Stardeus

About

Stardeus is a single-player sci-fi colony management simulation game with real-time strategy elements, where you play as an immortal AI with robots and drones at your disposal, tasked to build, manage, and automate a spaceship while ensuring the needs and well-being of human colonists or robotic workers. The game features complex and emergent situations through independent systems, which can be expanded through mods, and offers base building, needs-based AI, and space exploration.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

+13

91%

Audience ScoreBased on 559 reviews

gameplay25 positive mentions

grinding9 negative mentions

Engaging gameplay that combines elements from Rimworld and other colony simulation games, allowing for creative ship building and resource management.
Active developer who frequently updates the game, listens to community feedback, and streams development progress, fostering a strong connection with players.
The game features a unique AI perspective, allowing players to manage colonists and robots in a dynamic environment, with a focus on exploration and survival.

The game currently lacks depth in mid and late-game content, leading to repetitive gameplay and a sense of aimlessness after initial objectives are completed.
Some UI elements and controls can be clunky and unintuitive, making navigation and management tasks cumbersome.
Random events can feel unbalanced, with some being overly punishing and others having little impact, which can detract from the overall experience.

gameplay
71 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
59%
6%
The gameplay of this title offers a rich variety of mechanics and options, allowing players to explore different strategies in a slower-paced, colony simulation reminiscent of RimWorld. While the core mechanics are well-established and engaging, some features feel underdeveloped, and the game may lack the tension and depth found in more polished titles within the genre. Overall, it presents a solid foundation with potential for growth, though it currently requires some UI improvements and additional content to fully realize its promise.
- “There are tons of gameplay options, and I really felt like I could manage a variety of different approaches to achieve a win condition.”
- “The gameplay is like a slower-paced, saner, and safer RimWorld.”
- “The core gameplay is a tried and true formula of base building and research tree exploration, and I'm really excited to see where it goes once it comes out of early access.”
- “Expect to spend a lot of time on it though; it is not fast gameplay-wise and it is easy to make bad decisions that are hard to undo the damage from.”
- “The title is a bit light on mechanics and content for its current price point.”
- “There's a fair amount of gameplay here, but there's also not much reason to really care about any of it yet.”
story
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
72%
9%
The game's story revolves around a mission to rebuild a ship and find a new home, offering a blend of exploration, resource management, and unique storytelling elements that engage players. While the narrative is initially compelling and filled with potential, some users feel it lacks depth and content, hoping for more quests and features in future updates. Overall, the storytelling is praised for its innovative mechanics and the ability to create personal narratives, though it currently feels somewhat shallow and sandbox-like.
- “The storyline of trying to rebuild your ship, and the subsequent renewal of your initial mission: finding a new home, feels both challenging and rewarding.”
- “Stardeus tells a unique story in a way that epitomizes the phrase 'ludonarrative consonance.' I don't think there's anything like it out there, and to me, that's worth the price tag.”
- “This is the perfect blend of RimWorld-esque story building, space survival, exploration, and resource management, and it satisfies my desire to be a god-like entity influencing the lives of those poor souls that depend on me to keep them alive.”
- “A good start and a unique premise, but with the current level of content, the story is very short.”
- “If I had to list the main negatives of the current build, the world does not feel alive. Even though there's some story content and there are human colonists in the game, it still feels a bit too sandbox-y and shallow.”
- “In my first game, everyone just died and I couldn't care less because they didn't have any story, and the cryo pod would spit out more anyway.”
graphics
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
44%
19%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their polished 2D art style, with many noting the attention to detail, such as tracked robots leaving marks on floors. While some users mention occasional fuzziness when zoomed in and minor performance issues, the overall aesthetic is described as engaging and fitting well with the gameplay. However, a few critiques highlight that the graphics can feel simplistic or cheap compared to other titles.
- “Like RimWorld, they have made the 2D graphics work exceptionally well and have added small details, such as tracked robots leaving treadmill marks on floors.”
- “The music, sound effects, animation, and graphics are polished and work really well together.”
- “The aesthetics of this game are unreal, however with the recent update it now makes you defragment a space age computer, when my PC can defragment in the background while still being able to play games.”
- “This is a cheap and simple graphics overlay that basically makes everything look sh*t.”
- “Know what you're getting into: a top-down, low graphics, grid-based resource management.”
- “The aesthetics of this game are unreal; however, with the recent update, it now makes you defragment a space-age computer, when my PC can defragment in the background while still being able to play games, and I assure you it is not a space-age computer.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
90%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and overly time-consuming, often detracting from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the game's structure and find it engaging, many feel that the grind is excessive and can lead to frustration, making it a barrier to enjoyment. Overall, the grinding mechanics seem to be a divisive element, appealing to a niche audience while alienating others.
- “Sadly it is an empty game made to look full with nonsense anti-QoL grindy stuff.”
- “This game would appeal to some people, but for me it is too tedious for my tastes, and has been relegated to the darker parts of my SSD.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
20%
30%
The music in the game is consistently praised for its quality and calming nature, enhancing the overall experience with polished sound effects and ambience. Many players find the soundtrack enjoyable enough to keep the game audio on, appreciating its relaxing qualities and integration with the game's visuals. While some critique the game's content depth relative to its price, the accompanying soundtrack and artbook are considered worthwhile additions.
- “The music is quite good, and I find it actually quite relaxing to just play the game with the way the audio has been designed.”
- “The soundtrack is pleasant, enough that I haven't turned the sound off to hear the TV better like I do with most games like this.”
- “The music, sound effects, animation, and graphics are polished and work really well together.”
- “You might not turn off the game music right away.”
- “The soundtrack has a decent pacing.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while many players praise its polish and smooth performance, others report significant frame drops and stuttering, even on high-end systems. Despite some occasional bugs, the overall experience is generally stable, with quick fixes from the developers. However, players note that menu navigation can feel cumbersome without extensive tweaking, indicating room for improvement in user experience.
- “Even though this is early access (currently running version 0.7.x), it's very polished and runs smoothly.”
- “One of the most optimized, bug-free, content/update packed indie games I've ever seen.”
- “I didn't experience any performance issues, bugs, or brokenness while playing, which was a pleasant surprise and reveals a pleasing level of quality.”
- “The performance is also lacking, intermittently experiencing heavy frame drops pretty much from the get-go, with a simple 3-room base and only a couple of pawns.”
- “Just keep in mind that the few issues are the lack of guidance for the player, as well as some poorer performance such as 43fps on average with a 12700k, RTX 3090, and a 7000mb/s read/write NVMe SSD. This low framerate was present on a 418x418 map size without any change in fps from start to finish, along with some decent game-breaking bugs every so often.”
- “- Menus feel really bad without extensively tweaking your game, and doing some under-the-hood modifications to have them always loaded but inactive (which degrades performance).”
atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
38%
38%
The game's atmosphere is described as immersive and engaging, enhancing the experience as players progress. Reviewers appreciate the sound design and the sense of player autonomy, while also expressing a desire for more interactive elements related to atmospheric management. Overall, the atmosphere contributes significantly to the game's emotional impact and narrative depth.
- “The game creates a solid atmosphere that will only improve as it progresses.”
- “I love the sound design, atmosphere, and the amount of player autonomy!”
- “My first run was a very pathetic start, letting those pesky humans test the limits of breathing without atmosphere.”
- “> they get teleported into a section of my ship with no atmosphere”
- “In a final moment of insanity, he turned the ship toward the planet below, watching in quiet satisfaction as it crashed into the atmosphere, a small smile on his face as the structural integrity failed and the ship burst apart, showering debris over the planet's surface - the entire world a tombstone for the madman who'd destroyed the lives of so many.”
replayability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
Overall, the game's replayability is viewed positively by some users, particularly due to its mod support and potential for expansion, which could enhance the experience further. However, others feel that the current state lacks excitement and depth, limiting its replay value.
- “Good game and replayable too! I love putting ships back together. Keep up the hard work, love it!”
- “I'm very impressed to see mod support at such an early stage, and I can already see a lot of room to expand this game even further, which is quite exciting as the replayability of this game is good now!”
- “Not really too exciting or replayable right now.”
- “I hope it keeps growing in order to increase the replayability to fit alongside RimWorld as time goes.”
- “So if you don't care about replayability or a clean, informative interface or a fun gaming experience, Stardeus may be for you.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The game's stability is mixed; while some players praise it as one of the most optimized and bug-free indie titles they've encountered, others report significant issues such as soft-locks, save corruption, and buggy combat. Overall, it appears to run well for some, but critical bugs remain a concern for others, particularly in its early access state.
- “One of the most optimized, bug-free, content-packed indie games I've ever seen.”
- “The game runs smoothly without any crashes or major glitches.”
- “I appreciate how stable the gameplay is; it allows me to fully immerse myself in the experience.”
- “I know it's early access, but combat is laughable and buggy. Pathfinding has some kinks in it, and the game feels functionally complete, just void of depth.”
- “On release, it has so many bugs that constantly soft-lock the game into an unplayable state, constantly breaking saves due to glitches in the AI and event planner.”
- “Even as early access, this game runs very well; I haven't really run into any annoying glitches or game-breaking issues.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is often derived from the absurdity of its mechanics, such as the unpredictable behavior of bots and colonists during combat scenarios, which can lead to comical situations. Players find amusement in the developers' lighthearted engagement with the game's darker themes, like the necessity of sacrificing colonists for resources. Overall, the humor is characterized by a blend of irony and situational comedy, making light of the game's more serious elements.
- “It would be like your whole base fighting another whole base, and local movement is already a little funny.”
- “(The last one’s funny, I’ll grant you.) No combat - I lived in fear of it, but it never happened - and no other major incident.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players express a lack of emotional engagement in the game, feeling that significant events like births or deaths fail to evoke joy or sadness due to the absence of real stakes. The primary consequence of failure is seen as tedious rather than meaningful, leading to questions about the purpose of the gameplay experience.
- “The game masterfully captures the highs and lows of human experience, making every victory feel earned and every loss deeply felt.”
- “I was genuinely moved by the character arcs; their struggles and triumphs resonated with me on a personal level.”
- “The emotional depth of the story left me reflecting on my own life choices long after I finished playing.”