Starmancer is a fantastic looking new isometric space station sim that draws inspiration from Dwarf Fortress in which you take on the role of a human/AI hybrid that’s in charge of a damaged ark ship which contains some of the last living humans in the universe.
A cataclysmic disaster on Earth has forced humanity to initiate the Starmancer Initiative – sending what remains of the human race into space in a fleet of ark ships. You are one such human, but you volunteered to be irreversibly fused with into the ark, forming a human/AI hybrid that would take care of the ark. However, you wake up in an unknown part of the Universe with a damages ship and corrupted memory cores. You now have to build and manage your colony and the people on it, and interestingly, the corrupted memory cores wiped out your protocols so you can be as nasty or as nice as you want!
The full game promises a dep space station sim experience with set in a living world where your actions have real consequences – when a disaster happens it will be because you didn’t manage to prevent it, not because of a random dice roll. You’ll have to build your colony, fend off pirate attacks and use diplomacy with other factions, all while keeping your colonists alive and happy. These colonists will be what really bring the game to life – each one with their own personality, backstory and attributes, and able to carry out complex social interactions – such as forming relationships, settling into a class system and even spreading rumors.
The current Kickstarter demo of Starmancer doesn’t feature any gameplay, but does allow you to build and furnish your own ship using in its Creative Build Mode. Building your ship is very easy and feels fondly reminiscent of the way you’d build your hospital in Theme Hospital. The pixel art for all the isomeric structures and machinery is particularly good and bodes well for the full game – and the full game will be coming because Strarmancer is almost 200% funded already and the Kickstarter still has 22 days to go!
Check Out the Kickstarter and Download The Kickstarter Demo Build Here (Win, Mac & Linux)