Update: Pre-Orders Open for Starbound

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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Update: Pre-Orders Open for Starbound



The space-themed spiritual successor to Terraria is now available for pre-order in a crowdfunding style of reward tiers.

Terraria was a quaint little mining and crafting simulator best described as a 2D pixel version of Minecraft. Its main distinction was that while Minecraft billed itself as a "do whatever you want" sandbox kind of game, Terraria felt almost like a classic RPG, with levels, NPC shops, randomized weapons and boss battles. Starbound is the spiritual successor to the game, and is best described as "Terraria but in space." The game is now available for "pre-order" in a crowdfunding style campaign. This means that the game isn't actually finished yet, and your pre-order is directly funding the game's development. Yes, it is essentially a Kickstarter campaign.

So what does pre-ordering get you? There are seven tiers of increasing price, each netting you some extra freebies. The basic game is $15, with a 25% discount if you buy a four-pack. All tiers also include a free soundtrack, and beta access to the game, which should launch some time later this year. More expensive tiers allow you to help design custom content for the game, with the most expensive tier, platinum, immortalizing the buyer as a statue in-game. As of writing, developer Chucklefish has raised $157,509 for the game.

The FAQ states that the game will be released on Windows, Mac and Linux, with at least the Windows release being handled by Steam. If you are worried about the game being cancelled due to not getting enough pre-orders, the devs have stated that "Starbound is going to make it out in 2013 no matter what. But by pre-ordering you help it get here even faster."

Starbound will have a heavy focus on multiplayer co-op. You will start out on a dropship and basically be given free reign to go out and colonize any of the randomly-generated worlds. The devs want players to go out and colonize with the help of their friends, and then team up to fight the creatures that live there. Players will also have a space station "home base," which can be upgraded with cool things like a mech-building factory if they find materials for it out on their colonies.

Eariler this month, Terraria developer Redigit teased some screenshots [http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/its-been-a-while-since-i-posted-a-spoiler.97577/] for an upcoming update to Terraria.

Source: Starbound [http://playstarbound.com/store/]

Update: Starbound pre-orders have hit $500,000 in total pledges, meaning that the first stretch goal has been reached, and a new race, fossils. [http://playstarbound.com/stretch-goal-1-the-novakids/]

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piinyouri

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Mar 18, 2012
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Was wondering if there was gonna be an article on this.

I've already put my 75 dollars down, I've been anticipating this game since it first appeared after Terraria went pear shaped.

Hopefully the pre-ordering will indeed speed up the development process, allowing the Chucklefish to work work full time (some or all of them have day jobs) on it until release.

Oh and the soundtrack is a great bonus incentive, I've heard it already on the Starbound forums long ago and it's fantastic, especially Hymn To The Stars.

Here's the character creator if anyone is curious as to what your choices will be and what you can look like.

http://community.playstarbound.com/chucklechargen/
 

Doclector

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Aug 22, 2009
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Looks damn cool, I look forward to it.

But if that image is in game, then James Cameron gonna sue somebody.
 

Karadalis

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Apr 26, 2011
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I wonder if they will make huge promises again and then decide that theres more money to make on consoles again.
 

rustybroomhandle

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Jun 21, 2011
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Karadalis - This article headline is misleading. This game is not being made by the same people that made Terraria. The only person they have in common is Tiy, who did pixel art in the original game. They have no intention of slipping into the same line of dickery that eventually befell Terraria.
 

Elate

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Karadalis said:
I wonder if they will make huge promises again and then decide that theres more money to make on consoles again.
Considering it's not the same developer that did that, no.

rustybroomhandle said:
Karadalis - This article headline is misleading. This game is not being made by the same people that made Terraria. The only person they have in common is Tiy, who did pixel art in the original game. They have no intention of slipping into the same line of dickery that eventually befell Terraria.
Yeah this was my immediate thought. Steven, you'll be giving it a bad name with the implication that the same devs are working on it. In fact from what I understand, Tiy left due to the Terraria dickery.
 

-Dragmire-

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Mar 29, 2011
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I'm curious if the mulitiplayer focus will make the game nearly unplayable solo.
 

Charli

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Karadalis said:
I wonder if they will make huge promises again and then decide that theres more money to make on consoles again.
The guy who made that call is now back on the Terraria bandwagon. (obviously after realizing he basically left a cash cow to graze pointlessly in a field and IS now making PC updates as well)

This is the OTHER guy, who then left and wanted to do more things. Hense why everyone's all open to give it the benefit of the doubt.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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Mar 22, 2010
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Going to grab this and most likely the bundle deal for friends and I'd also hope this comes to consoles eventually.
 

Froggy Slayer

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Doclector said:
Looks damn cool, I look forward to it.

But if that image is in game, then James Cameron gonna sue somebody.
Well, we'll have to wait for him to sue every single other military Sci-Fi thing made after 1986 first.

OT: Oh yes, I'm very excited for this, I'm a big fan of Terraria and Sci-Fi, so this mix seems perfect for me.
 

JoshuaMadoc

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Sep 3, 2008
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rustybroomhandle said:
They have no intention of slipping into the same line of dickery that eventually befell Terraria.
That's funny, because that was true up until a few months ago. Redigit is updating Terraria again and the forums have been ablaze with hyping, multiplying with each teaser image he's released.
 

Reincarnatedwolfgod

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Jan 17, 2011
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I played quite a lot of Terraria so this looks interesting. But I don't believe in pre-ordering and I am not affected by the hype. I will wait for the reviews and the opinions of people who played it.
It also a kickstarter of a game at the same time and it's going to come out no matter what which has me to being skeptical. If they released something playable for everyone to try or at least a 30 minute video of gameplay then I could potentially be less skeptical.

looking at that link for terraria being updated led me to this
http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/official-terraria-irc-plugdj-spoilers-thread.96063/
I seems hardmode will be revamped. Maybe this revamp will fix the part near the end of hardmode that got me to stop playing.
 

piinyouri

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Mar 18, 2012
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-Dragmire- said:
I'm curious if the mulitiplayer focus will make the game nearly unplayable solo.
Very unlikely.
The dev team has said in the past and possibly in the FAQ that they have every intention of making the game fully playable and enjoyable playing by yourself.
 

Karadalis

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Apr 26, 2011
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rustybroomhandle said:
Karadalis - This article headline is misleading. This game is not being made by the same people that made Terraria. The only person they have in common is Tiy, who did pixel art in the original game. They have no intention of slipping into the same line of dickery that eventually befell Terraria.
Oh? In that case ill definatly check the game out.

But why is it called a sequel when it more or less has nothing to do with terraria?
 

Atmos Duality

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Mar 3, 2010
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Huh. So this is what it feels like to be topic-jacked by the news room.
How odd.

On topic: I was one of the first few hundred to pre-order (the backer counter still had ??? indicated), but man. It EXPLODED after that, generating 100k in about 4 hours.

EDIT: And it just passed 10000 backers @ $250,000 as of this post.

JoshuaMadoc said:
rustybroomhandle said:
They have no intention of slipping into the same line of dickery that eventually befell Terraria.
That's funny, because that was true up until a few months ago. Redigit is updating Terraria again and the forums have been ablaze with hyping, multiplying with each teaser image he's released.
Yeah...I have no doubt that Red saw the writing on the wall.
 

GAunderrated

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Jul 9, 2012
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Reincarnatedwolfgod said:
Look interesting but I don't believe in pre-ordering and I am not affected the hype. I will wait for reviews and the opinions of people who played it.
^ This. There is no reason to really pre-order because there have been so many broken promises and lies in the game industry lately in both the indie and AAA scene (of course less on the indie side but still some).

I'm tired of putting my faith in a developer and being let down. Show me the product I want first then I'll show you the money, not before.
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
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piinyouri said:
-Dragmire- said:
I'm curious if the mulitiplayer focus will make the game nearly unplayable solo.
Very unlikely.
The dev team has said in the past and possibly in the FAQ that they have every intention of making the game fully playable and enjoyable playing by yourself.
Oh, that's good to hear. While I enjoy playing with friends, I spend the majority of my gaming time playing solo so that aspect is important to me.