Starseed

A Rare Kind of Comfort Game Starseed is a peaceful farming game with a quiet charm. Plant crops and smash minerals and slowly build your farm - without rush or attacks. The visuals and soothing soundtrack make you feel right at home, perfect for unwinding with a hot coffee. If you love relaxing games that let you grow at your pace, Starseed is a little gem worth the try!

Game does not feel ready yet. When the game comes out of early access, I'll try it again and might change my review at that point, but right now, it doesn't feel like the developer has "found the fun" yet. A lot of the game loop involves waiting around for queues to empty so that you can issue new orders, which is reminiscent of those free mobile games like Township or Farmville. However, the pacing is off and there's way less to do and way more waiting around in Starseed compared to those games.

I like the premise but the game is undercooked, even for EA. There isn't a good sense of progress. For example, you can just buy things you usually have to research and develop in similar games, such as a furnace. Within a few minutes of starting the game, you can have planted and watered eight seeds, bought and placed a furnace, and harvested your first crops. I'm a few minutes in and I already feel a lack of purpose. I appreciate no one is around so I get why there's a shop, but there has to a be a way to make it feel like you are working towards something rather than just starting with a ton of money and just ordering stuff from a catalog (essentially) and placing it down immediately. The controls are VERY clunky and some things are unclear - I, for instance, could not for the life of me figure out how to interact with the shipping container. When trying to water crops, walking while holding the water can is an exercise in masochism (one square at a time with a noticeable delay between each). I'll be open to trying it again once it's had more development. I love these types of games and I really like a space setting, so I'm rooting for this one!

It's a promising chill little farming game, it's pretty early at this point, but contingent on the features being fleshed out over time I think this could be a solid title. Right now it's just growing a few plants and mining, selling stuff to get upgrades so you can do more of that. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one progresses.

Please note this is a review based on Early Access up to the point I played it and streamed it. I also have a supercut of my streams you can watch to see how the game works and decide if you want to get it now or later on Youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Mq4B3AnBI The game mechanically runs well and everything does what it should. I did find a couple bugs but the developer was kind enough to fix them already (props to heartsynth for that!) It plays sort of like a combination of Stardew Valley w/ a nod to the bones of a Factorio-style game mixed with AFK gaming. You definitely get that lonely feeling and the music fits with it. There are the basics of mining and farming, along with a few machines for producing items that are more advanced. This allows you to build more machines and setup a network of production of the available higher-end items. Fast travel is built into the game allowing you to visit parts of your respective planet. There are a few odd unlocks and a starmap to let you get resources not available on your planet normally. There is also a nice touch of your profile having multiple seeds (aka worlds) in which you can share certain advancements and achieve…

The game is interesting so far. I love the open world it has where you can explore on your own and experiment while still completing missions. The game is more than just an open world game where you finish a task, it also addresses deep issues that we can relate to and learn from, as it follows a heartwarming story about how humans are destroying the Earth and how we should value what we have. At first, I found the walking a bit weird , but I got the hang of it and really appreciated the art style of the game; it has a very cutesy appeal. Furthermore, the game also consists of a good soundtrack that will have you feeling hyped and motivated to feeling sad and emotional. Overall, I think that the game has a lot of potential and I look forward to playing the full game.