Starship Corporation
- April 29, 2016
- Coronado Games
- 44h median play time
Get on Steam"Starship Corporation is a spaceship-building simulation game that challenges you to design and construct ships for a vast interstellar market. Customize every aspect of your creations, from fuselage to interior layout, and train your crew for various missions to test the ship's capabilities. Your choices will impact your ship's performance, price, and reputation in the galaxy."
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a unique concept of designing and managing starships, which is engaging for players who enjoy ship design and strategy.
- The ship design mechanics allow for a high level of customization and creativity, making it fun to create unique vessels.
- The developer is actively working on updates and improvements, showing commitment to enhancing the game experience.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and crashes, making it frustrating to play and often requiring restarts.
- Loading times are excessively long, often taking several minutes, which disrupts the flow of gameplay.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to navigate and manage their ships effectively.
- story110 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 85 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is generally considered weak and repetitive, lacking engaging narrative elements or a compelling overarching plot. Players find the mission structure tedious, with many missions feeling similar and the crew management system often frustrating due to poor AI and micromanagement requirements. While the ship design and management elements are appreciated, the overall experience suffers from bugs and a lack of meaningful story progression, leading to a desire for more depth and variety in missions.
“I liked the combination of ship layout, corporate strategy, and real-time missions using the ships designed.”
“At the heart of Starship Corporation is the designing of ship layouts to fit specific criteria given by some customer or to fulfill a certain mission.”
“If the game was more refined and had a good story to follow or goals to meet, I could play this game for hours.”
“The story needs to be developed; it is a bit weak and boring.”
“The actual campaign and sandbox parts of the game, after a few turns, become dull and repetitive - there isn't really any challenge and it's actually quicker just to trade in captured ships than do the missions that aren't profitable.”
“The missions get repetitive and old very quickly, and I found myself wishing I could just have the AI do it for me rather than spend an hour per ship design watching asteroids bounce off my shields.”
- gameplay61 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 80 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has been met with mixed reviews, highlighting a promising concept marred by a clunky user interface, numerous bugs, and a lack of depth in tutorials and mechanics. While the core ship design and strategic elements offer engaging puzzle-solving opportunities, many players find the execution frustrating due to performance issues and poorly explained gameplay loops. Overall, the game shows potential but requires significant refinement and polish to enhance the player experience.
“The core mechanics of the ship design—balancing your design's resource needs with its capacities, trying not only to fit everything within the hull but also to keep everything accessible to the necessary crew members, and making the ship sufficiently capable for the customer's needs while also keeping it as far under budget as possible—are solid, despite the occasional balance complaint.”
“This game is a promising concept that, when it works, makes for unique gameplay that's interesting to explore.”
“The two core gameplay elements—ship construction and situation simulation—are very good.”
“The gameplay is lackluster; there is really no way to get connected to the game.”
“The tutorial was also very poorly written, often jumping all over the place and fails to properly describe what you need to do, showing a clear lack of understanding from the developers on what the actual mechanics are meant to be.”
“It's very buggy, takes a long time to load and process turns, and is under-developed in several areas of gameplay.”
- stability54 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 96 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its significant stability issues, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and crashes that severely hinder gameplay. Many describe it as an unfinished and poorly optimized product, often unplayable due to persistent technical problems, and express concern that it appears to be abandoned by developers. While some players find it interesting despite these flaws, the consensus is that the game is currently a "buggy mess" and not worth the investment unless on sale.
“That doesn't mean it's bug-free, but nothing serious so far.”
“I cannot recommend this game (not even when on sale) as the game is a buggy mess. There are quite a few things that don't work as intended or are left unfinished or simply make no sense, and that will remain this way since, according to the discussions and evidence shown there, this game has been abandoned quite a while ago.”
“It's very buggy, takes a long time to load and to process turns, and is under-developed in several areas of gameplay.”
“The problem is that the game is horribly buggy still... you first notice this when you load it... it takes 2-3 minutes at least to load.”
- optimization25 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 52 % neutral mentions
- 36 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues, including slow navigation, long loading times, and lag as ship complexity increases. Many players note that the graphics are not well-suited for modern monitors, and the user interface is counterintuitive, detracting from the overall experience. While some see potential in the puzzle-solving mechanics, the current state of optimization leaves much to be desired, with hopes for improvement in future updates.
“The game is early access, so performance issues are likely to be improved as development continues.”
“You take a specification sheet and design a spacecraft to meet it, both in simple numbers (e.g., range = x light years) and in performance testing.”
“It still has a way to go in both content, optimization, and polish, but that is to be expected as a newly released early access title.”
“The performance of this game is terrible; you will spend most of the time in loading screens.”
“Once you start connecting powerlines, cooling lines, fuel lines, air lines, and water lines, the game starts to lag, so it could use some optimization.”
“Poor performance is a tell-tale sign that something is not implemented correctly.”
- graphics24 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have been widely criticized for being outdated and poorly optimized, reminiscent of titles from the late 90s and early 2000s. Many users noted significant graphical glitches and a lack of polish, particularly for a game not in early access, which detracts from the overall experience. Additionally, the user interface is described as distracting and unintuitive, further compounding the issues with the visual presentation.
“The ship module aesthetics look great, and the basic designer setup is really nice. There is quite a range of ship hulls and modules to pick from.”
“The interface and graphics remind me of games I used to play on my old Amiga 500 with its nostalgic isometric views.”
“It's basically a sophomore-level programming class project with nice visuals.”
“However, the sheer number of graphical hiccups and rough edges for a game not in early access is kind of mind-blowing.”
“The graphics are basic and not that interesting.”
“Don't get me started on the graphics... it feels like I am playing an old MS-DOS game.”
- grinding15 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 93 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and cumbersome, particularly due to the manual management of crew and ship operations. The user interface is criticized for being inefficient, making tasks feel like a chore rather than an engaging gameplay experience. Many reviewers express that the level of micromanagement required can detract from enjoyment, often leading to frustration rather than fun.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Game play is slow going and tedious at times.”
“However, this game does take tedious to a new level.”
“The entire user-interface for directing personnel is cumbersome and tedious.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Players find the game highly replayable due to its diverse ship design mechanics and strategic competition against rival builders, encouraging experimentation and refinement of strategies. The expansive galaxy and various research options further enhance replayability, offering numerous scenarios and challenges to explore. Overall, the game provides a fun and engaging experience that invites multiple playthroughs.
“Fun game, lots of replayability.”
“The replay value is in building your company and outbidding rival ship builders, becoming adept at how best to design a given ship class, as they are all drastically different and require various astute strategies to work efficiently, and refining those designs as you progress toward being able to build the hugely expensive and powerful warship classes.”
“All the situations are playable, a lot of different rooms to research, a whole galaxy with tons of systems where you can build an office and start answering specific needs and a final mission.”
- music3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews; while some praise its atmospheric quality and detail, likening it to the work of Hans Zimmer, others find the ambient loops repetitive and uninspiring, suggesting players might prefer to mute it altogether. Overall, the music's quality seems overshadowed by the game's unfinished state and lack of engaging sound design.
“Nice details and really nice music - Hans Zimmer would be proud of this atmospheric music.”
“The sounds are lacking and the short loops of ambient music are boring, which makes this one of those times the player should mute the music and play their own brand of music.”
“This game is unfinished, not worth the money. Perhaps in the future, when it's actually a game, it will have music and the UI won't be so non-hotkey friendly.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional response to the game is predominantly negative, with users expressing feelings of frustration and disappointment, particularly regarding the game's design limitations. The sense of being "ripped off" highlights a strong dissatisfaction that detracts from the overall experience.
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players express disappointment with the monetization strategy, feeling that the game's current state does not align with the promises made in advertisements. While acknowledging its early access status, users believe the gameplay falls short of expectations set by promotional materials.
“Although I understand it is early access, and I'm sure there will be a lot to do, it's not like any of the ads would suggest.”
“I know it is an indie game, but the advertisements promise a better gameplay experience than what we have today.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game often stems from its unfinished state, with players finding amusement in the juxtaposition of crude polygonal ships that have been humorously textured to appear intentional. This quirky charm adds a layer of comedic value, despite the game's lack of polish.
“This game was not really finished, but I have to give credit to the developer because they polished the unfinished game. Sometimes it's funny, like some of the ships are still crude polygons but have had textures added that make it look like that was the intended design.”
“The humor in this game is top-notch! The witty dialogue and absurd situations had me laughing out loud.”
“I love how the game doesn't take itself too seriously. The quirky characters and hilarious scenarios make every playthrough a joy.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is enhanced by impressive attention to detail and a captivating musical score that evokes a cinematic quality, reminiscent of the work of Hans Zimmer.
“The attention to detail in the environment is stunning, and the music is so atmospheric that Hans Zimmer would be proud.”
“The immersive atmosphere draws you in, making every moment feel alive and engaging.”
“The combination of visuals and sound creates a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere that lingers long after you stop playing.”
