Starbound Beta Not ‘Too Long’ Away, Beta Stages Announced

Starbound has been in the works for quite some time — enough time to make the game fall off of the radars of many. Those of you (like me) who have been awaiting Chucklefish’s interplanetary sandbox since early 2012 finally get a nice dose of hope:

The Starbound beta is coming.

A post on the official website by the ever-diligent Tiy gives a clear look at how the game’s beta will progress once its launch comes at a time “not very far off now.”

The Starbound beta will be progressing in three stages, with the second and third hosting several improvements over their predecessor.

Stage 1

Tiy states Stage 1 to be the “buggiest and busiest stage” of the beta, with several patches (at times, more than once a day), and several unfinished features disabled while the development team irons out kinks.

Chucklefish anticipates a wealth of bugs during Stage 1, but encourages those who are willing to playtest in an unstable environment to try it out. Those worried about progress loss and spoilers should probably avoid this first testing period.

Stage 2

Stage 2 will be the first period in which Starbound is nearly complete, sans the main story quests. Most sandbox features will be available at this point of the beta, including endgame content.

This will be the ideal entry point for those ready to dive into the game’s sandbox aspects, and people looking to test the game’s performance on their PC.

Novakids will not be available in Stage 2.

Stage 3

This is the final period before the game’s launch, with the end of Stage 3 marking Starbound as mostly complete.

Novakids, main story quests, and the rest of the game’s supplemental content will be added during this stage. This will likely be a fine time to start for anyone but those looking for a 100% complete Starbound experience.

The time draws near!

Chucklefish mentioned the game’s beta would “definitely be available this year” in this month’s Starbound Chronicle, but that the full game release would most likely be put off until 2014.

One can assume, judging from the Chronicle entry and today’s news post, that the Starbound beta should be within the next month. If so, hurrah! If not, well.. I suppose we will have a good Christmas.