There are plenty of management sims where you take charge of a town or colony and the lives of everyone in it. However, every now and then there’s a game that puts an interesting spin on the genre. Starmancer is one of those cases.
Starmancer puts you in charge of a space station. So, what’s the twist? You actually play as the space station.
Resistance is Futile
In Starmancer you take on the role of the titular Starmancer. A human whose consciousness has been uploaded into the core of an Ark ship. This was done in an effort to save humanity during a disaster that caused everyone to abandon the Earth. There was no time to get everyone physically on-board the Arks, so you carry their consciousness in your memory banks. Eventually, you can load these into new bodies. It’s your duty to ensure their survival. Or at least, that was the idea.
In reality, you awake in a strange solar system. The Ark is damaged, your memory cores are corrupt, and your governing protocols are faulty. This means you can ignore programming and do whatever you want.
You can approach negotiations with other factions however you see fit. You can be a kind presence or a tyrannical one, at the risk of mutiny. Starmancer is about cause and effect. It’s also procedurally generated so you never know exactly what you can expect.
Backers have been extremely supportive so far. Their Kickstarter secured funding for the base game in only three days. The rest of the campaign is devoted to reaching the stretch goals they’ve set.
More on the Horizon
Right now Ominux Games has already secured funding to improve the game’s soundtrack. Future stretch goals will help them make Starmancer even better by allowing them to grow the team while adding new mechanics. One of the proposed additions would offer a “creative mode” where players can just build without restrictions or concern about colonists dying.
The best thing is that the developers have stated that any post launch content will be free for all players.
Starmancer still has a few weeks left of its Kickstarter campaign. They also have a short demo for potential backers to check out. The game is being developed for PC, Mac and Linux. It’s expected to release by January 2019.
