Starbound - Direction in a Sandbox Game

When I first came across Starbound, I was excited to see how the game would build on Terraria’s design to create a unique experience. Where I had originally found Terraria to be difficult to get into, I had hoped that by adding new mechanics and systems to the formula would engage me in a way that Terraria couldn’t.



You see, my problem with Terraria and other sandbox games such as Minecraft is the lack of a sufficient tutorial to introduce players to all the mechanics to the game. The only resource of information in Terraria is the Guide, which gives you random tips and hints about the game. To some people, searching out information online about these games is part if the fun, which I can agree with to a certain extent, but that is no excuse to not properly introduce players.



However, a proper tutorial for a sandbox game is difficult to make, and in some cases, can go against the core design values of a creating a sandbox. In a game about personal creation and making your own personal goals, it’s hard to give the player goals with the purpose of teaching the games mechanics without silently communicating to the player that there is a “correct” way to do something. The point of a sandbox game is that there is no correct way to do anything.



When I saw Starbound’s new mechanics, I was excited because the new systems I saw seemed like they needed to be explained. I was excited to see how the game would handle its tutorial, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Starbound’s quest system handles it masterfully. These quests don’t just have the player interacting with the mechanics of the game, but they also progress the story of the game.



By having a story in the game and by having the player interact with it using the quest system, the quests can serve a dual purpose; to teach, and to offer a different experience to the player. This helps Starbound to avoid the trap of giving the player goals where they should be creating their own, as the quests progress a different aspect of the game entirely, leaving the player free to still create and pursue their own sandbox type goals.



The quests are also designed to have a lot of space between them. What I mean by space is that it takes a lot of work to accomplish some of the game’s goals, allowing for direction for what the player should do next while still allowing the player to find their own path to that goal, avoiding the problem of inadvertently teaching the player a “correct way” to accomplish a goal.



Because of Starbound’s quest system, I ended up getting invested in the game more than I ever expected to, because through the games goals, I was encouraged to make my own, and when I finally got back around to finishing one the game’s goals, I was making my own goals all over again. Starbound sets the standard for what sandbox games should do to encourage players to get the most of a game where the player almost makes the game as much the developers do.

