Starbound Gets Most Important Update: Spaceship Pets

The Gera School of Game Development has one simple tenet: When in doubt, just add dogs. Our alumni is extensive, and includes but is not limited to a game with an Alsatian in it and Fable 2. Now being added to this list is the glorious two-dimensional Terraform-em-up Starbound [official site] which lets users have pets on board their personal space ships as of this week's patch.

Pets are actually old news in Starbound. You've been able to capture animals for a while now, enslaving galactic dogs and cats across space and time while all together forging a deep and unforgettable friendship.

But this latest patch lets you have spaceship-specific pets: A non-combat Space roommate whose design and colour will generate based on your character's chosen race. They've programmed in some interesting character traits for these guys too. Pets will investigate items that you hold on your ship. You can feed them too, and likewise these pets can develop preferences for certain foods.

So natural you can buy a load of junk for them too, letting them jettison slowly through the vacuum Space in luxury normally only afforded by teenage heiresses. You can buy pet houses, pet balls to be played with (lol) and food bowls, all of which can be found in Starbound's in-game store.

You can check out the full patch notes for this latest Stable Update right here.