We’d like your review if you bought Star Rangers and here are some thoughts on the review system change - it's not all good news for a game like ours. Thank-you to all that support Star Rangers with your words, thoughts, playtime, and pocketbook. As I'm sure some of you are already aware, Steam has removed the counting towards a positive percentage all reviews written by those who activated games using a Steam key; i.e. those who bought the game elsewhere or was given it as part of the community (fundraising, humble bundle, flying bundle, community members). The reviews show up, but the thumbs up do not count in the overall rating. Sad. Wot: http://store.steampowered.com/news/24155/ Since Star Rangers started with a fundraiser (a hearty thanks again), anyone who in fact bought the game that way & received a key, and anyone working on the Intern team no longer has their reviews counted. That’s okay - but unfortunately, it means that our ratings don’t reflect about 50% of our players ( :( ), and enthusiastic ones, some of whom donated 50 or 200 dollars or even more. That’s very unfortunate because it means Mostly Positive suddenly became a Mixed Rating, and that affects how we build a community. In response, the developers would like to ask, if you have time, those who have purchased the game to write a review. Please: be honest. Star Rangers grows from criticism, even Den’s [Khal made me write that DMJ :] because it allows them to grow and learn from those mistakes. Personal Reflection from Dragon the Intern When I, Christian, an intern, started working with the Development team, I was given charge of creating a group of game players, who have provided what we consider valuable feedback, and even more importantly, game time! The team also wrote reviews which are still posted, and yes, also flagged honestly we received the game for free, so that’s another group of supporters, that are not counted herein. But their feedback is important none the less. -Dragon Personal Reflection from Astronicus On behalf of the Project Whitecard Team, I thank you all the players and supporters (Den, DMJ March, Flying Cheesecake, SydKhaos), and we shall continue to work hard to bounce back from this temporary setback, and we would have never gotten this far without all of you guys' support, and for that I thank you, and the people here at Project Whitecard thank you. Reviews are honestly less important than the feedback you’re giving on the discussion board, and sales are up due to the Juno level. Reviews for an Early Access game should take this into account the fact that it’s just so: Early Access. But in conclusion, it’s actually better if we don’t have to focus on reviews too much, we’re slowly but surely finding our audience. I built this game to have a platform to have fun with, and so let's celebrate that. -Astronicus (Khal). :)

[ 2016-09-14 20:25:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Explore space as an astronaut recruit and build on other worlds in Star Rangers


Dear Steam Users,
Well it’s time. From a surprise meeting with Bill Nye at NASA, who said “Khal, build the game you want to, not what other people think you should build” to enough funding to allow us 2 years of developing and private testing on Steam , we think we’re ready to show the public our alpha of Star Rangers on Steam. Thank Goodness for Steam.

Star Rangers is kind of a dream game of ours. I've dreamt of it my whole life – to use a game engine to imagine what space travel in the next few years will look like and build a multiplayer sandbox around it which is fun, and possible, and wow – try to do it without using guns.

That’s a pretty tall order, and there have been literally 21 developers working on the game in a peak of 15 or so 14 months ago to turbodrive our core team of 5. We want you to have as much fun as we do , and help us choose the final features of the game for release.

We really want you to tell us what customization features you want the most, from Map editors to in-game stuff:
For example – what do you crave? If you’re like us – you want robots, rockets, maps, and persistence! You want lasers and fusion reactors and 3D printers and you want it all and you want it now.

I think we have an opportunity – an opportunity to show off our best work to SpaceX and NASA and all the rest of the real scientists out there (Like Bill), and really imagine what it takes to extend our civilization off of this rock we call earth.

Some of the things we have in the mid-stages of planning – are real astronaut training for our most active players – we’re saving 10% of all proceeds in a private account so we can sponsor one of you to Astronaut Training at Embry Riddle University with Project Possum! That means one day, one of you will be a real Star Ranger with training and a mission to complete! We’re saving the overflow for an actual space flight.

So, we’re working with a team that includes former astronauts to come up with the best ways for us to add user content to the game, and that’s shaping up to start with custom uniform textures, user-authored notes, and story-mode map-sharing as a first blush.
Thanks for you for attention, and enjoy the low introductory price – you’re the pioneers we were looking for, and we’ll work with you to get everything where we need it.

-Khal and the whole Star Rangers Team

Disclaimer for Early Access:

Star Rangers is being developed with the Steam community’s involvement. With this approach to development, the creation of Star Rangers will now progress in the direction the community chooses and contributes to, such as emphasizing asteroid-mining, or ramping up buildings for Mars colonization.

Star Rangers is an open ‘sandbox’ of the local solar system incorporating NASA content, with an emphasis on surviving and thriving on worlds other than Earth. The game has been in private alpha on Steam for several weeks, for vocal members of its fan base. The first alpha will feature some 6 maps on Mars, including the Victoria Crater, the Million Mounds area of the Moon, and a best-guess depiction of what it’s like under the ice on Europa.

Those who have participated in the alpha will be able to continue enjoying the game as it now moves over to Steam Early Access (thanks Den and WarDJ- you rock).

There are test maps, including a VR map, and you can let us know what you like and what you hate.

Star Rangers will award official Mozilla Digital badges for building and operating custom rocket-sleds, asteroid mining operations, rovers, robots, and more.


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Star Rangers is an open ‘sandbox’ of the local solar system incorporating NASA content, and with an emphasis on surviving and thriving on worlds other than Earth. The game has been in private alpha on Steam for several weeks already, for vocal members of its fan base. This first alpha features some 6 maps on Mars, including the Victoria Crater, the Million Mounds area of the Moon, and a best-guess depiction of what it’s like under the ice on Europa.