https://spajus.itch.io/stardeus About StardeusStardeus is a sci-fi colony management simulator with aspects of automation, base building and space exploration. Game SystemsIn Stardeus, many different systems are working independently to achieve a deep and complex simulation that produces emergent situations and surprising results. The game architecture allows creating and injecting new systems through mods. Base BuildingWith help of human colonists and relentless robotic workers, you will build your spaceship piece by piece. Needs Based AIEach AI agent in Stardeus has a free will to pick their next actions based on their needs. For example, all robotic workers have a “purpose” need that drives them to do something useful, otherwise they wouldn’t feel like building that wall you just ordered. However, a slightly discharged drone will choose to build the solar panels first, because it knows that solar panels will provide electricity, and that is necessary for survival. Colonist TraitsYour colonists will have various traits that will affect their behavior. Someone with cleaning OCD will drop anything they are doing to clean that oil spill they just noticed, a person with Ablutophobia will avoid taking showers, introverts will prefer having their own private sleeping pod, and insomniacs will only fall asleep when they are so tired they are about to pass out. Mood and Mental BreakdownsBiological entities will have emotions and mood. If you take good care of your colony, the mood of individual colonists will likely get good, and they will pay you back with increased productivity, by helping your robots do their daily chores, but if you neglect them and treat them like cattle, they can go crazy and do something everybody else would regret. Resources, Crafting and AutomationEverything in Stardeus can be broken down into raw materials and those materials can be processed into something else.
Instead of conveyor belts, the automation pipeline depends on workers hauling materials from one device to another. Electricity GridOne of the core systems in Stardeus. The electricity grid does not just power the devices, it acts as a digital data link - you can control the devices only when they are on the same electricity grid as your Ship Computer. If the grid gets split into multiple parts, you can lose the ability to control critical equipment. To prevent that, you can plan and build your grid with redundancy and failovers, or just find the broken connections and restore the missing links. Oxygen and Heat SimulationThere is an Equilibrium system that simulates oxygen and heat exchange in every single tile of the game map. Each tile has properties like insulation and airtightness that can change in real time (i.e. depending on the size of the gap of an open door while it is opening or closing, or the amount of damage a wall has received). In a default 320x320 map this exchange happens in over 100000 tiles at the same time. It is also quick and efficient, as the simulation runs on the GPU. Economy & TradeStardeus has an advanced economy system with an in-game currency, a global market dictating price changes, merchants that can trade goods and items with you, and even a stock market where you can place speculative bets on commodities and stocks. Trade with MerchantsIndependent Merchant spaceships and stasis pods that can visit you from time to time and offer a trade. Merchants have different types, you can encounter an ore trader, a slaver, a generic merchant that will have a variety of goods, a robot merchant that will buy or sell only worker bots, etc. Invest in the Stock MarketIn addition to controlling the global prices for merchant items, the Stock Market offers a possibility to trade stocks and commodities. This means that you can buy 1000 robots without physically owning them, and then sell them a month later, hopefully with a big profit. Story GeneratorSimply building your base in an idyllic environment could get boring pretty quickly, that’s why the story generator will analyze the state of the simulation and find potential hook points where emergent storytelling can happen. Threats and Security MeasuresAside from your regular threats - absolute zero temperature and vacuum - you will find space to be a dangerous place. Weapons and CombatThe wealth you accumulate on your ship will attract raiders. You can produce weapons and setup automated defenses to fight the boarding parties. Functional SpaceshipThe spaceship you are building is also a system. To move in space, you will need to build bridge controls and attach engines. Different types of engines are required for interplanetary, interstellar and intergalactic travel. Your ship's weight and number of engines will determine how fast you will be able to move. Pause Any TimeJack up your Ship Computer's CPU frequency to stop time. Downcycle to make the time run faster. Run everything at your own pace, and take your time to plan the next steps. Play with ModifiersWant more challenge? Or perhaps a completely peaceful game? Want your pets to be immortal? Start with more resources? Bigger ship? Smaller ship? We got your back! More modifiers are going to be added in future. Massive UniverseStardeus has a large procedurally generated universe that has multiple layers. In the beginning of the game you are stuck in a system with a star and several planets, you will have to use Thrusters to propel your ship from one planet to another. As you will gather more resources and unlock better propulsion technology, you will be ready for a longer trip to a nearby system. Shuttle ExpeditionsAs you will travel to various space objects, you will launch shuttle expeditions. Each expedition will have a crew that you pick, and depending on the skills your crew members have, the expedition can have different pace or outcomes. You can run simultaneous expeditions at the same time, leave a shuttle on a planet and travel elsewhere, then return to pick up the loot. Research TreeTo unlock construction blueprints, various abilities, perks and upgrades, your Ship Computer will have to run research. Research takes time and uses multiple resources, like Electricity, Memory (RAM) and Disk Storage. You will need to build and expand your own data center and ensure the adequate production of electricity. Suggestions SystemLearning to play a complex game like Stardeus could be a little overwhelming, and while the tutorial will give you a basic understanding about the most important concepts, you would still need to figure out what to do next. Interactive TutorialThe main scenario begins with a quick crash course that will teach you how to run the basic operations in no time. Customizable RGB LightingYour Ship Computer holds true to the old Earth's PCMR traditions. You can tweak your ship's RGB lighting exactly to your liking. Planning SystemPerfecting a spaceship design will require planning ahead. You will have all the necessary tools to draw the plans for a perfect ship using rulers, lines, circles, grid helpers, etc. Dirt and Cleaning BotsRunning a ship is a dirty business. There will be oil leaks from robots that need maintenance, dirt from the planters, blood, and other substances coming out of your human colonists. There is a specific type of robot designed for cleaning dirt. Multiple ScenariosStardeus supports multiple scenarios, that with help of scripting and procedural generation techniques can produce different starting conditions, for a different playthrough experience. Like most aspects of Stardeus, Scenarios can be added through mods. Main Scenario: WreckedThe main scenario begins with a wrecked spaceship, where you command a couple of drones and a robot to rebuild the ship, make it operational, establish life support, create a livable ecosystem for human colonists, and eventually continue the journey across space to find a new habitable planet. This scenario also contains a tutorial. Leaving EarthA more creative start, where you begin with a small platform and several storage units packed with resources. You can design a perfect ship from scratch, but you only have enough materials for a small one. You will explore the universe, mine resources from planets and grow your ship to be able to travel increasingly bigger distances. Random ShipYou will begin with a procedurally generated spaceship that will not be perfect, but should be fully functional. A jump start for those who want to focus on exploring the universe as quickly as possible. Sandbox ModeA purely creative environment where you can instantly build anything without resource limits. If you want to design a ship of your dreams and populate it with 500 cats to see what happens, this is a mode for you. Here are some examples of what playtesters have built. Built for ModdingTo keep a game like Stardeus alive for years to come, it is essential to have great modding support. This is why highly moddable architecture was a technical design goal from day one. Core content is built as a mod, it uses friendly JSON format to define things, and you can literally add a new in-game object in 10 minutes (if you have the artwork ready). Procedural Generation FrameworkGood procedural generation is difficult to achieve, that’s why I spent a few months of development focused solely on making a modular procedural generation framework that can produce very different, diverse spaceships of all shapes and sizes. Community TranslationsStardeus has built-in tooling and a public GitHub repository that makes it easy to contribute translations. It is already translated to German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Czech and Portuguese (Brazil). Built in Feedback FormA great game cannot be made without listening to what the players have to say. That’s why there is a built-in feedback form that includes your save file, a screenshot, along with your message to the developer. Focus on Stability and PerformanceStardeus is developed with good engineering practices. Codebase is covered with automated unit and integration tests, and game breaking bugs rarely see daylight even in early alpha builds. Steam Deck SupportStardeus is well tested and works great on Steam Deck:
For Linux, Mac and WindowsAll Stardeus builds are done simultaneously for Windows, Linux and Mac. All OS are treated equally! Developed Live on TwitchMost of the time Stardeus development is happening live at twitch.tv/dev_spajus. You are welcome to join! I usually stream on weekdays, EU daytime. Please refer to stardeusgame.com for more information about current state of development. |