Retrospective & Future Plans

It’s been a little over two years since Starcom: Nexus graduated from Early Access. Shortly after graduation, I posted a survey to find out what players liked most, and what areas they felt could use improvements in a follow-up title (more about this in a bit). Since then, I’ve received almost 1000 responses. Combined with the 1300+ player reviews on Steam, posts to the discussion forums and in-game feedback, I feel like I have a good idea what players loved about Starcom: Nexus (as well as the most common complaints).

Exploration

Players really loved the feeling that they were exploring a mysterious universe. The idea that through the next wormhole could be another race, artifact, or civilization that would give some surprising discovery or connection kept you pushing into the next star system or out into the void.

When players recounted their favorite moments, it was often about an unexpected discovery. Like

finding the mined derelict

or

realizing that re-aligning an accelerator ring would send them to a hidden star system.

Stories & Missions

Closely linked with exploration, players liked both the overall main story line, as well as the smaller sub-plots like The Phage. A common request was for greater connection between anomalies and stories. Most of the anomalies in Starcom: Nexus are simple stand-alone encounters, many players wanted more anomalies that fit into a longer stories/quests. There were a number of comments that the ending felt too abrupt.

While players generally like the lack of “hand-holding” in the game, a common complaint was the mission log often didn’t provide enough direction.

Shipbuilding

Most players loved the modular shipbuilding element that allowed for customizing both the look and behavior of their ship, although some players disliked the “lego-brick” appearance that resulted from mostly single-hex modules. A common suggestion was upgraded modules that were bigger and better, like more powerful engines that took up twice as many hexes.

Crew

Crew in Starcom: Nexus are mostly treated as a disposable resources (aka red shirts from Star Trek). Some responses wished that there was some more depth to the crew, possibly with character progression and/or a sense of attachment to specific crew members.

Other

There were a number of suggestions that appeared multiple times:

• Faction manipulation

• Base-building

• Procedural generation (with a number of requests for not adding procedural generation, specifically to keep the "bespoke" feel)

• Weapon options/variants

What’s Next?

After the last update, I considered starting work on a DLC. But after some investigation I decided that a number of the improvements and content I wanted to create couldn’t easily be added to the game without a major overhaul.

Instead I started working on a follow-up, tentatively titled Starcom: Unknown Space. The good news is that it's pretty far along and I’ll be posting more about this project very soon. In the meantime if you want to keep updated, give suggestions or sign-up for closed betas, fill-out the survey form on our website .

Finally, I want to thank all of the players who provided feedback and encouragement over the years and helped me make Starcom: Nexus the game I always wanted to play.

• Kevin

p.s. If you’re interested in reading more about the development of Starcom: Nexus, I wrote up a lengthy post-mortem on the blog .