Starground initially started last year in December when I (Jesse) was messing around with multiplayer. I just wanted to see if it was possible in Godot, and maybe make a little fun game to play with friends. However I can now happily say that 8 months later, Starground has become something much more, and is now available in Early Access!
Version 0.8.0.0
With this Early Access launch also comes a lot of brand new features and content to work through. Check out all of the new awesome stuff:
New Dungeon Content
The first dungeon in Starground has always been a bit basic, so a lot of time has been put in for new stuff! The overall visuals of everything has seen a nice upgrade, with new visual decorations. Hazardous obstacles also make their debut, with the spike trap and poison capsule. These are a danger to you (the Stargrounder) but also to enemies! Use them to your advantage for a huge boost.
The slime enemy also makes an entrance. Unlike the automatons or moonshrooms, slimes aren't able to directly hurt you. Instead they act as a debuff, slowing you down significantly whenever you get stuck in their slime. You can kill them for a nice coin boost as well!
Dreadcap has also seen some love in this update, and now has brand new animations and attacks!
Refreshed Space Hub
The Space Hub has also seen some well deserved love. In addition to a whole bunch of new decorations, there's now two more buildings you can use and interact with. The first is the fountain, which acts as a sort of gatcha machine. Put in coins, and hope you get something good back out! A vending machine also has a spot, which allows you to buy food for dungeons.
Infinite Research
Automation is kind of pointless if you don't have anywhere to put your resources into, so infinite research helps alleviate that problem. This allows you to continually dump your resources into high level researches for powerful end-game bonuses to your factory. Early Access comes with 2 - mining laser speed, and collector efficiency. More to come soon!
Full Controller Support
Controller support is always something that I wanted to add to the game, and it's finally arrived! You can now play through the game with your controller of choice. This also sets us up for verified Steam Deck support sometime soon.
And Thank you!
To everyone that's helped me along the way (Big Boy Games team, the community, our publisher Graeme, our translators, content creators, and playtesters). It's been super fun working on this game, and I can't wait to keep adding new stuff for you all!
Ad Astra
Full Changelog
Languages
Every available language is available through the hard work of dedicated Starground fans! Please join the official Discord if you'd like to contribute or report any errors in existing translations. Thank you!
- Added support for Danish (massive thanks to Doublado!)
- Added Turkish language support (massive thanks toYiğit!)
Additions
- Added full controller support
- Added particles and a purchase sound to shop menus
- Added rain
- Added percentages to translation buttons to see how much is translated
- Added a new slam attack to Dreadcap
- Added new animations to Dreadcap
- Added Doublado and liberodark to the translator credits
- Added infinite research
- Added mining laser power research
- Added categories for research type in the research menu
- Added a fountain to the space hub
- Added a tooltip that appears when you first pickup food
- Added an Ok button to the tool bench (doesn't actually do anything, but is only psychological)
- Added slime enemies
- Added poison capsule decorations
- Added spike traps
- Added the collector efficiency infinite research
- Added a vending machine to the space hub
- Added an option to mine the first hit resource instead of where your mouse is
Changes
- Made it so Bissala and the Snail have different greetings and goodbyes
- Removed the satisfactory language
- Made it so Dreadcap drops coins
- Removed Dreadcap's crescent projectile attack
- Made it so Dreadcap is smarter about how and when he attacks players
- Made it so Dreadcap's minions will die when he dies
- Increased Dreadcap's attack range
- Increased the power output of solar panels to 10
- Made it so some enemies can move through doors
- Changed infinite research to show the percentage increased
- Improved the appearance of the space hub
- Made it so mover behavior is more defined and reliable with all types of buildings
- Removed the guide from the pause menu
- Made it so movers will take items out of researchers more intelligently to allow for better research automation
Fixes
- Fixed an issue where you could pick buildings while in a menu
- Fixed an issue where planet descriptions and names were not translated
- Fixed multiple translation issues in the building menu
- Fixed an issue where power indicators were incorrect sometimes
- Fixed an issue where disconnected batteries would not display a no connection icon on load
- Fixed an issue where placing or destroying an underground conveyor did not cause nearby conveyors to recalculate their curve
- Fixed an issue where weapon reach had too many decimals
- Fixed an issue where the snail trader had the same hitbox as Bissala (the weapons trader)
- Fixed an issue where music delay was not loaded
- Fixed a crash in multiplayer that happened whenever a client entered another room
- Fixed an issue where thumpers were not visible on clients
- Fixed an issue where underground conveyors did not insert into other underground conveyors
- Fixed an issue where placing underground conveyors sometimes linked to the wrong conveyor
- Fixed a crash related to a mover taking an item directly from an underground conveyor
- Fixed an issue where another tooltip activating while the initial tutorial was still active would break everything
- Fixed an issue where you could try and activate an item in your hotbar that did not have any function
- Fixed an issue where rain did not sync for clients
- Fixed an issue where attack boxes were not big enough
- Fixed an issue where the player death animation would not play
- Fixed an issue related to hovering over a chest and the label not becoming visible
Optimizations
- Increased the performance of all resource nodes
- Increased performance of rocks
MORE ONLINE CO-OP FUN?
Do you have a group who love to play online co-op games? Add to your party night by checking out the demo for the upcoming 17.waves TD. Think Overcooked, but instead of cooking meals, you're building and maintaining towers to fend off waves of buggish aliens.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2369760/17waves_TD/
Also published by 2 Left Thumbs, the full release is due for late 2024.
Be sure to add 17.waves to your Wishlist so you don't miss out!