Starship Theory

About

Starship Theory is a single-player strategy game where you build and manage a starship while surviving in unknown space. Oversee your crew's training, mine asteroids, trade with neutral ships, and research new technology to improve your starship. Brace yourself for various challenges, such as hostile targets, collisions, and scorching heat while navigating the depths of space.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

50%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,444 reviews

gameplay46 positive mentions

story10 negative mentions

Great potential and fun gameplay once you get past the initial difficulty.
Active developer who listens to community feedback and regularly updates the game.
Interesting blend of survival, colony-building, and ship design.

Steep learning curve with no tutorial, making it hard for new players to get started.
Game can feel unbalanced and punishing, especially in the early stages.
Many players report the game has been abandoned by the developer, leading to frustration.

gameplay
147 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
66%
3%
The gameplay of this game is characterized by a steep learning curve and a mix of ship-building and survival mechanics, which can be both rewarding and frustrating. While the core mechanics are solid and the game is generally fun, players often encounter significant challenges due to a lack of tutorials, RNG elements, and bugs that can disrupt progress. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further balancing and content development to enhance the player experience.
- “However, if you set your end-goal as simply making the best spaceship you can put together, then you might find that the gameplay loop up until that point is quite satisfying and fun.”
- “The gameplay is fun, works, and doesn't feel like features are missing, which is more than can be said for many early access games.”
- “It's early, but the core gameplay is fun.”
- “This game puts you in command of 4 people surviving on a small ship/escape pod building out and upgrading it until it's a full ship. It's a super fun concept in my opinion, which is why I have tried so much to play this game and learn the mechanics, but... I can't last more than 10 minutes because not 2 minutes in the game you drift into an asteroid belt and are helpless. You can't move your ship; it's always going in a straight line, so no dodging. I can't turn on the mining laser for the mining ship or the guns on the military ship without the ship catching on fire from overheating. Adding more air vents does nothing; once I turn on the lasers for even 1 second, the ship catches fire, and I have to stop building to put it out and fix all the damage, leading to more asteroids spawning. I'm not prepared, and I slowly either burn or get pummeled until my ship blows up and it's game over.”
- “The main problem is there's only about 10 hours of gameplay.”
- “There is no tutorial, and some game mechanics are not obvious (e.g., that you can rotate components, needing an airlock to exit the ship, many options hidden in right-clicking things, etc.), which is part of the frustration you'll run into.”
story
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
74%
19%
The game's story is largely criticized for being nonexistent, with players expressing disappointment over the lack of narrative depth, quests, and character interactions. Many reviewers suggest that the game feels like a hollow experience, akin to a brief demo rather than a fully realized title, and they hope for future updates to introduce more substantial story elements and gameplay features. Overall, the consensus is that the game has potential but currently fails to deliver a compelling story or engaging content.
- “Hey, dev, what about a story mode where there is a nice 2D map and a few choices?”
- “You could find beacons that have messages in them, which could be silly messages, important messages, or plot/story messages (if you ever decide to implement a story in this game).”
- “The story explanation is that it is an escape pod.”
- “No planets, no exploration of the universe, no economy, no story.”
- “What can I say about this train wreck of a game? It had a lot of potential, but it is entirely wasted. Whether the story of him having a baby is true or not, I do not know, and I would not recommend this game to anyone. It has not seen any kind of update in a very long time, and what we have now is a very buggy mess.”
- “That issue addressed, the game is limited in scope and has no story, campaign, or multiplayer.”
stability
51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
4%
88%
The game's stability is a significant concern, with many users reporting it as buggy and unfinished, leading to a frustrating experience. While some players find it playable and enjoyable despite the glitches, others describe it as nearly unplayable due to frequent crashes and game-breaking bugs. Overall, the game is seen as having potential, but its current state is marred by instability and a lack of content.
- “Runs great on Linux.”
- “Runs smoothly and has no glitches or crashes.”
- “Is it bug free?”
- “This game is unfinished, buggy, and nothing but a cash grab.”
- “It was way overhyped... there's so many glitches and problems that it's unplayable.”
- “What can I say about this train wreck of a game? It had a lot of potential, but it is entirely wasted, and what we have now is a very buggy mess.”
graphics
45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
67%
7%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the art style and fluid animations, while others criticize performance issues such as frequent FPS drops and graphical glitches. Many users note that despite the simple visuals, the game struggles with optimization, particularly on larger monitors, leading to a frustrating experience. Overall, while the graphics have potential, they require significant improvement to enhance gameplay enjoyment.
- “Shares a similar art style to RimWorld and overall has a lot of potential for feature growth.”
- “Graphics are good for what the game is and is trying to be.”
- “Graphics 8/10”
- “The game fps drops quite often, and that is hard to believe given how simple the graphics are.”
- “The support for large monitors is nonexistent, making it impossible to tell what anything is (even after you turn on tooltips which are for some reason disabled by default), and while there is an option to scale up the UI, it introduces a bunch of graphical bugs.”
- “The graphics do need some work; the 'people' are basically jumping beans with faces.”
grinding
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unfulfilling, with resource gathering and combat feeling overly repetitive and lacking in challenge. While some describe the core gameplay as initially fun, the slow progress and high resource requirements lead to a sense of boredom and frustration, particularly in the mid to late game. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant drawback, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.
- “The amount of resources required to build anything and the very small amount produced by asteroids makes the game extremely tedious. By the time you even have the resources to keep your crew alive, you're forced into constantly fighting ships with 2-3 higher level guns and no longer even have time to mine, and the fights take so long you're basically doomed at this point.”
- “Resource-gathering is tedious, progress is very slow, combat is brainless, and there are no random events or loot to spice things up and make runs different from each other.”
- “This mixed with a high requirement for ship components makes for a tedious slog.”
music
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
41%
14%
The music in the game has received positive feedback, with many users praising its quality and ambiance, describing it as "decent" and "beautiful." The soundtrack enhances the overall experience, contributing to the game's chill atmosphere and making it engaging and addictive. Some players even expressed a desire for the option to purchase the soundtrack separately.
- “The soundtrack is pretty good.”
- “Sixth, the music: I have to say that the devs have managed to source/create some really decent music.”
- “All this store page entry needs is the option to buy the soundtrack!”
- “There are so many variables in this game that make it addictive and exciting, not to mention the eerie space music.”
- “- decent soundtrack”
replayability
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
53%
18%
Overall, the game offers a decent level of replayability, primarily due to its RNG elements and the challenge of building ships. However, some players feel that certain aspects, like the mining minigame, detract from this potential, and concerns about the game's development status suggest that replay value may be limited in the long term. While it can provide a fun experience for a single playthrough, opinions vary on its overall replayability.
- “Building a decent ship is quite a challenge and adds a lot to replayability.”
- “If you are looking for a challenge with a good deal of replayability, check this game out.”
- “This is a highly replayable game.”
- “The only problem was that replayability is somewhat hurt by the mining 'minigame' as some refer to it.”
- “The game doesn't have as much replay value as I'd like, and I believe development has ceased; however, it is good for a single playthrough.”
- “Well, the game was abandoned; I had fun while I played it, but probably not a ton of replayability.”
monetization
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game has been widely criticized as a cash grab, with many users feeling that it was released in an unfinished and buggy state, lacking any substantial updates after its initial launch. Reviewers express disappointment that the developer seemingly abandoned the game shortly after making significant profits, suggesting that personal circumstances were used as an excuse for the lack of ongoing support. Overall, the sentiment is that the game prioritizes profit over quality and player experience.
- “This game is unfinished, buggy, and nothing but a cash grab.”
- “It's sad, but this is just a cash grab.”
- “The original idea is great, but it feels like a cash grab before he popped out a baby.”
optimization
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
58%
25%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues, including sluggish menu navigation and long loading times. Many believe that the core mechanics require a substantial overhaul to improve efficiency, as the game demands excessive CPU resources compared to similar titles. While some players have not encountered bugs, the overall consensus is that the game is poorly optimized and detracts from the overall experience.
- “Both FTL and RimWorld Mac versions run absolutely fine on my machine with fluid animations; it doesn't seem like the graphics of this one should be causing it to be more of a performance hog than those games.”
- “I have encountered no bugs at all, though the game is not well optimized (demands more from your CPU than it should); no doubt something the dev intended to get to at the end, but never did.”
- “Clicking the menu items was barely doable because of sluggish performance, and it took at least another ten minutes to load a new game.”
- “Furthermore, the game itself is badly optimized; queuing larger tasks like building bigger compartments lags the game out significantly until every tile to be changed is queued, leading me to assume the very core of the game needs a massive overhaul before being completely playable due to lazy layout and lack of structuring.”
- “In addition to it being prone to graphical and performance problems, and having a very steep learning curve that consists of 'reading a few hundred pages of other people talking about it', the game itself isn't... fun.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find humor in the game's unexpected moments, such as trade pods hilariously bursting into flames when warping near stars. While some reviews are critical, they acknowledge that the game can be entertaining and funny, especially when learning through trial and error or watching others play. Overall, the humor adds a lighthearted element to the gameplay experience.
- “It's very funny to play, looking forward to new features :)”
- “Not the reason for the negative review though, I simply thought that was hilarious.”
- “You can watch some YouTube videos and in ten minutes you know how to start the game without doing funny mistakes like me.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews do not provide any insights into the emotional aspect of the game, focusing instead on gameplay mechanics related to building structures. Therefore, there is no emotional content to summarize.