Why Early Access?

“Starbase is an ambitious game and we want to involve the whole community in the development process.
We cannot stress enough that Starbase launches into Early Access in a clear "alpha" state. This means many features are missing and there are plenty of bugs. We have a long way to go until we can consider the game having all the features (or even all the core gameplay features) complete, however many of the core features are well established and there's fun to be had for sure.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Starbase is an ambitious game and we expect to stay in Early Access for definitely more than two years.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The full version is planned to have "all" the features: more of everything, ships, guns, tools, planets, gameplay loops and a more optimized experience.

We'll be actively listening to feedback on the initial core gameplay experience to get a better sense about what features players want us to prioritize. A full roadmap for features coming this year can be found at: https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Roadmap”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Starbase is in a clear alpha stage. A lot of planned features are not in the game yet. Many of the core gameplay loops are still either missing or under heavy development. Starbase is meant to have thousands of players playing in the same universe, it's an MMO. It's also highly detailed and highly destructible voxel/vertex hybrid, going for some gameplay that's rarely been seen. This is all highly ambitious. It's hard to create and make it all work seamlessly without extensive testing and iteration with real players.

Early Access will introduce players to a new galaxy that they can begin to explore from a bunch of huge stations, located at the orbit of a single planet. As players eventually settle the entire orbit, they can start finding ways to travel to the planet’s moons and someday all the way to other planets and distant star systems. The still unoccupied universe of Starbase offers players the chance to take part in the building of the galaxy and in discovering what will be the first steps in the twilight of space travel.

Early Access allows the players to design, build & modify spaceships, explore the universe, form social connections, and earn money by mining, gathering, crafting and selling resources. The players can start building their home stations and begin the expansion of the Starbase universe.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We feel Starbase will eventually rival AAA games. However right now, in Early Access, the game is missing too many features and has too many bugs to be priced at AAA level. We may adjust the Early Access pricing from time to time, when we feel the added features, stability, playable content and overall experience has improved enough to merit a higher price point. The same goes for the final release price.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We have two big Early Access promises:

1) Constant communication in our Discord; we'll be there no matter what. We may not always be able to disclose e.g. financial stuff or explain every design decision, but we'll be there and talk to the community on a daily basis (quieting down for the weekends as we try to maintain a good work-life balance for everybody). And it's not some outsourced "support" people - it's the CEO (Lauri), VP (Joel), community faces (Kai, Pip), and hands-on developers from time to time. This is only made possible by the awesome, welcoming community, so please treat everybody with the same respect!

2) Frequent updates - we'll aim for 2-3 every month barring any major issues ('force majeure' type). Since we started Closed Alpha in May 2020 we have released 46 updates in 2020 and 39 in 2021 so far (up to July 8). Some of these have been hotfixes but most have been weekly updates. The longest we've gone without an updated build is the Christmas pause from 18th of December 2020 to 13th of January, 2021. The second longest breaks are the 2-week gaps between 21 Aug 2020 to 2 Sep 2020 and 30 Jul 2020 to 14 Aug 2020. All of this was done while our development happens mostly remotely. Our build systems are largely automated and we expect to keep to a similar schedule during our Early Access journey.

We cannot promise that we'll be able to bring Starbase to the vision that we have for the game. We cannot promise a specific feature will be implemented exactly the way we envision right now. We don't know what happens in the next few years, maybe we're being too ambitious. But we have 20 years of experience in creating games - even some successful games like the Trine series, and we feel we have a good shot at making Starbase the game we've been dreaming of.”