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[Kaje]

Signs of Life was released yesterday on Steam's 'Early Access' and I have to say that despite the clear similarities to games like Starbound, and it's early development stage, it's a rather fun little timesink with a very modest pricing! It cost me just over £5 and will stay at that price until early Feb.

I hate to compare it to Starbound, but that's exactly what it's the closest to. You're stranded on an alien world and must carve out your survival from the surface, including finding bases established by previous settlers who are no longer living. The animation and art style is pretty damn lovely to say the least.

The world itself is rather small at this stage, but the developers plan to expand the planet as well as provide a 'prequel' tutorial which detail the events leading up to being stranded. They also hint at other world's but stress that their development will be dynamic and could look at taking any of a number of paths.

[choppy]

Interesting, I will have to keep a eye on this.

[Sirus]

Gonna keep an eye on this so I don't forget later...

[thepodger]

What makes this worth playing over Starbound?  It seems like an offbrand Starbound minus content and with a less cartoony aesthetic.

-edit-
That may have sounded snarky.  I meant it as a legitimate question--if there is then I am interested as I do not care for cartoons.

[Kaje]

It's very easy to compare this to Starbound, but ultimately it's simply another game of the same genre. Comparing this to that would be like comparing Call of Duty to Medal of Honour or Battlefield etc.

From what I've enjoyed so far...

It's a little more story focused than Starbound.
The planet is hand crafted by the developers as opposed to randomly generated, as such it feels more professional.
There's more in the way of dark humour, especially from your little wrist-mounted AI friend.
The art style is very pretty and the animations are far slicker than Starbound.
It's still very early in development and the developers will have a number of development paths to choose from, they haven't yet ruled out other planets but they are committed to fleshing out the current planet and making it feel like a polished world.

The price point is also cheaper. I probably got my money's worth simply through the time I played yesterday alone - I haven't had that from some polished AAA games five times the price!

[Mipe]

I don't get why would anyone want to create a bow. I mean, crossbows are much more powerful and accurate.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in these kind of games... Survival? I'd sure as hell try to survive using the most efficient means.

Pet peeve of mine.

[Lucidvizion]

I don't get why would anyone want to create a bow. I mean, crossbows are much more powerful and accurate.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in these kind of games... Survival? I'd sure as hell try to survive using the most efficient means.

Pet peeve of mine.

So if you were lost in the woods and needed to hunt for food you'd craft yourself a... crossbow?

[xTAMERx]

I don't get why would anyone want to create a bow. I mean, crossbows are much more powerful and accurate.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in these kind of games... Survival? I'd sure as hell try to survive using the most efficient means.

Pet peeve of mine.

So if you were lost in the woods and needed to hunt for food you'd craft yourself a... crossbow?

no, better u craft a laser^^ killing n cooking in one

[forsaken1111]

I don't get why would anyone want to create a bow. I mean, crossbows are much more powerful and accurate.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in these kind of games... Survival? I'd sure as hell try to survive using the most efficient means.

Pet peeve of mine.

So if you were lost in the woods and needed to hunt for food you'd craft yourself a... crossbow?

Seriously. Why settle for a piece of wood under tension with a string when you could hunt up some iron, smelt it, make fittings a spring and trigger mechaniism and combine it with some fancy woodworking to make a crossbow?

Bows are simple, easy to maintain, quick to fire. The tradeoff is that they require more skill to use.

[Kaje]

I don't get why would anyone want to create a bow. I mean, crossbows are much more powerful and accurate.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in these kind of games... Survival? I'd sure as hell try to survive using the most efficient means.

Pet peeve of mine.

Then you might be happy to know that you can craft crossbows in Signs of Life...

http://playsignsoflife.com/?p=176

[thepodger]

You idiots.  You make a crossbow with a rubber band and a two sticks.

Seriously though, this looks more my style than Starbound.  Thanks for posting it.

[Puzzlemaker]

You idiots.  You make a crossbow with a rubber band and a two sticks.

Seriously though, this looks more my style than Starbound.  Thanks for posting it.

You would still need a release mechanism.  That would be more like a slingshot anyway, which is also highly effective and easy to work with, as long as you have some very stretchy material.

[Criptfeind]

Comparing this to that would be like comparing Call of Duty to Medal of Honour or Battlefield etc.

That seems like a pretty legitimate thing to do. Actually to a almost hilarious degree. But anyway, with starbound looking worse every day this might be something cool, although I'm against Early Access Games since they are of the devil. But something to watch.

[forsaken1111]

You idiots.  You make a crossbow with a rubber band and a two sticks.

Seriously though, this looks more my style than Starbound.  Thanks for posting it.

Where do you find a rubber band in the wilderness exactly?

I guess you could use dried animal sinew which has been twisted into rope. It has some stretch to it, but nothing like rubber.

[Wardo]

What do you mean hunt? In a survival situation you can't waste your time and energy hunting.

You trap. Make a few traps, spread them around, come back later to grab your dinner.

P.S.: I admit this won't work in an alien planet inhabited by a species of space faring sentient amphibian-fishy admirals.