Why is Terraria more popular than Starbound?

As someone who enjoys both games, I would think that these two games maybe on somewhat equal footing in terms of popularity. But that doesn't really seem to be the case. If you search google or youtube for Starbound, you'll find a decent amount of content relating to it, however if you search Terraria, holy crap you find an abundance of content for Terraria, like Thorium mod,Calamity,Death Mode,Spirit Mod,Bard Mod and so much more. Youtubers such as HappyDays and ChippyGaming has their channels mainly focused on Terraria with lots of content, whereas with Starbound I would find some channels dedicated to it, their views and subscription base is pretty low. So why is Starbound less popular? Anyone have any ideas?

 

Those are some really good reasons, especially the part about Terraria coming first. In terms of modding for Terraria and Starbound is debatable. I see that both games have a very large community of modders, though IMO modding for Starbound is FAR easier and straightforward than Terraria, but then again, it's not like Re Logic decided on applying mod support for their game when first released, whereas Starbound does.

The part about the updates seems to hold true as well, not to mention how many people are complaining about the game's direction, but the devs seem to be quiet about the complaints, but re logic's devs seems to be more active and communicating with their fanbase.

Like you, I heard of Starbound because of Terraria. I think I literally googled "games similar to Terraria" and Starbound was the first game to pop up. During that time I was crazy about the 2D Sandbox Genre, although I think Terraria is more authentic in terms of being a sandbox genre due to lack of a story and being forced to complete a few quests before you're able to explore the vastness of space, whereas in Terraria you're already cast off into the wilderness right from the start able to explore anywhere. Perhaps for Starbound 2.0 everything can be brought back, where the main story is optional. Like when you're creating a character, you can replace the skip intro mission with, skip story, and you'll be able to meet the story NPCs in towns to do some of their sidequests or you can craft boss summoning items to fight the story's bosses. But I'm just throwing stuff out there.

All in all I still prefer Starbound to Terraria. I have fun with modding with the game. I have no where near as an easy time modding for Terraria. Heh, but that's just me though.

 

There are some other reasons, however quite a few are subjective... Things that happened during development, as jonesy hinted at with the many things that changed. I love both games in their own way. Each game is quite different.

Terraria is built to be somewhat fast paced, where starbound is a bit more slower paced; in a sense. Depends on what is being looked at. A lot of people that have come from terraria the first thing they notice is how quite the equipment progression can be in starbound. Equipment is somewhat one of the main focuses of terraria, where as in starbound it is at least in my opinion second.

The one thing I enjoyed quite a lot in both is the building, and it is what I do most of the time with any game that allows it. So yes I have played minecraft, and still do alongside these games. However I can't really compare it to these two game much beyond being a sandbox.

So I guess the main reason behind the game being more popular is how fast paced terraria can be, and how long it can keep the attention of many people within game. After all its' single world being crammed with a lot of content seems more enticing to some than how spread out it is in starbound. I mean starbound is a universe, and I guess some don't quite understand maybe what that means in the visual sense.

If anything, NMS is probably the closest game to compare, but it is in 3d. As it has similar concepts here and there. Regardless the reasons each game is of their own within the genres they are a part of. genre is a loose term after all and one game can be within multiple even if just a touch.

Another reason would be the fact it is one world that some would prefer it, since few have lag issues in a smaller world than traversing the universe. Although under the hood starbound actually is doing a lot more tracking and constant change due to ai and the like. Terraria far as I know uses a lot of static ai, as in behaviors are limited, and what they do visually will be different. Starbound the behaviors can do many things hence having too many NPCs or ai around can bog some systems down a lot. The ai in each the games works quite differently, although most in terraria is geared to character goto and kill till morning on the surface during a non-event like day. In starbound the critters take a los to notice then attack if they are aggressive. I really can't make much a run down on either, but it is what it appears to be with the most basic of enemies. Both games have touch damage.

A lot of the equipment in terraria are more flashy, and some people prefer that kind of sparkle more than gameplay. Although saying that starbound has a lot to collect, even some that terraria doesn't have, as terraria may have its' own collections. So it really is what shines in the eyes of the player.

For me building, exploring, and collecting are what I am interested in. Combat is a second thought for me, so starbound is just right in that respects, but I like doing the same while defending in terraria. So I go about each a slightly different way.

 

The biggest difference for me is the amount of bosses in Terraria (modded) as apposed to Starbound (modded). Terraria has a long list of bosses, that are interesting, and difficult. It's one area that Starbound is lacking, and that really does limit interest. If mod makers were to take on adding more bosses and end game content, I think Starbound would be more popular. Terraria has a lot to work towards...Starbound doesn't have much to do, once you reach a certain point.

 

Chucklefish basically didn't do anything on Stardew. All the coding was done by the developer, Chucklefish did (minimal) promotional work for it and published it. I can't speak for their other 3rd party titles but I've heard their involvement on anything they didn't develop in house is similarly minimal.

 

Combat system :

Terraria empowers players with much larger supplies of energy and wackier weapons and armor to supplement that. Every is viable in the short term, and combat scales fairly with the state of the world. It keeps you on your toes or hurtling through the air with anti-grav boots, cannons, and magic. Weapons are constantly getting added, and special armor sets grant specific effects. It's rewarding as it is unpolished, but players are encouraged to explore new areas because it'll grant them instant gratification with new ores and recipes.

Starbound limits players with tech. Aside from having a certain order of technology that you have to progress through, jumping across tiers isn't easy. The scaling is a lot more dramatic in the sense that a moderate planet would usually kill off most new players who haven't spent a terrible amount of time focusing solely on crafting and upgrading. Abilities are also locked behind resource-walls like the need for Copper Bars, Silver Bars, and Gold Bars to access all the types of implants you can have. It means you'll have to go out of your way to find the requested resources for many upgrades rather than digging straight down. Also, weapons have been overhauled a couple of times, and in some cases with the unique weapons...not for the better. I do recall implants being much more diverse pre-release, among other things.

Scope :

Starbound tries to cover not only worldbuilding the ways that Minecraft and Terraria does (which are very hands-off), but also tries to create overarching storylines. Arguably it's going to lead to less creativity and imagination if there is a canon to stick to, and the longer said canon is, the more difficult it is to detract since there's so many things to keep track of. It also covers cooking, raising pets, and establishing colonies in multiple ways as opposed to the simple approach that Terraria has; you grow crops and hunt for meat, try to keep your pet alive without it dying on you, and you have to build rooms with very specific furniture for the very specific NPC you want. With a larger scope, there can't be too much time spent slogging on any one specific aspect. Terraria builds tall, but Starbound builds wide.

Age :

While Terraria did have much more time to build things up, most of its updates have consistently been put towards adding new content rather than revising old content. Novelty invites all demographics, and building upon the end-game makes player retention higher. After all, vets are getting rewarded for retention in the form of being able to encounter and fight the newest bosses first. Terraria ages well when the old meta can be taken for granted in light of new meta.

Starbound has focused revision after revision of the same content, though more egregious was the cancellation of the Bounty Hunting update. In a game where fascinating circumstances are all spaced out from each other to make some relatively tame adventures compared to the insanity that is Terraria's pacing, action sequences apart from the Outpost Quests would be a much-needed filler for the casual player. And it'd be fine if Chucklefish said that it'd be technically difficult to implement Bounty Hunting properly into the game and would throw it in hiatus hell (some hope is better than no hope to the consumer), dropping it altogether for console releases has kinda sat sour with players.

All in all, the game hasn't aged well with the failed endeavors. There were some genuinely great ideas that have been sacked, and some older players I know haven't returned because of their failed expectations.

In any case, Chucklefish wants to do other games and things, and I'm guessing that the dev team for Starbound is probably cooking something up, somewhere. We just don't know where If the game continues to updated, I'll be pleasantly surprised every time I come back. If not, at least I can admit I had some good memories before and after the release of 1.0. Who knows; if Chucklefish revives a previously trashed concept or step the game up another tier to spit in No Man's Sky's face, we might see a revival in futures near and distant. As it stands now, though, Terraria remains as the bigger pull for 2D platforming gods and kids who like bright, shiny things.

More to come.