The odd tale of Starbound

 To boldly go-

Do you like 'Terraria'? You have to, right? All that high adventure action rendered on a Minecraft-like template but plastered on a 2D background, with a much heavier focus put onto combat and gathering loot and building up your flawless gear. In many ways the game was more like a modded game of Minecraft in the often unhinged way the game handled it's progression and top-tier enemies. But you know what the problem is with Terraria? By it's very nature it had to be lesser than Minecraft, in scale. When we're looking at a 2D world you can't really have endlessly generating landscapes else you'll never get the chance to go home again, exploration would take stupidly long. What you really need is an excuse to visit multiple endlessly generated places that were still limited in scope so that 2D explorations don't grow too tedious. Hmm... maybe you could visit different worlds! And travel around in space! Well heck, this almost sounds like more than just an addendum to Terraria, but a whole new game entirely. And so it was with 'Starbound'.

I first witnessed Starbound when I was big into the Minecraft community as a kid. Between updates there would always be that lull period in interest (much as there is now) wherein people would find themselves 'shopping around', as it were, and seeing what the new hotness around town is. Terraria was a well known alternative to Minecraft, but the space between their updates was even larger than Minecraft's. (Which make sense considering each update bought practically an entire new complete circuit of progression and content) It's not that everyone was out there searching for a Minecraft 'replacement', so to speak, we just wanted something to dull the pain of the wait. Custom games were cool time killers, and Pixel Piracy was fun, but then something truly interesting and exciting showed it's face. A game which sounded ambitious, but oh-so tantalising. A game I already introduced. 'Starbound'. It's that game. That's the one.

Back when I first heard about it the game was very much still in active development, but Minecraft and my own distinct lack of game development understanding obfuscated what that really meant to me. Afterall, Minecraft was being developed all the time, and following along with those updates and teases was super cool, so why shouldn't I approach Starbound with that same enthusiasm? I latched onto the winding news as this game wrote and rewrote what it wanted to be, utterly fascinated with watching the inner workings of what I could only assume were a development team with everything figured out and who were on the ball. As I'm poorly foreshadowing, things weren't quite that straightforward and the game would change significantly in it's blueprinting stage to actualisation, as can be expected from an indie game. But none of that means the Starbound, which ended up releasing into Beta, was any less of a hit across the alternative Minecraft crowd.

I, for one, was smitten with the artstyle which was 2d and pixel focused like the aforementioned Terraria, but much more detailed than that game's direction; with very thin, or simply non-existent, black lines, and more complementary and blending colours and picture elements. The artists could create a palette that would bled from, one location to the other, like brush strokes of water paints. On certain planets, when surrounded by trees, or in the middle of a meteor storm, it really does look like some 32-bit portrait come to life in front of you. (Or rather, it might if not for the character sprites, whom I always felt seemed out-of-place in the Starbound environments) Among my circle of friends we'd taken to calling the thing Terraria 2 for that very reason, it just looked like Terraria, but better in most every way. Better in aesthetics, better in scale, better in enemy variety. (Especially with all the behind-the-scenes talking about randomly generated monster parts) All in all, it was perhaps a little unfair for I and others to place this little game that could on such a high pedestal before release, but a stupid kid gets overly excited sometimes, what are ya gonna do?

In concept the game worked out like this. Starbound would let you create a character from the several different available races in the game, and then set you on a space ship orbiting a random planet. Players would then have to scavenge from the planet, mining and refining ores, cutting down trees, unearthing downed technology. There are upgrade paths, which are a tad more rigid then you'd perhaps expect in a title as open as this, but very little in the game really requires you to min max in order to fight it so you're mostly just preoccupied with doing your own thing like making a base, securing a consistent food supply, seeking out rare dungeons for cool decorative items, or just collecting different instruments so that you can play songs that you feed into the game files. (I did that last one a lot.) The base game really did have that 'game without an objective' thing that Minecraft mastered.

When it came to the public, Starbound was a mismatch of ideas and potential design directions that made it look like a world of potential lied before it. On one hand there was a lot of effort and thought put into this organic exploration gating mechanic wherein certain planets and solar systems would require tools to be built and equipped from resources gathered from proceeding planets that are grouped by 'hazard tiers' and 'planet type'. On the other, this free-from design grated against the progression path that really focused around a really cookie-cutter narrative quest chain that I can't imagine anyone wanted or asked for. (and yet remained the only real reason to get to the endgame loot and tools) Lots of toyed about customisation concepts that would have added to the more free-form gameplay loop, such as ship building (or ship combat, though that was only ever a rough idea and never a actual promised mode) ended up being tested and then ultimately scrapped. What started as Minecraft/Terraria in space, slowly became the skeleton of an open world exploration game stuffed into a single player narrative quest game for seemingly no reason beyond, perhaps, creating a more traditional internal roadmap to project completion. 

After that main game was 'completed', the team adopted the development model that it's 'predecessor's had; picking a project to add to the game from scratch and treating that as the next big addition. And it was fine but, me and others who had played the game from the beginning were waiting for the more basic elements which had been removed or reimagined to materialise in the game. Mechs were okay, but I wanted the Universe to be restructured in that natural tiered system they were talking about. (Although, not in the way that it was originally formatted, because that was admittedly stagnant. I see why it was scrapped.) I wanted to make my custom ship, I wanted ambient bosses. (Okay, the last one is actually a big ask, I'll admit) Ultimately, though, after a two or three updates that ranged from 'pretty cool' to... the bounty hunter update; Starbound would be one of the games caught up in the whole 'Chucklefish bad labour practises' controversy and, presumably following a massive falling out from the team, was left to float in limbo. It's an odd case of a game that is finished, with extra content to boot, but never really felt like it's mission statement was achieved, and whatsmore never had a farewell message from the team. Now it's just a well preserved derelict floating around the cosmos, never to be captained again.

I say all this only to end with a recommendation because honestly; the game still is a lot of fun. Perhaps it lacks that fulfilling conceptual ultimatum that the other leaders of the crafting genre have in spades, but it's also nowhere near as much of a mess as the sum of it's parts would suggest. I've spent hundreds of hours playing Starbound over the years and I consider that free-time gainfully wasted in a title I genuinely enjoyed, and if you're a Terraria, Minecraft or even Stardew Valley fan, you'll get something out of this game too, I promise. Whatsmore, the original vision has been something the community tried to build out themselves through a plethora of complex and incredible modding efforts over the years; but I haven't dived too deeply into that world myself yet. But you know, I am feeling that itch to return to the stars once more. Maybe it's time to start a new adventure, destination star bound. (Actually I'm feeling more like a Terraria playthrough first, but Starbound could easily be next.)

Chuckleing at your staff.

Working for the rat race, You know you're wasting your time.

Oftentimes when it comes the world of gaming, it is easy to focus on the misdeeds of the big corporations to such a degree that you forget about the actions of the smaller companies. The AAA industry may be the public face of gaming, but the indie devs are the industry's lifeblood, so it is important to ensure that the indie talent pool has as many safeguards as the professional fields. It is completely unacceptable, and harmful for all gaming, when developers find themselves in situations wherein they are used or taken advantage of, whether that is in a multimillion dollar studio (Konami) or a popular indie conglomerate (Chucklefish.)

If you've never heard of 'Chucklefish' before, then I wouldn't blame you. Chucklefish is a British game development company that was set up in 2011 and have worked on some fantastic indie titles throughout the years. Their first project; Starbound, is still one my favourite space exploration sims, even if it is a little aimless at times. They also worked on 2019's Wargroove, a delightful tactical strategy game that is an absolute must-play for Advance Wars fans, and they published two absolutely seminal indie gems; 'Risk of Rain' and 'Stardew Valley'.

So they aren't exactly nobodies when it comes to the world of gaming. Their notoriety has made it so that recent allegations that have been levied against them have rippled across the gaming media and is sure to continue onto the indie world. Perhaps this may affect the trusting relationship between independent developers and small studios going forward, who can tell at this point? All I can say for sure is that certain fandoms are looking at the studio in a whole new light after last week.

If you have been out-of-the-loop in this issue, let me bring you up to speed. Recently, young indie developers who previously worked on Starbound, came out to excuse the Chucklefish founder, Finn Brice, of exploiting them for free labour. Designer, Damon Reece, claimed that he put in hundreds of hours of work towards Starbound without being paid "a single cent". Another dev, FetalStar, shared a similar story. "In 2012 I was brought on to do concept art for Starbound, which turned into doing the weekly/monthly wallpapers. I also did the original concept art for the Floran and Hylotl races." 

If what FetalStar claims is true, then that means her contribution to the project was not just supplementary work. (Not that such would make her any less entitled to recompense) The Floran and Hylotl are 2 of the six playable Starbound races, the concept she did on them must have helped shape major parts of the game. And was she paid for her efforts? "I put in at least a hundred hours of work, and didn't see any sort of compensation. I was really naive and too afraid to ask to be paid, because anyone who did would be screamed at." (So that's a no.) FetalStar also went onto claim that she witnessed a lot of "inappropriate behavior" but refused to go into details as "it happened to other people."

All this paints a pretty damning picture as to the working conditions at Chucklefish. Any workplace where the workers are too afraid to ask about pay for fear of being screamed at, or fired, is a place that must be hell to work at. I would know, I spent months working in equally as an uncomfortable environment, so I can attest to the sort of despair that builds in a situation like that. It is the kind of situation that can take you to some 'dark places', if you'll forgive the cliche.

Things are only worsened by the fact that the developers in question where still teenagers when they were working for Chucklefish, and so were far easier to push around and force to work. Folk put up with it for hope of being hired by the company, and some were, but the others were left with nothing to show for their time but bad memories. It reminds me of the story behind the abuse that the Treyarch's QA staff had to undergo during the development of Black Ops 4. Kotaku's Jason Schreier covered this in an expose that revealed the awful conditions that the team had to work under. They were paid, but only a pittance, and they were also teased with the possibility of a Treyarch placement in order to keep them complacent. These were grown men with industry experience that were being exploited, what hope did the teens who worked for Chucklefish have?

In their defence, Chucklefish have responded, albeit in a cold, corporate manner.“During this time both the core crew and community contributors were collaborating via a chat room and dedicated their time for free. Community contributors were under no obligation to create content, work to deadlines or put in any particular number of hours. Everyone was credited or remunerated as per their agreement." A response which feeds my general disdain for the whole idea of 'unpaid internships'. Although it does sound like the deal that the Starbound staff entered into was a lot more informal than that and a lot more exploitable.

This is an argument in which both sides could very well be right, and it still wouldn't make things acceptable at the end of the day (Or at least in my head.) Perhaps these former devs did offer their talent for free in order to get some valuable development experience, Finn Brice should have known to turn them down in favour of a contract or nothing. Choosing to devalue your workers or allowing them to work for free, opens up a uncomfortable relationship between talent and management. Conduct and other potential accusations aside, the power dynamic this granted Brice over these teenagers should have set off alarm bells in his head before he bought them on board.

For the time being, we have little idea where this discourse could end up going. Some more developers have come out to reveal that they were paid, after forcing a contract negotiation, (which is not a great look for Chucklefish.) Whilst the company itself has issued platitudes and seem to be waiting for the whole thing to blow over. It saddens me to think that a small studio who had a hand in so many fantastic games could stoop so low as to mistreat fellow artists, but it seems that this kind of abuse is becoming depressingly common in the modern world.