Star Control: Origins Announced

Star Control: Origins is an action/adventure game set in the year 2086.  Earth has received a distress call from inside our own solar system leading to the formation of Earth’s first united space exploration force, Star Control.  The player takes on the role of The Captain to investigate the transmission which leads to the rest of the galaxy learning of the existence of the Earthlings.

Star Control: Origins takes place in a living galaxy filled with thousands of unique worlds, many of which are teeming with alien life. It also has over a dozen star-faring civilizations the player must trade, fight and negotiate with.

“Star Control has always been about creating a fantastic galactic sandbox to play in and weaving a compelling story around it that gives meaning and wonder to their adventure,” said Brad Wardell, Executive Producer of Star Control: Origins. “With Origins, we want to bring the style, humor and game play elements we loved from the classic series and then expand it with features made possible on modern hardware.”

To that end, Star Control: Origins allows players to land on planets that are now represented as spherical entities with the gameplay updated to allow the lander to jump obstacles, rotate their lander’s cannon and deal with hostile environments and creatures.

“Exploring planets is now one of the funnest parts of the game,” said Wardell “The objective is still largely the same, pick up resources, access quests, find artifacts and ship parts but now the gameplay is very engaging.”

Like the classic series, Star Control focuses on the player’s interaction with alien races.  Star Control: Origins introduces a new cast of aliens for the player to learn and deal with. Using the game’s dynamic rendering system, the aliens and their speech are rendered in real-time.

For the music, Stardock has been working to reunite the musicians worked on the previous games. For example, Riku Nuottajarvi, composer of much of the music for the original series, has returned for the new Star Control series.

Meanwhile, for the writing, Stardock has tapped Cracked.com columnist, Chris Bucholz to lead the story and writing effort.

“Star Control is the convergence of a unique musical style, wry humor and a compelling story,” said Wardell. “The next challenge is to combine that with the gameplay to create what we hope will become a classic.”

Today, Stardock opened the Founder’s Program where fans can pre-order the game for $35 and gain access to the Founder’s Vault, a private forum, modding tools and more.

“There is a fine line between giving homage to a classic and copying it,” said Wardell. “The Founders and us will work together to ensure we thread that needle.”

As a proof of concept, Stardock has released a teaser of alpha gameplay to the public so that fans can get a quick look at the direction the game is taking.

“We wanted to keep the teaser short and not reveal too much,” said Wardell. “Everyone wants to show off Super Melee, planetary monsters, ship design, etc.  But you have to be really careful how much you show this early.  You can easily paint yourself into a box where you feel like you can’t ‘change’ something because it’s been shown to the public.”