Stardeus is a deep colony sim set on a broken starship manned by drones and hibernating human survivors. As the AI, have your drones repair your ship, save your crew and travel the stars in this beautiful simulation.
The game blends elements from colony simulation games like Rimworld and space management games like Factorio, challenging players to repair and rebuild a broken starship, manage its various subsystems, and sustain a colony of hibernating human survivors.
Players must carefully salvage resources, repair critical systems, and rebuild the ship to their specifications. This involves strategically placing modules and facilities to optimize the ship's performance and accommodate the needs of the human crew, balancing factors like oxygen, power, and temperature.
Effective resource management is critical, as players must extract, process, and allocate resources like metals, chemicals, and power to fuel the ship's operations, research new technologies, and sustain the human colony. This requires planning and prioritizing to ensure the ship's systems remain operational and the crew's needs are met.
While players do not directly control the human colonists, managing and caring for the crew is important. Players must ensure the colonists have suitable living quarters, access to food and oxygen, and protection from hazards. They can also research technologies to better control and utilize the human workforce, navigating the colonists' own behaviors and needs.
A robust technology research system allows players to unlock new modules, facilities, and capabilities for their ship. Research requires resources, energy, and time to complete, forcing players to carefully plan their priorities. The tech tree offers a wide variety of upgrades and specializations to enhance the ship's functions.
As the ship is repaired and upgraded, players can venture out to explore the procedurally generated universe, discovering new planets, resources, and events. They can choose to establish additional colonies, exploit foreign planets, or continue their interstellar journey.
The game features an AI-driven storytelling system that introduces random events and encounters, ranging from benevolent traders to hostile alien threats. This requires players to make decisions and deal with the consequences, creating an unpredictable and replayable experience.
The game offers a high degree of customization, allowing players to tailor the ship's layout, systems, and even the initial conditions of each playthrough. This, combined with the sandbox-style gameplay, encourages experimentation and unique playstyles, further enhancing the game's replayability.