meat is another mans poison and all that.
31/10/2012 at 10:44 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Damn dirty apes.
31/10/2012 at 11:07 Museli says:
Sounds like Scott Lloyd Shelley will be providing the soundtrack, as he did for Terraria. Given as the Terraria OST is one of my all-time favourite albums, I’m even more excited than I was about this game. I’ll probably end up buying four or five copies so I can share it with my chums.
07/11/2012 at 01:01 Cvnk says:
Yeah, I’m really digging the music in that video.
31/10/2012 at 11:48 mondomau says:
I am looking forward to this, Terraria was a fantastic way to waste 20-30 hrs. I’d like to see one of these games actually develop beyond the playset stage though – not necessarily an end-game as such, but developing goals beyond ‘finding new stuff’.
Also, I’m hoping for more depth to the building – one of the things I feel they didn’t explore enough was crafting furniture to make other things i.e. a table with glass bottles on it became a potion crafting station. A science-y game like this could easily take that a lot further and make customising your buildings a game in of itself.
31/10/2012 at 12:27 Gaytard Fondue says:
I played Terraria for about a month . And in that month I put 199 hours into it according to Steam. And I still haven’t done everything. Another plus, it’s one of the few games I can play with my gf without her dying from boredom.
31/10/2012 at 14:30 Joshua Northey says:
Indeed the wife LOVED Terraria. We spent a hundred hours playing together? That is the only non-board game I can say that of other than Worms.
31/10/2012 at 12:17 Khalan says:
Funny how with games like this we’re basically the level designers – the devs give us the tools and we build the worlds, or at least the buildings and landmarks etc. (which is great fun when done right!).
I think it started with Will Wright having more fun creating the levels with the original SimCity than actually playing the game he was originally designing.
31/10/2012 at 12:32 pupsikaso says:
Never liked Terraria. It was so grindy. For an explorative base-building and crafting game that came as a huge surprise and disappointment for me.
Not sure if this Starbound will be any different…
31/10/2012 at 14:04 SkittleDiddler says:
I’m not afraid to say that I never “got” Terraria — great idea, terrible execution.
At the very least, the Starbound people could win me over simply by including a tutorial.
31/10/2012 at 19:46 socrate says:
emmm its pretty much a sandbox…no need for tutorial other then the one that are/were in youtube explaining the basic idea of…getting started i guess.
As for the grindy part….no idea…if you are talking about game mechanic about building stuff then you don’t understand the whole point of these game and you could always cheat your way to have the mat or use a map editor to build your stuff…but i don’t really see the point in playing the game then…might as well just end your life now if effort=reward is that hard you will find life extremely unbearable.
31/10/2012 at 19:55 Joshua Northey says:
Well said.
31/10/2012 at 23:24 SkittleDiddler says:
I had to do a search online just to find out how to do a simple thing like drop crafted furniture. The devs slipped up by not including a manual or tutorial when the game was released, and because of that I went back to playing games that I was already familiar with. I just don’t have the patience to screw around with bad game design.
On a side note, I certainly wouldn’t call Terraria grindy. Boring, maybe, but “grind” is a word that doesn’t really apply to these kinds of sandbox games.
31/10/2012 at 20:01 darkChozo says:
They added in a lot more help stuff later on, especially with respect to crafting. It’s not quite as much a wiki-bound game anymore.
And with the exception of some of the late game Souls of Fooight stuff, Terraria is pretty good about the grind. For the most part it’s a lot of linear progression from area to area, and on the materials front it’s sooo much better than Minecraft. I guess if you didn’t like running around exploring and getting stuff, it could be a bit tedious, but that’s kinda the core of the game, and is what makes it much more entertaining than Minecraft in my mind.
31/10/2012 at 21:33 Tyrain says:
Completely agree. Terraria’s exploration and game progression mechanics were amazing to me. The stuff you find is so cool and much of it is gameplay changing. I was very sad when they stopped developing it since there was so much potential remaining.
I’m sure a tutorial would have made it more accessible to some audiences, but I can’t imagine any way that the game ideas were terribly executed.
01/11/2012 at 00:14 Baines says:
Yes, that was the most grindy thing about Terraria, the result of repeated additions of content to extend the game.
In a way, it was a little annoying. You work to make tools, armor, and weapons. You skimp and save the best ore you find. Then you progress a bit, and the old rare best ore is now common as dirt, your old armor is a waste, you craft new, and you skimp and save the new best ore that you find. Then you dig a bit deeper, and you soon are overflowing in your old new best ore, you make new armor and weapons that ultimately just give you higher defense and attack stats and a different color.
There wasn’t much sideways content added, because new content was generally aimed at people who had already explored the world and crafted everything that they were currently capable of crafting, and why would they want a new low level wooden item or a new low level iron item. They needed new, stronger, better items to draw them back into playing, along with new, stronger, more dangerous enemies.
31/10/2012 at 12:36 Baardago says:
I’m throwing money at the screen, but the game’s not coming out!
31/10/2012 at 13:33 DrZhark says:
I’ve thrown bills, cheques, next I’ll be throwing coins. I’ll report if the game comes out then
01/11/2012 at 00:16 Baines says:
If you throw the coins hard enough, you might see pieces of your screen coming out.
31/10/2012 at 12:43 Bluerps says:
I am so excited about this game! I hope they release it soon.
31/10/2012 at 13:12 wodin says:
Been looking forward to this for awhile. My daughter loves Terraria however this game appeals to me..alot.
31/10/2012 at 20:10 wcanyon says:
I want to be able to sketch out say a line of blocks and they hit “go” and have my character build the line of blocks. I’ve spent so many hours in Terraria just putting a bunch of blocks in a straight freakin line.
31/10/2012 at 23:43 Zankmam says:
Terraria is awesome, too bad they stopped developing it.
However: Hooray for this! Looks great.