While Starfield may not have had the staying power of Bethesda's flagship The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, it still has a good deal of fans. Some of the game's highlights included ship-building and planet-hopping, both of which are present in an intriguing new Steam project called SpaceCraft. Like the back half of its title implies, Starfield isn't the only game it can be compared to, as a focus on creation will instantly remind players of beloved sandboxes like Minecraft. By taking some of the best elements from these bigger games, Steam's SpaceCraft could be an ideal middle ground, appealing to fans of both titles while still forging its own path in a few ways.
SpaceCraft Features at a Glance
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MINE, CRAFT, and TRADE solo or with friends in a massive world featuring multiple planets.
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COMPLETE missions, contracts, and services throughout the universe in exchange for resources.
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SHAPE a living economy, with every transaction impacting prices.
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EXPLORE different planets, abandoned space stations, and asteroid fields with real-time space travel.
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BUILD your own ship using resources gathered from planets and sell the blueprint of your finished design.
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CREATE an automated factory within your base to mine and deliver materials.
The Universe is yours. SpaceCraft is an online space exploration and building game. Explore a vast galaxy of solar systems and planets, mine and craft resources, design and build ships, automate planetary bases and interplanetary logistics, trade and cooperate.
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How Spacecraft Handles The Key Elements of Minecraft and Starfield
Dialogue choices for conversations, buildable ships, base-building, and resource gathering are all present in SpaceCraftensuring that players have access to exactly what they'd hoped to see from a Minecraft and Starfield combo. While it's unclear if the game offers combat, especially on the ground, everything else feels like it was checked off fans' wishlists. When players arrive on new planets, they'll be able to scan for materials and mine them using various tools, tearing up planets to build up a massive pile of resources. And with these resources, players can craft ship parts, designing the spacefaring vehicle of their dreams.
Scratch & Peek
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.
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Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.
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Building ships in Starfield was one of the game's biggest draws, with social media constantly being flooded with tributes to it Star Wars, Star Trek, Futuramaand more. SpaceCraft could just as easily spawn a community built around designing and showcasing the coolest possible ships, but actually using those ships should be similarly satisfying. While there is a fast travel system via a No Man's Sky steed Starfield-like galactic map, there is also real-time travel where players will seamlessly enter and exit the atmosphere, being able to fly from an underwater area into an asteroid field and then onto a new planet.
And while flying to and from planets will be fun (abandoned ships can also be discovered and explored), another Minecraft element rears its head with base-building. And while players can have fun just crafting houses like so many do in Mojang's blocky classic, the base system seems properly in-depth. Fans of Steam's many automation games could be particularly intrigued by it, as players will be able to create “fully automated resource hubs” with delivery lines, drones, cargo ships, and more. Energy management and interplanetary logistics means players need to put a bit of thinking into their setups, adding some challenge to the mix.
Spacecraft's Social Elements Set It Apart
What's particularly intriguing about SpaceCraftthough, is how it handles its multiplayer content. Like Amazon's failed MMO New Worldplayers will be shaping a living economy in SpaceCraftwith each and every purchase impacting prices. And players won't just be buying and selling their resources, but also blueprints; if they have a particularly fun or memorable ship design, they can sell the blueprint of that ship to a player who wants to build it for themselves. This could lead to some really fun transactions, and watching the economy shift as the community decides what is and isn't valuable will be fun to watch unfold.
Additionally, a clan system of sorts exists in SpaceCraft via Corporations. Creating or joining one of these groups will allow a leader to assign their fellow players roles and tasks on certain planets, with the extra management allowing players to build huge empires that can have a real say in what the economy looks like. The Corporation system (and other features) will be deepened as SpaceCraft progresses through its early access journey, with more social aspects planned to be one of the additions made in this 6-month+ period of time. With a demo and plenty of extra info available via the game's Steam page, players have plenty of ways to see if this creative game is for them ahead of its June 11 debut.
