Starbound AND Edge of Space: Building a Genre

Just as I did when I sat down to compose my now "famous" Starbound vs Terraria thread, I feel compelled to sit down and bring out some more common sense. Reading a thread in here this evening, I seriously could not believe the bitterness I was seeing coming out of this community. Starbound and Edge of Space, as well as Terraria, are are completely unique games. Each brings something amazing to a genre that has come to be one of the most popular of all time. The 2D, side-scrolling, sandbox adventure has become one of the most sought after types of games. Why? Because of the particular features that excite us about it. The sense of exploration, the sense of surviving in an alien environment, of travelling to other worlds. Starbound, Edge of Space, and Terraria ALL answer that call, and each do it in a way that sets them apart. Consider this:

Starbound: Starbound takes you across the entire universe. No limits, no restraints, you can do anything, go anywhere. You're out there trying to survive. The graphics are simply beautiful, something you can't look at and not love. Starbound stands to be a giant in this genre, for the sheer vastness of it, the limitless gameplay. You look at Starbound, and you don't see Terraria. You don't see Minecraft. You see simply Starbound, very much its own game.

Edge of Space: Edge of Space takes you to a completely different perspective. The world is not whole, not complete. It's a broken and hostile place. You are not just there to EXPLORE the world, you are there to FIX IT. Edge of Space features a darker style of graphics, and a more intense style of gameplay. It gives a far more Metroid vibe than a Terraria vibe, really. I mean seriously, who can turn down rocket powered laser sharks trying to rip your head off while you attempt to terraform a world back from destruction? Edge of Space is also very much it's own game.

Terraria: What can I say about Terraria that we don't already love? After all the countless hours we've spent building, fighting, looting, and exploring, we all know that Terraria sparked off an entire new style of game. The real truth is that it was every BIT a good enough game to inspire others to take the new genre it gave rise to, and take it to the stars and beyond.

None of these three games are a THREAT to one another. What they are is a collection of amazingly well thought out, well made games that have taken the indie world by storm. There is nothing to fight about, nothing to defend against. We don't just have ONE brilliant game to buy and burn hours on, we've got THREE, and as a gamer, that thrills me to death. It's time to stop tearing down these games, and instead hold them up as the example of what it takes to make a game worth playing.

 

I couldn't agree more. Why can't we just get all of the games, and enjoy them all? The whole point of a game is to have fun... which we aren't having when we are at each other's throats bickering over which is best. So lets try to get along, bury the hatchet and have fun together. ^_^

 

You are very right, lady. I too, have noticed the fighting of "the better game" on forums and chats. I don't really understand it, becuase as you said, they are all different games. Hopefully people read this post and discover what you have discovered.

 

I agree completely. Especially in today's gaming world, which I feel is often ruled by making quick money and releasing/developing games as fast and as cheap as possible, with sequels every year, rather than every 3 or 4 years, like in the good old days. Games like Starbound, Terraria, and Edge of Space are all good games, and while some may think that one surpasses the rest (which I find kind of hard to do considering Starbound isn't even done...), I believe that they all stand for something that has been lost in gaming as of late: A game that is made for the sake of gaming and the experiences it brings to it's players. I feel that all three of these games have indeed erupted a new genre and are all part of the much needed repair to what the gaming industry needs. They stand as one, not as three. They are all unique in countless ways, but they work together to bring us something we feel is worth experiencing, rather than something to entertain us for a week or two and then uninstall from our hard-drives.

I agree with LadyAijou completely, and also hope others can see the light.

 

why did i read all of this when i already knew that :/
anyways i hope people stop fighting about which is better.. really nobody.

 

Humans are always going to fight and dispute, many times for the very sake of argument itself. It's inevitable, but hopefully, some will realize that these games aren't mimics of one another, but unique experiences for us to enjoy, not bash.

 

The games don't need to compete if the consumers can buy all three. :alien:

 

The arguments will go on, but I can't at all disagree with you.

 

Oh I know there will always be nay-sayers, but the whole thing is so silly on the face of it. Just trying to get people to think a little

 

Kind of sad that this thread is necessary at all.

 

I didn't know anything was going on till this thread.
I still don't know but that's cause I don't like reading.

 

It's not so much that things are "going on" as just trying to remind people that these developers are working toward a common goal, toward expanding a genre and providing gamers with more amazing experiences.

 

Lazy~

 

Yeah I can't disagree with that.

 

I loaded the page and then just rested for a while before reading it.
about a 12 minute nap.

 

I don't plan to buy/play Edge of Space, and once Starbound comes out, I probably will not play Terraria any longer. I like to tell people of my favorite games, and what makes them my favorite. What I don't like is people telling me I am not allowed to have an opinion on the matter, or that by saying Starbound is best for me, they misconstrue it as bashing the other games.

It's great that all the game creators and designers are enjoying what they do; good for them. I am here for Starbound, for what it represents, it is the best game for me. I understand what you are getting at though. We are only Human, it's in our nature to bicker and fight. One can only hope that the arguments stay civilized, as that too, is a part of our nature.

This is not an attempt to offend anybody

 

im not so sure about edge of space not saying its bad by any means as ive never played it but you may not wanna call it brillant till were sure of its quality

 

I have the beta of Edge of Space, as do around 1,000 others. We're having a blast beating the bugs out of it and watching it all come together. When I talk about Edge of Space, I'm doing it from the standpoint of someone who has hands on time with it. Myself, I'll be buying 6 copies of Starbound, 6 of Edge of Space, and I already bought that many of Terraria. Big family is good times for gaming.

 

After finding out about this game on Greenlight... Hard to say exactly what my opinion is. On one hand, Terraria in SPACE. On the other, I lurked on the developer's message board and the biggest topic was a diatribe on video game clones....
I make it no real secret that a sci-fi sandbox game is something that I wanted to appear since Minecraft Beta. And since I can't program for crap, my only resort has been to make Guide sacrifices on my Corruption altar complain loudly in the vain hope that someone hears me. So now I have two games on the horizon? Well, when I get bored with one I can boot up the other like I do with Minecraft/Terraria. What Handyman revealed so far has me interested but not particularly excited, we'll see what they do when it gets closer to launch. Though that brings me to the other half of my opinion.
I first started PC gaming when I was about five or six with the days of DOS (god was I horrible at understanding command prompt back then) so I'm in a relatively small minority who remembers back when the big names like ID Software released a "new game" every year, using the same graphics engine to make different levels and maybe throw in one or two new weapons and monsters for good measure (the transition from Doom to Doom 2 anyone?) But at the same time, I am frequently reminded that I am nothing compared to the number of people who started gaming when video games became Hollywood and we got such "marvelous" "gems" as the Halo, Battlefield, and Call of Duty series. People who started gaming when companies could spend millions on developing new graphics engines and had no idea that in the beginning, technical limitations meant that pretty much all games looked the same because there were only three or four engines that people could work with and they were ALL horrible compared to what we have now.
So, back on topic, I can accept that EoS is using pretty much the exact same graphics engine (isn't there only like two that developers can buy from a third party programmer?) as Terraria even though I don't consider it a point in the game's favor. But the amounts of butthurt I am detecting from Handyman games is an even bigger strike against the game. It's the Internet, a ethereal realm of anonymity where civility is the first casualty of war, and Handyman showed us a game with a graphics engine LIKE Terraria and a basic features list a lot LIKE Terraria, what did they expect? More relevant to me, if I buy this game and make a potently legit complaint/suggestion/request on their forums, will they give me similar treatment? Big companies have PR people who are trained to either ignore or defuse potential fiascoes, independent devs don't necessarily have the luxury of someone who they can hide behind. Star Quest Online, for example, was a buggy indie sci-fi MMO based off the same tech that built Runescape, yet the biggest downside to it wasn't that it was incomplete at launch, but the fact that that the developer team were the only pompous twits bigger then the player community (and oh gawd was the guild politics and player drama that game's biggest downfall.)
Don't get me wrong, I LIKE the idea of Edge of Space even though I haven't seen anything that makes me stand up and throw money at my computer screen. Though I find the company's reaction (their fans' reaction is predictable though still irritating) potentially worrying, more so then any perceived similarities or limitations.

 

what do you mean ?

personally, last time i said i didint liked edge of space, i got bashed for it. keep in mind, i respect every game, i got nothing against it, im merely stating an opinion on what i know about it, just like everybody else. But i get lashed against by followers of the game. As if they had something to prove, as if they were extremely insecure of the games future. At this rate im gonna hate the game not for what it is, but for the people that follow it...