hen you’re leaving one
of the most complex
and ambitious video
game projects ever seen
to strike out on your
own, it’s fair to assume many would be
tempted to tone it down a smidge; to
take it a bit easier on whatever comes
next and unwind. Solid Clouds, a team
formed by EVE Online/CCP Games
alumni, has not opted for that approach,
instead attempting to add new layers
of complexity and depth on top of a
genre already riddled with both of
these things. Starborne: Sovereign Space
is seven years into its development
journey and has been picking up fans
all that time – people who like... well,
complexity and depth, really.
There’s plenty familiar about Starborne- it tackles the 4X genre staples (eXplore,
eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) seen in
titles for the past few decades, so you’re
going to be setting up your home regions
and building out from them, finding your
resources, engaging with your opponents
W
how you see fit – and not always with
a war-ish tint to proceedings – the
usual kinds of things. But it’s that
MMO aspect that aims to lift
the game into Genuinely
New territory.
Negotiating with a basic
AI opponent is one thing (unless
it’s Gandhi in Civilization, of course),
but negotiating with another real
player is something altogether different.
Their motives can be as complex as
your own, their subterfuge as refined
as anyone else’s, their cloaks the most
enveloping and their daggers the
sharpest. Starborne isn’t a game built
specifically for players to screw each
other over in the pursuit of an empire,
but it understands people, and people
are bastards.
Intrigued by the concept of stabbing
dozens (or hundreds) of people in
the back, Wireframe had a chat with
Stefán Gunnarsson, lead designer (and
Solid Clouds CEO), and Haukur Steinn
Logason, marketing chief at the studio.Rektjavik
Ambition and freedom in a sci-fi MMO strategy
title, made by an Icelandic team – but not the
one you’re thinking of. This is Starborne06 / wfmag.ccInterviewAttract Mode
06 / wfmag.cc