‘Starbound,’ The Endless 2D Space Adventure Game, Leaving Early Access With Next Update

Over the past few years, players willing to support developer Chucklefish’s upcoming sandbox title Starbound have watched the game make great strides toward its release. Many iterations, improvements, and additions have been made to the adventure game, but the core idea remains the same as Starbound approaches its departure from early access and officially launches. With update 1.0, Starbound will come out of early access, but the game will continue to be updated and patched with new features as time goes on.

Developers of the game announced on Sunday that the next update to Starbound will officially mark its exit from the early access period of the game. This will apply to the storefronts in which it appears as part of various early access programs. Although no firm date is included in the announcement from Chucklefish on the game’s official site, players that supported the game over the years are definitely excited to see the game hit this enormous milestone.

Starbound’s next update is the big 1.0! @Tiyuri has outlined what to expect in this post! https://t.co/76TGZWHmUi pic.twitter.com/Gewhy1m0cY

— Starbound (@StarboundGame) April 3, 2016

Starbound is a procedurally-generated adventure sandbox game set in space. Players choose from seven character races, including several unique options like the Avian bird people, or the Novakid wild west gas people. After starting their adventure, players soon discover more about the lore in Starbound as they repair their spaceship. Eventually, a player’s ship, which is differently modeled for each playable race, will be able to traverse an endless universe thanks to the game’s procedural generation.

The game’s starmap just keeps going, and with enough fuel, players can visit nearly innumerable planets each with their own dungeons, local wildlife, native inhabitants, aggressive visitors, and much more. A plethora of different biomes await players including deserts, oceans, alien, jungle, tundra, and others. Players can construct scaffolding to visit the clouds or dig deep to find fuel and other surprises beneath the surface of nearly every planet type. All the while, Starbound players can collect over a thousand in-game objects including weapons, armor, paintings, furniture, and many others.

With the 1.0 update, players that have stepped away from Starbound will find several new features. This last early access update will finally flesh out the game’s story while separating its progression from any armor, ship, or colony progression the player makes. Additionally, side quests and generated quests keep the player engaged on every planet they discover. The story mission gives players a chance to tackle major boss battles while uncovering more about their place in the universe, but armor, ship, and colony progression gives players a chance to truly customize their Starbound experience.

As players get stronger in Starbound, they will find and craft better armor, stronger guns, and other helpful items. Unlocking expansions to their ship lets the player add more storage space on board and decorate it to their liking. On a planet’s surface, players can take the materials they harvest to build structures. With the right combination of accommodations, NPCs will move into properly-built houses. Giving a colony enough attention may result in the player earning valuable crew members for their ship. Crew members can take on different combat roles or aid in making a player’s ship more efficient.

Pet collection, an Augment system, new crafting progression, and more are outlined in the 1.0 announcement. Although players must currently set up a server to play with each other, the co-op in Starbound will also evolve once the game officially launches. Dropping in and out of a friend’s single player game will soon be possible alongside dedicated servers and Steam Workshop support after the launch. Players can check out Starbound now in its early access state for $15. Players can find it on Steam or on the DRM-free GOG platform. That price will likely increase when it officially launches.

[Image via Chucklefish, Steam]