I find myself coming back to this video a lot. I'm a gamedev myself and I've released one small arcade game and I'm developing another right now. For a future project, I want to make one that has more meaning and more teeth, as you put it. I think the games I'm making are fun, but they're mostly just to grow and get better. I know they're not going to be huge, but they also aren't very personal to me. Christian media as a whole isn't done well very often, but I definitely want to throw my hat in the ring and this video gave me a lot to think about. An idea that I've had is to make a foddian game (like Jump King or Getting Over it With Bennett Foddy). I think that genre lends itself to themes of perseverance and hopelessness, which is something many people wrestle with. I think adding a sense of guilt over a past action could also be something that works well into it for a simple narrative. I've got more ideas, but they aren't too fleshed out. What love to hear your thoughts on that simple premise.

The game was about gameplay and atmosphere itselves. Now it about another chosen hero simulator. It just feels different. I replayed beta because i thought it's only nostalgia, but the game content itself was much more colourful. I love teleporters, i love that game remember you position after exiting, but the removal of content is unforgivable. And optimisation and bugs... Mods, mods, mods. That's the only reason why this comatose is stil live on.

I think we could show games about "swim against the flow" which is some basis of Christianity (fighting against sin), and, based on the comments below: "paid debt by the debtor" - which is the central point of our faith (that is what make our religion unique - the God Almighty suffered in our place), united with "we can't do that ourselves" - that can lead to repentment

Yoodet

Yoodet.

bro left youtube and just started COOKING!! i like the way this looks, vibe check has passed for me :3

13:22: well...no... it clearly says in the new testament that the angels doesnt really understand the cross, they dont have the insight for that despite their often high intelligence cuz faith and the revelation of salvation can not be given to a sinless creature like angels so THATS why they dont preach the gospel cuz they..dont know how to preach or understand the fundamental core of it since they are not born again since they dont have sin so...

You know someone fucked up big time when videoesseyist needs to explain underlying processes behind framerate

GOD BLESS US ALL LET'S COLLABORATE I NEED A PROGRAMMER GOD BE WILLING IN JESUS NAME AMEN 🙏

The best part of the game, is that it is extremely moddable. The game’s framework and engine are extremely simple to reverse engineer, to the point that young me reverse engineered the code to make custom weapons, races, clothing, and planets while sitting in class. And apparently the beta and alpha were even easier to mod than the 1.2 and 1.4 versions that I was playing on. Not to mention you could load up so many mods and the only thing that would change is your boot time because of the way the game was built. The game was extremely stable because the code was so simple, the only thing that reliably crashed me was missing JavaScript notation.

So I am aspiring to be a christian game developer myself. Indie if I can manage, and these are some fantastic points. Im actually in a very similar situation to you. But I dont know if I agree with your three "dont dos" exactly. I think there needs to be more nuance. Heck a lot could be said about this specifically. But the problem is that they arent personal stories, that is the long and short of it and I think that's what needs to be focused on. so point 1, no power fantasies. I just find that hard to avoid because a fun game is at least in part a power fantasy. Though ill keep that in mind. I of course dont want to perpetuate the health and wealth gospel but I do want to make a fun game that doesnt make you feel powerless. For point 2, the issue is that this requires the game to be explicitly christian. Which, I mean, I think that just might provide some resistance when it comes to reaching people. I would almost like to make it under cover. Like Narnia did, Asland isnt literally Jesus, if you didnt know the bible stories you wouldnt be able to make that connection. But it says something about Christianity by his character. I think that's a solid compromise. and point 3 is of course the biggest takeaway here. Thing is teaching a bible story might have a vague message, but it isnt really a solid one. Because history is messy and you cant really take a single message from seeing historical events lay out most of the time. Storytelling is at its best when it has a specific message like that. You seem to have a better handle on this than me, so tell me what you think of this concept ive been working on. So basically the idea is the main character, his name is Doulos, I just decided he could be a coyote, isnt what is metaphorical for a "christian" in this world. He just lives his life like any worldly person, parting, being dishonest, you know the whole deal. But one day he ends up in this labyrinth, he meets a wise old turtle guy who gives him a map. This map represents the bible. I dont know how explicit I should be about this but that would be the idea. The turtle guy also has an apprentice of sorts, someone who he's taught before the player ended up in the labyrinth. She also happens to be a coyote. She is someone who's just very hyper focused on spreading the good word of the map that the turtle gave her, to her own detriment, she fails to progress as much as she could because she's so focused on forcing her views on others. And that establishes our main trio. So here's kind of the game premise, you would go throughout this labyrinth, and collect pieces of armor, which would represent the armor of God. I think my stand in for God ill call "agape" because that means love and God is love. So you are searching for the agape armor. Each piece is used to fight off a boss, that represents a different kind of sin. You might think "oh the seven deadly sins" that isnt quite what I went with. Mostly because lying isnt one of the seven and I cant match truth up against anything other than lies, it wouldnt make sense. So im going a bit looser with it. The first boss would be a spider, that is also a cult leader. He says things that actively contradicts itself, and tells lies with every breath. He owns a library full of other "maps" and says you can use any.... Except the one the turtle gave you. The next I thought would be fun to go a little more abstract and just have a guy with as disco ball for a head, he's the sloth boss but takes a more "party your life away" approach to the idea. The next one represents wrath, I went with a bull that has a voodoo aesthetic, basically he would use voodoo dolls to take his anger out on others without needing to deal with any consequences. Next would be a smooth talking money with a casino, I am pretty set on the name for this one, Denarius. He would be tall and lanky and have a hat that has suits on it. The boss fight would have him swapping between them randomly, you know gambling aesthetics and all that. And then after that I would have one represent lust because I would want to cover that, she would be a shape shifter rather than having a static form. Sort of representing the internet these days basically being able to show you anything you could imagine. I wouldnt get too explicit of course, for my own sake and the sake of others, but it is better to expose it to the light than to not touch on it. And for the final boss it would actually be a shadow version of Doulos. Now ill say im taking some inspiration from Celeste here, this shadow version would follow Doulos throughout the game, tempting him. Basically, I see celeste and "self acceptance" and I say, no i'd rather kill that. Even if you have to pick up your cross, fight and kill it every day. With God's strength. But yeah the idea would be that the map you have been carrying this entire time would form into the upgraded sword for you to defeat the final boss with. That is the basic rundown of the concepts im working with so far. As for mechanics I was thinking some kind of means of combat that is purely defensive rather than offensive. See one thing ive noticed about the armor of God is that it is all defensive, even the sword describes a kind of sword you would only use for someone who gets too close, a kind of short sword. So the mechanics would basically be timing your attacks purely as counter attacks. I need to fill that out a bit more in concept but I think it is a good starting point to fit in with what im thinking. More importantly I think I have a good cast of characters. I could see some interesting character conflicts, Doulos changing his outlook on life, Eliora (the girl) realizing she isnt perfect, and that she needs to slow down and actually talk to people not at people, and even the turtle seeing that different people might not work with the same approach and such. The bosses of course I could see having heaps of personality, ive drawn out some interesting designs for them. One thing I want to do is have the iris of each character represent their character. The turtle would have a compass shaped iris, showing that he knows the way. Eliora a flower, because of growth, I guess? idk it makes a good iris shape and she's a girl im gonna be honest. The most fun one is Doulos though, because he would have a chain shaped iris. See his name means "slave" which is in reference to the idea you can either be a slave to sin or a slave to God. Its a choice between the two. So that's what his name means. I think it has potential but its all in the execution.

There's this one channel called "moon channel" that goes over what he thinks are the issues with Christian Videogames. He barely even talks about the issue rather going into some diatribe about how "im an actually good christian because I put LOVE first" while showing a picture that shows he only has worldly love, and "calvinists and capitalism bad" barely even talking about actual videogames. This video actually gets at the heart of the issues with Christian videogames, and actually suggests something to do about it. This is a great video.

why are u wearing gloves

Wow dude great exposè. Really broke it down in a clear and concise manner. What an absolute shame what they did.

Never played terraria. Fell in love with Starbound, hosted a private server for months, met some chill ppl. Sad when it died. Playing midi music together was my favorite part, hands down! 😂

Good for you man

Maybe a Bible costmetic

I’m a Christian making a horror games and I’m planing to make weekly Bible versus and other Christian things I don’t know what else to add

bro is really madarame from p5

What a hidden gem of a video!

I understand a lot of things were removed that were great, I understand the game had problems, All games have problems, but was the game bad? because stuff was removed does that make everything ruined? because fossils don't have a purpose does that make everything ruined? NO, it doesn't, fossils are just a decoration but they are still cool for building, tech might suck but you can still live without it, terrain might be annoying but that's part of the game now, esther telling you where the creatures are isn't an issue, they don't even primarily live there in my experience, I've found so many more avians on forest planets then florans, they are just trying to get you to go to these new planets. people will still go to planets after doing missions, it's not just "the cool stuff", people will still go to other planets as well as do missions. mechs and space stations were fun and a good addition to the game, you're just getting mad because they are adding good stuff instead of re-adding that old stuff you want back. As absolutely horendous as the unpaid labor is and as horrid as the stories are, they did not effect the quality of the game as much as you claim it did. the bounty hunter added exactly what you wanted, you find the enemies on the planets, with the quests, but you still aren't happy because your mods broke, Come one man, they added exactly what you wanted and you still got mad, this whole video was just from good to bad meant to bully and shame on an amazing game that deserves more attention, mods or not, as much as I love my mods I would give up all the mods I've ever played the game with just to get 1 more content update, this game deserves more love than I believe it will ever get, a depressing but very real fact, this game has shaped my childhood and given me so many happy memories, there is so much good in this game to overwhelm and overcome the bad, but if you stare at the bad long enough you will no longer see the good, please people, if you watched this video and haven't played Starbound yet, don't let this video stop you, Starbound is an amazing game in so many ways so please try it, it's so worth the money, if not more.

starbound feels unfinished

if i had the know-how, i'd do it myself wonder how long it would take to even learn all that... hmm

Entropy is the natural law that all things must lead to chaos, to put it simply.

We could try and fix this game but the modders are too busy making shitty furniture, cosmetic or joke mods

I remember playing this game in early development, it has so much potential and I feel that it's so much more fun than Terraria that time. Now Terraria is a lot more better than before while this game become worse.

Hey I know this was a few years ago now, but if nobody's told you yet then one way to make your video sound much higher-quality is to just tape up some curtains or blankets or sweaters or something to muffle the echo from the lower-quality mic you're working with here

You know whats interesting about the child labor portion? Dawn Felstar (assuming female, not sure), owner of the Starbound discord, started up a porn channel which had kids in it. Claiming kids couldn't access it, but also made it so you can gain access by typing "?18" anywhere. I saw several 15 year olds in the channel. People who told me how old they were in DMs. I protested the channel, so she banned me permanently on that one singular thing claiming that was my third strike (first two strikes were one harmless joke people found funny including her at the time). So to me, this felt like Chucklefish had a pedophile in their community running everything. Chucklefish told me Dawn was not an employee, and yet, Dawn also had me banned from Chucklefish's main discord too because I had forced Dawn, to remove the porn channel after my ban by going to discord devs about it which forced the deletion of it. I was told later that the porn was still a thing there, in the main discord where children go to play and talk about the game. I still have a screenshot of the argument involving the porn channel and Dawn telling me it wasn't going to be removed. I was a modder way back, but after the above, and the fact that Frackin Universe devs stole what they wanted any time they wanted and would not be punished for it in any way, I lost all faith in the game ever getting better. I lost interest in it, and stopped playing entirely years ago.

So.. I didn't know thos history and was recently introduced. Pretty sure the ownership of something udner suc ha exploitive context is taken from it, now if you pushed for Starbound to become a public OWNED creative entity, then the labours of the unpaid past can be redeemed as its now a free project for all and moderated... then maybe those chagnes can be made as permanent creative collabs nad be used as entry and gateaway between uni and highscool particaption... sad that hte old world of avaraice scratches at the heart of humanities creative side.

The whole thing around payment, if everyone is the ground team and were all poor it is a labour of passion in our freetime that is hte best creation ,but if they have money to pay and its really just exploitiation.. If everyone is poor its a hopes to keep it going and build something for the sake of money or business, so whe ncontributing, make sure in part you are paid, or you kind of all fail together.. meaning your all in teh same boat, and its a reflection.. there is more the nenough moeny ot go aorund what we ahve is a lot of cult predators out there. Everywhere in high palces.. devouring the spirit of peopel conscience.

After reading a fair few of the comments I realise that I may be in somewhat of a minority when I say that I genuinely enjoyed post-release Starbound. It had a LOT of issues, granted, and the scanning section of the storyline was a complete chore, but I kind of liked the story and all. Despite that though, I also know that I installed god knows how many mods to the game and could probably never go back to vanilla. And after finding out what a genuibely terrible time the development was, it's hard to look at it the same way anymore.

As a Christian game developer myself, this was very interesting, and you have some good points about the Christian games that are around.

Great video. I'm inspired.

Starbound is still rad... just, unfortunately, not nearly as rad as it could have been.

So now that the source code is out, what do we think will happen now?

I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE!

I hope you work as a technical and gameplay director on games projects...

Procedural generation is not a silver bullet, a panacea, or proper content. That was the first and most damaging problem with Starbound. Terraria's random generation is kept to a minimum.

The actual release of the bounty hunting update is kinda proof that his ideas in “paying debts” could 100% work!

I remember playing STARBOUND when it first came out AND ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. Then every update erased my file of 100s of hours. Then went back a year later and it's the ONLY GAME that I hate.

mods make it incredible tho. Frackin Universe alone fixes 99% of the games issues

i just realized you blurred the lines of The Alpha and The Beta together in PART 1 '3'

man as someone who has lots of hours on starbound literally the only thing I care about is what they did to the asteroid fields why did they go 0 grav when will I ever make a rice field in space again and I know grav can be changed with console but thats not a solution as that applies to every world

I first finished Starbound when I was 14 years old, so it held some decent memories for me. I then played a shit ton of the Frackin Universe mod and loved the new things it added. I hate that behind it all, the devs were not being treated and paid as they should have been because despite everything, to me it was still kinda a good game. And yes, I would love to see someone eventually in the future attempt to create an unbroken, fully finished game.

*puts on foil hat* Me: Uh oh...

Starbound was so much better when it was space terraria. Why did they ruin it :c

Word's on the street Starbound's source code was released, or leaked, or something - the public seems to have it now. Here's to a renaissance of the game, with a dedicated community helping it live up to its potential.

this is fake. terraria is not a survival game. starbound never died. the video quality is terrible. the montage is terrible. get better or quit.

There has been an immense and ongoing problem where the final phase of the erchius horror literally just crashes the game. This has been an issue for me and friends, and is a big problem because literally the entire game is gated behind that boss specifically.