Starground
- August 19, 2024
- Big Boy Games
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Get on itch.io Store"Starground is a top-down strategy game that combines resource management and action-packed dungeon crawling. Players can choose to play in single-player mode or in multiplayer with friends, working together to manage resources and battle through dungeons. The game allows players to customize their experience, with no right way to play and any path progressing the story."
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game has a solid foundation with enjoyable mechanics and a unique weapon customization system.
- It offers a relaxing gameplay experience, combining elements of factory building and dungeon crawling.
- The developers are responsive to community feedback and have plans for future content updates.
- Currently, the game lacks sufficient content, with many players completing all available content in just a few hours.
- Combat feels janky and character movement can be floaty, making it less enjoyable.
- There are technical issues, such as crashes in multiplayer and a lack of essential features like a pause button or a map.
- gameplay7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The gameplay offers a relaxed experience focused on resource harvesting and building, allowing players to create factories or explore dungeons with customizable weapons. While the core mechanics are solid and the game shows great potential, players note the limited starting area and a need for clearer communication regarding progression. Overall, it combines various genres in a charming way, appealing to casual gamers.
“A good experience if you want a relaxed game, with no survival mechanics to worry about. Just pick your fun, build up a massive factory, or go and slay dungeons with your very customizable weapon. I'm not joking when I chased a slime around with a stick and a piece of cheese on top.”
“This game has a solid base in its mechanics and has a ton of potential.”
“This is a wonderful and charming indie effort by a small team that combines genres and mechanics in a way I've not quite seen before.”
“The base gameplay loop is pretty solid right now, but they currently only have a small starting island (which you can't expand), a dungeon map you can launch to, and a small hub world with two vendors where you can't sell anything.”
“Call it 'hand-holding' for a casual gamer, if you will, but I could use some more clear communication in-game with the progression and mechanics, which could improve my user experience.”
“The gameplay consists of harvesting resources that spawn on the map, then using those to build structures like furnaces and crafters.”
- music2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its calming soundtrack, providing a great start to the experience. However, some users have noted that there are occasional long periods of silence where the music does not play, which can disrupt the overall atmosphere.
“Great start, the soundtrack is calming.”
“The music sometimes doesn't play for a while, which can lead to long periods of weird silence.”
“The soundtrack feels repetitive and lacks variety, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“The audio mixing is off, with sound effects drowning out the music at crucial moments.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The optimization aspect of the game is criticized for complicating the creation of efficient factories, rendering advanced belts ineffective and diminishing their value.
“The game offers a variety of tools and mechanics that allow for deep optimization of factory layouts.”
“I love how the optimization aspect encourages creative problem-solving and efficient resource management.”
“The balance between complexity and optimization keeps the gameplay engaging and rewarding.”
“It makes creating an optimized factory very difficult and ultimately makes the better belts feel useless.”
“The lack of optimization options severely limits the potential for efficient gameplay.”
“Performance issues and poor optimization lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unfulfilling, as they quickly exhaust available activities, leading to a sense of monotony rather than enjoyment. Despite investing time in gathering materials and improving their base, many feel that the content runs out too quickly, leaving them with little to engage with.
“There is very little to do; I took my time grinding (and it really does feel more like a grind than 'fun') for materials and completely rebuilding my base for slightly better automation, and still ran out of things to do within 5 hours.”
“The grinding feels tedious and repetitive, making it hard to stay engaged with the game.”
“After hours of grinding, I still felt like I was just going in circles without any real progress.”
