Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is a major departure from the base-building area survival sport that preceded it. Together with a shift towards a session-based extraction shooter-style gameplay loop, Starseeker can also be adopting a live-service mannequin to ship contemporary content material and gameplay twists commonly. It is an formidable transfer that will encourage fears of the everyday live-service ache factors: FOMO, microtransactions, and aggressive player-retention methods that maintain gamers engaged for longer than they may like. Fortunately, System Period has proven a dedication to avoiding these points of the mannequin.
In an interview with Game Rant, System Period co-founder and Starseeker inventive director Adam Bromell spoke passionately about dealing with the sport’s live-service implementation in an moral method that is thoughtful of each gamers and builders. Basically, Starseeker goals to leverage the very best options of a live-service mannequin whereas shooing away the points that do not align with the group’s prosocial mission.
Starseeker Would not Thoughts If You Cannot All the time Play
Followers of live-service video games usually battle with quite a few titles vying for his or her consideration, both by FOMO or sport mechanics that may punish gamers for failing to test in commonly. Not too long ago, this was highlighted by Dune: Awakening, the place gamers should log in periodically to pay taxes and keep their turbines, or they might probably lose tens of hours of progress. Refreshingly, Bromell says that he usually considers methods to deal with a live-service sport that does not punish gamers—instantly or not directly—for the period of time they’ll put into the sport:
“It’s technically a live-service game. We want continuous support so we can sustain ourselves and our players, but we want to do it in a way that doesn’t stress players out. I play a lot of live-service games, and I think about: can we be the kind where it doesn’t matter if you give us two hours a month, a week, or a day? Play how you want. It’s a sandbox—we give you agency from the very first UX beats.”
The live-service model can enchantment to gamers with restricted playtime so long as they are not made to really feel like they’re lacking out, turning what ought to be a significant expertise right into a weekly to-do listing merchandise to test off. By eradicating the strain to play routinely and the results for failing to take action, gamers with restricted time would possibly really be extra eager to revisit Starseeker after they have an opportunity.
How Starseeker Avoids FOMO
FOMO is a difficult problem to tackle for live-service video games, as their evolving nature means gamers might inevitably miss out on limited-time occasions and content material. A technique Bromell hopes to alleviate that is by ‘unvaulting’ earlier seasonal content material once in a while. Whereas this ensures that gamers who missed out the primary time have one other likelihood to expertise the content material, it additionally makes the workload manageable for System Period. Fairly than needing to work extreme hours or enormously broaden the group, the Starseeker group can work at a extra snug tempo, which tends to profit gamers with higher-quality content material on the identical time. Bromell says:
Meaning avoiding FOMO. We actually had a gathering in regards to the ‘Disney Vault.’ I’d like to be on Season 5 and convey the Season 3 planets ‘out of the vault’ so gamers can come again and full these stickers. In case you missed it, perhaps it returns. Additionally, I don’t wish to grind my group right into a pulp. I don’t wish to balloon from 60 individuals to 600. I need us to maintain gamers’ curiosity and respect their money and time ethically—and let our of us work sane hours.”
To date, Starseeker seems like a breath of contemporary air among the many numerous live-service video games that take a extra heavy-handed strategy to participant retention. For players who benefit from the thought of an ever-evolving title however discover it troublesome to stay dedicated, System Era’s upcoming co-op game may be the reply.
- Launched
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2026
- Developer(s)
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System Period Softworks
- Multiplayer
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On-line Co-Op
- Variety of Gamers
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Single-player
