Greetings, Commanders.
Today we’re sharing the first batch of answers to your questions. More will arrive next week, so if you haven’t asked anything yet, you can still post your question in the comments under this announcement!
Question
Answer
How confident are devs about early access within this year?
We’ll be able to determine that throughout our next beta cycle. Experiences of the past two years taught us not to commit to a release window unless we’re 100% confident in meeting them. Right now we can’t say more than that our goal is to deliver an experience that’s fun, stable, and runs well when it finally lands in your hands.
Will the silksong Release in any way Change the starminer Release?
No, the Silksong release did not in any way or form affect the release or development of Starminer.
will there be any lore previews and/or a dedicated discord server section with info and discussion on the lore? (They're doing something similar for Falling Frontier lately, so I thought something similar could be nice for Starminer also)
That is an interesting and lucrative idea - we will put more thought into it. The lore of Starminer is definitely something we will continuously expand and build upon with the help of our narrative designer Aidan.
will there be a feature for saving ships' and stations' blueprints and export them to share them, maybe through Steam Workshop?)
Yes! We’re working on a feature that will let players share their station blueprints with others. Right now you can already save and recall your own blueprints through the build menu - the next step is adding the backend that makes it possible to share them with the community. This feature will be available in-game.
Are there any plans to add planetary mining? Like maybe rare exotic resources that can only be obtained by first making a ship that can enter an atmosphere?
We don’t have plans to include planetary mining at release, but it’s definitely something that fits naturally into Starminer. It’s an idea we’ve already talked about internally, and in one form or another, it’s very likely to make its way into the game in the future.
Will there be community references in the game, like decals?
Good idea, we will definitely include some community easter eggs at some point.
Any chance we can have like a “early backer pay extra” option that gets our names in game like for NPCs or Star names?
I’d totally pay up to $10-15 more if it meant an NPC/location/whatever with my game tag
That's up to our publisher.
gamemodes question: probably a story mode, but what about "endless" or similar?
or is it more like rimworld in that its always story mode and always endless?
Starminer will launch with three game modes: Campaign, Sandbox, and Survival.
In Campaign, players progress through a series of missions designed to introduce both the core mechanics and the game’s lore. While there’s structure, the missions aren’t strictly linear and you’ll still have plenty of freedom in how you approach them.
Sandbox offers a more customizable experience, letting you choose your starting ship, resources, location, and whether enemies are active or not.
Survival is all about endurance: you’ll face endless waves of enemies and fight to stay alive as long as possible. All three game modes will continue to be refined and expanded during Early Access, guided by feedback from the community.
Is it out yet? (Sorry. I had to do it.... i will show myself out) Jokes aside though, im curious on scales. Scale of the universe,
scale of ships, scale of factions etc. What kind of scale is the devs aiming to be "scope" if you will.
Nah, it's not out, sorry to disappoint :). As for scale: Starminer spans three star systems - Sol, Lalande, and Alpha Centauri - with more than 25 distinct environments. The campaign features dozens of missions of varying length and difficulty (and we are still adding more). Ships can be built as large as you like, with the only real limit being your CPU. Our aim is to keep the scope manageable for our small team, while still making the universe feel vast and alive.
build limits?
As mentioned earlier, there are no build limits. You can grow as big as you like - the only limit is what your computer can handle.
Space Sim has been a tremendous market. What’s the identity/ core focus of this project compared to iconic like
Elite Dangerous, Eve, X4, etc?
The core focus of Starminer is creativity, customisation and physics. We want players to have the freedom to approach challenges in their own way, whether that means customizing a station, designing a ship, or experimenting with different strategies. Unlike large space sims like X4 or Elite Dangerous, Starminer places a strong emphasis on creative building and heavy customization. Another key distinction is our physics simulation: things like mass, thrust, and structural integrity really matter, adding a layer of depth and realism that sets the game apart from these heavyweight titles.
Will there be a 12 hour space ship docking scene?
Our team is still pondering on whether or not to include that feature.
Will ship controls by more direct (space engineers, elite dangerous) or more abstract (nebulous fleet command)
Direct ship controls are one of Starminer's key features, giving you full inputs across all six degrees of freedom. At the same time, we are developing a point-and-click navigation aid to help with long-distance travel or tricky maneuvers, but it is meant as a support tool rather than the main way to play the game.
will there be power managment systems
You can manage your ship's power by toggling various systems on or off. Mining lasers, weapons, shields, refineries, and factories each have dedicated controls to switch them all at once, and you can also toggle individual modules if you want more fine-grained control over energy use.