Stardock owns Star Control and is planning an "XCOM-like" reboot

Founder keys are being sent out now, got mine. Won’t have time to try Super Melee until next week.

How long does the pre order discount last?

SPECIAL OFFER

For a limited time, pre-order Star Control: Origins for a lower price (already listed above). During development, this price will increase as new features are added.

That’s from the Steam store page, but the prices don’t appear to actually be discounted. It shows 24.99

That’s the discounted price right now. Price will go up as we progress towards release.

You can also save an extra 10% by ordering direct. :)

I suspect that in my rambling diatribe, I probably worded this part more harshly than I intended.

I want the campaign universe to feel vast and mysterious and inexplicable and full of interesting, fun content, because that’s the feeling I associate with Star Control 2 and 3. Maybe it’s rose-tinted nostalgia, but it’s how those games exist in my mind.

What I don’t want is a prime universe stuffed with “content” that’s just the end result of a programmatic function that exists at a vast and unassailable scale meant solely to make the universe “feel” big and expansive without actually providing very much actual content to dig into. Advertising “Now with 65,535 planets to explore!” when 65,520 of them are procedurally generated resource-stops sprinkled randomly through a galaxy that takes two hours to sail across is, I think, pretty disingenuous.

It’s a great tool that can be used poorly or well, but my sincerest and deepest hope here is that we get a big, fun, goofy, deep campaign that doesn’t just feel like 8 hours of content padded by 32 hours of tooling around bland, uninteresting pit-stops.

I’m not even “accusing” SD of trying to do that, more than just making uninformed conversation at this point :)

One of the neat things about playing Star Control 2 and 3 back in the pre-internet days was that when I was playing them, I had no idea how much of this “universe” we could explore was actually just potential resource stops, and how much of it was actual places that added to the story in some way. Figuring that out was part of the joy.

I had so much fun even with Star Control 3, because as I was telling @Desslock upthread, I had no idea that their systems were unfinished. Can you imagine playing that game now? People would tell you in this thread a day after release that the systems were broken. That’s probably a bad example though. It was also wonderous to explore a new part of the Star Control 2 map, not knowing if you were travelling in a cluster of worlds where you’ll encounter a new race, or if it’s just another cluster where you need to be careful to avoid those annoying satellites.

Thought that might be the case, but wanted to double check. Thanks for the clarification.

Bought!

Even if this game never comes out, I’m willing to pay that amount just for another melee mode.

I’m surprised to read that. By “unlimited” do you just mean the rights to republish Star Control 1/2, or could you actually use the aliens/ships from those games in a new Stardock game?

My understanding that at least the initial license acquisition was only for the name and the former Accolade assets, which did not include the aliens and other trademarks except for the Star Control name. If you do have those rights, did you do a subsequent transaction with Ford/Reiche, or was my previous understanding incorrect?

In any case, I think you’re doing a great job with the franchise for the fans. Facilitating a true sequel to Star Control 2 by Ford/Reiche and creating your own spin on the franchise emphasizing Stardock’s strengths = best possible result for fans.

This seems to answer my previous question. I suspect that license is a trainwreck of ambiguity too, at least when it comes to new content creation and derivatives. Maybe not though, as Accolade did whatever the hell it wanted with Star Control 3, but I didn’t think those sort of creation rights endured. Devil is in the license term details, of course, but by making a deal with Ford/Reiche it’s all hopefully moot anyway. Very cool development.

FreeSpace 2 pit stop please.

Meh. For all of its great gameplay,the FreeSpace mythos ain’t that grand. Humans, the aliens we used to fight but our now our allies, and the Shivan bugs. Plus a couple of dissident groups.

Nothing compared to the Ur-Quan, the Thraddish, the Shofixti, the Yehat, the Pkunk, the Spathi, the…

not to mention the Melnorme

or the * campers *

It’s a legit candidate for one of the best written, and smartest, games ever, so obviously I disagree. I do agree that it doesn’t particularly fit within the Star Control universe though - was mainly a plea for Stardock to acquire that license too and treat it with the same respect they have the Star Control franchise.

Starflight would like to have a word with you guys…

Wellp, they sure nailed the feel of Super Melee.

Downloading now!

Oh shit that’s good

Not just space sims, but flight sims and aircraft in general too. The silhouette of an F-16 will forever be etched into my brain.

I’m skeptical the new game will replicate the bizarre Jim Henson-esque wackiness of SC2 however. It simply is not the '80s any more. Current cartoons and games are too self-aware.

The new game may not end up bad, but it won’t be the same.

Boo, won’t launch. :(

I’ll blame the driver state of my shitty bootcamped 2013 Macbook Air at this stage though.

Welp! Did I buy the wrong version?

I was wondering if I should buy the founder’s edition or the Steam pre-order which came with Star Control 3. I went with the Steam Pre-order, but I assume you guys bought the founder’s edition, which is why you can already play super-melee?