After today's announcement: what will be special about Starbound?

Personally I don't mind the delay. I'm not the guy who continously follows all the PR - but todays news interested me. Basically what Tiy said is:

Which means:

1. Starbound won't be buggy or rushed
2. Starbound will offer entirely new gameplay

Although I can't believe that Starbound won't be buggy and will be complete on release. What I saw and still see in Starbound is a list of polished features that I liked in other games. Nothing I've seen so far is really new but I hoped they might add and expand on older games.

So what interests me most is what will be so new about the gameplay of Starbound?

Of course, compared to games like Fifa it's different.
But how is it much different in comparison to: Epic Inventor, Junk Jack, Terraria, King Arthur's Gold, Crea, Deepworld, Treasure Adventure Game, MicroTale, Minecraft, Clonk, EverWorld and many many others?
To quote the analogy of Fifa, which is just soccer every year, won't Starbound just be another VoxelCraft / CubeExplorer?

What I had hoped for is that they look at what makes VoxelCrafters so interesting and just improve upon that.
In even shorter terms: voxelcrafter, better multiplayer, better administration, more content.

I wasn't expecting or even wanting for someting innovative or completely different. After todays announcement I'm worried they are going after a goal that may turn out to be too hard to reach.

What do you guys think?

 

Well, there's the random generation.
There's also the art style.
I'm sure the gameplay feels different as well, in several ways.
There are several different races to play as.

 

I've seen random (or other types of generation) in many other games, even going back to the old Elite which offered more than 2000 solar systems and that was 1984.

To me the question is not what will be different - at least the name should be different right? The question is what makes it so special and why they can't just follow normal development procedures (especially now that pre-order brought in almost 2 million already)?

 

If you want to compare it with Fifa, I'd say: Every year the new fifa is still a soccer game with minor improvements and updated rosters. But Starbound won't be some kind of updated Minecraft or Terraria with different graphics and another story. If Fifa's next update would be Starbound, the next Fifa would be a sports game. But not just soccer, you could play basketball, baseball, icehockey and the formula one grand prix, and if thats to stressful for you you'd fly to the next planet and play golf.

Starbound is unique in what it combines to be a much more complex game. having all these options and choices in ONE game is very new for me.

 

Starbound should be like
released sometime in the future

 

I think the keyword here is "scope", at least for this particular genre (sandboxy/buildy/adventurey type game, whatever you want to call it ).

 

Didn't you see the Space Bagel? He posted a picture of a Space Bagel.

 

It's a game that is a new ip?

 

Thats not a Bagel.

 

Its almost impossible to have a completely bug free game and if it had completely new game play it would have to go into a new genre. It borrows elements from 2D adventure games does its own thing adds random generation you know stuff that makes it unique.

Also Fifa does make many under the hood improvements that enhance the game. I don't play Fifa but its easy to see the improvements if you don't write it off as the same thing. And I think there is a fourth category. A game that meets it deadline delivers what it promises and is fun to play. And I don't see the point of adding many new things in a sequel when you could just give people what they love with some improvements.

And finally every category Tiy mentions can produce a good game (1 though probably not) and if you look at Journey they constantly missed deadlines and went over budget but delivered an amazing experience. As for COD it delivers on its promise to please fans who like the previous games. I could probably say more but this seems to be enough.

Also don't rage me if you do not agree with what I said because it is a opinion.

 

Well, I believe it is hard to achieve what they proposed (proposed beying keyword, here) to achieve, though is not impossible, worst case scenario, assuming they'll acually release the game, will be more delay in Beta and/or Full Release.

 

Worst case scenario: the game will be exactly how the team wants it after the 1-year term postrelease.

 

Tiy's breakdown of '3 types of games' was not a very good representation, it muddied the concern between the innovation/following a formula argument and the deadline/free development argument.

Splitting it up into two things:

Starbound will innovate - Considering a majority of critics relate Starbound to Terraria, one of their big pushes is probably to differentiate themselves from it. Tech, crafting, battle pets, race choices, these sorts of features are trying to build a game that is more complex, or at least more defined than the Terraria experience.

Starbound will release when it's ready - They're not adhering to a specific deadline, so the game will release when they feel it is ready. This does not mean that it will be bug free or by any means perfect, it just means it will meet the developers standard before it releases.

 

I don't like the shot taken at CoD and FIFA...
Namely, how crazy can FIFA really get? Its a game about Soccer... based on a real life things. They aren't going to drop rocket launchers and a tech system into it...its Soccer. There is no innovation to be had.
And CoD has an insanely huge fanbase ready to buy the game the second the word is uttered, so what need do the devs actually have to change anything? The consumer KNOWS what it wants, and they turn to CoD for a fast paced shooter with no real skill curve save for how many grenades you can huck before getting blown up. So that's what the developers of that title deliver. Not that I find i particularly fun myself, but how many copies has CoD as a franchise sold? That many people can't be wrong.
I love what Starbound is becoming, and I love that it has a dedicated staff that appreciates and respects us as a community enough to respond to us.
But comparing Starbound to FIFA or CoD is like comparing apples and oranges. Not to mention potentially alienating the consumer basis of those two franchises from this one. I can picture it now, "GASP OMFGLULWUT TIY HATED ON CALL OF DUTY OHNOES! FUX DAT!"

That can so easily be blown out of proportion its not even funny =/

EDIT: I could have used this edit space to actually clean up my grammar and typos, but this seemed funnier. So. Ignore my bad grammar. And typos.

 

His post didn't lead me to believe he was painting them in a bad light, they're just a different kind of game. Thus his post about their being "3 types"

It doesn't mean they're wrong, it just means they're different. With Starbound, they don't just want it to feel like "Terraria 2: Spacerraria" they want it to innovate within the genre and make the game unique.

It definitely is comparing apples to oranges, but I think he was doing so to try and show people that they have a different task ahead of them than just tacking a new number on the front and adding more pixel depth.

 

I see what you are saying.

But, man, with how volatile this place is it seemed like a risky comment. Plus, the wording he used seemed derogatory. He could have just said 'differences' but he went with a 'shock humor' angel I don't quite understand

 

Minor point from your post as a whole, but: I dunno, man. People always say CoD is bad because it's super easy, but for me it might as well be rocket science.* I'm awful at arena shooters because my shooter "skillset" doesn't extend to that area, so generally I laugh when people say they're super easy.

*I mean, I would agree to some extent - there's only so much skill involved when you're talking hitscan weapons and stuff, as compared to games with "proper" ballistics and such.

 

Not even that complicated bromosapien, I never understood the concept of dying 54 times in a single match to the same guy with the sniper rifle down that hallway. Doesn't seem very fun on either end, but hell, some people love it and I can respect it. Battlefield I liked, but thats a whole different story. STARBOUND. That game is going to be awesome. You guys should check it. Here's a link www.playstarbound.com

 

All this talks of bagels makes me want one. Also, I pooped today.

 

A lot of Tiy's posts give off the "I'm an indie dev I can say what I want" vibe - I agree that it's dangerous to talk like that with a large, volatile fanbase. But hey, he's the boss, hopefully he knows how to walk that line without crossing it! For the most part people love devs who talk like real people, until they get too real (Phil Fish) or get painted with too much negative PR.

That's why I like my boring desk job where I don't have to make important decisions externally or customer facing. Speaking my mind in an internal business meeting is much less dangerous.