Starbound - a sort of spiritual successor to Terraria - was made available to pre-order last night, and at the time of writing it's already raised a staggering $230,000, and counting. That's the kind of money that makes monocles smash, saloon patrons stop and turn suddenly in your direction, and Donald Trump's hair to ruffle slightly, ever so slightly. The sidescrolling, sci-fi crafting sandbox can be pre-had for $15, which will give you access to the beta, the soundtrack, and of course the game (with a Steam key) when it's done. If your wallet is so flush with cash that it's beginning to affect your gait, however, you can also pay more for various Kickstarter-esque extras, including the opportunity to design an in-game hat. For $500. Damn, there goes my other monocle.
In addition to those pricey hats, you can also shell out $45 to have an NPC named after you, $75 to be listed in the credits as well, and a crazy $1,000 to design an in-game weapon. Starbound itself is expected sometime in the space year 2013, but there'll be a beta available before that. Here's a recent video of the game in action:
(Ta, RPS .)
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.