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A work-in-progress robot fetches parts on a satellite for their engineer and mechanic. In a dark dream-like world, the robot comes to befriend a star. Their journey takes them through strange dream worlds, to different satellites, and crosses paths with a cast of of wistful NPCs and a number of eccentric, slightly intimidating sloths. With a taste of melancholy, Starbot is a light game tribute to The Little Prince, exploring themes of innocence, friendship, and loss.

Music and sound by Dave

Latest Blog

Starbot - Español

Starbot has been translated to Spanish! I don't think I was approached by this translator actually, but I'm really flattered by + grateful for their work.

Download links here!
  • Completed
  • cloudhime
  • RPG Tsukuru 2003
  • Adventure
  • 10/31/2014 02:54 AM
  • 10/18/2017 01:23 AM
  • 11/11/2014
  • 122127
  • 55
  • 5132

Posts

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That description alone makes me want to play this. Like, I don't even care if the game features cool art, beautiful music, or awesome gameplay puzzles.
haha i'm glad it sounds interesting! i'll admit this game isn't really heavy on the gameplay, but i've had a lot of fun with the art and story.
This game was absolutely breathtaking. Within, say, 45 minutes of playing the game, I developed emotional attachment to the characters. Not to mention that this game gave me a Cave Story vibe with its music, and an Earthbound-esque vibe with its graphics.

Also, that hint on the computer about the nature of the starplant 'grower' was superb, and gave my stomach chills.

Perfect.
ahhhhh i'm incredibly flattered!! my friend and i are really honored to have our work compared this to those games haha.

also hehhh i won't say too much but there are a few other hints dropped in other places about the sloth characters... their backgrounds are deeper than the scope of the game events.
last night my friends and I played this gorgeous game and we all cried at the end um excuse you
why
did
you
make
it
so
sad
cries for the rest of my life
this game was fabulous, although the end screen is kind of weird? like it just said "fin" for me and didn't end and i had to quit through the menu? uh yeah~ um this was way too cute and please make more games like this asdfghjkl;'
ahaha omg i'll take that first part as a compliment *___*!! although without spoiling anything i think at this point maybe i should warn you not to read the little prince if this is too sad for you haha. also! i would like to make more games like this but i'll be honest it takes me such a long time (this project took about a year hhh) that it'll probably be a while before i could make another project like this!

ooo andd i hadn't actually thought about what to do after the "fin"?? honestly i just ended the map there without any real thought for returning to the main menu... i've added a command for it to do so just now into my current wip. thanks for the feedback!
I'll be keeping my eye on this. Gotta love good artistic projects.
Pulits
Jack Daniel's Evangelist
1168
Your game looks beautiful!

*subscribes*
thanks so much! *___*!!

i'm not too sure how visible comments like this are but i wanna mention on this page that i'm taking down the beta. :E the next release should be within a week, and at this point i got enough feedback to fix everything i needed to.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
man, this is so "indie" it hurts, I don't even
??? thanks?

i've enjoyed really soft, wistful-toned rpgmaker games with rly limited palettes. i think that most of them kind of hit a sort of niche audience, and i think this game aims towards that. it's def not everyone's thing tho i feel that.
It is a short game, but pretty cute and awesome! Well done!
yea it's meant to be a casual game. thanks so much!
Hi, Im a translator :3 I want to translate it to spanish. Can i translate this game?
This is mi E-mail if you want to talk about that :3
juanconsejero1998@gmai
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So, I gave this a whirl. It's a fairly cute adventure game, though, I'm a bit confused about the nature of the "dream world". Which might be part of the point, actually. Theories ahoy under the hide-tag!


So, our protagonist finds/meets Star in the "dream world". They later meet in the "real world" on the roof of Lili and Mat's lab. They act as if they had already met. So, what does this mean about the "dream world"? Was it actually a dream, or some kind of collective unconscious because stars are the origin of everything for this game's universe?

Though, suggesting that robots have a collective unconscious raises a few questions of it's own (are they "alive", what does it mean to be "alive", ans so on), but, that is another matter entirely.


As a side-note, there were a few instances where I noticed Star was in the upper-left corner of the screen, yet still mirroring the player's movements as per the usual caterpillar eventing. I don't quite remember exactly where this bug occurs, though!
Didn't really get enough to make a full review I don't think, but here's some of my thoughts on the game. The art and music were very well made and fitting. The scene with The President was very well written, made me smile. That and the Star who wishes he could grant his own wishes. Honestly, for how short the game is, I would say its perfect. There weren't any outright flaws I could come up with while I played. The amount of little details about the world scattered around was fantastic, and really shows how powerful writing can be even in a simplistic setting like this. So, great job with this, would rate 5 stars for sure.

Just wondering though, if the Sloth catches you, you can't go back through the door and get the final key, (I reloaded the game, so I'm not sure) is it possible to continue on some other way without that key?

One last thing! When I launched the game, my computer was practically rejecting the thing. I'm running Windows 7, not sure if that's the only reason, but I had to change the Compatibility settings to 640 by 480 resolution in order to run the game.
@marrend those are some really interesting theories--i like the first one a lot! tbh i like those better than my own explanation which is purposely obscured x: the world i wanted to make is surreal so i prefer to play to the unexplained in canon. if ur curious tho my notes might indicate that the robot's imagination program works too well.

thanks for reporting those bugs! i've actually fixed them a while ago in a super late update that i'll finish up after finals. i'm still catching typos x:

@hiromu656 thanks so much!! i had a lot of fun putting in the small hidden pieces to expand the characters and world. the president scene is Heavily Based on the little prince's encounter with the king... i'm not sure how familiar you are with the little prince but it's a pretty funny conversation.

the door in that map only requires 3 keys to be opened O: it's actually possible to get 3 keys without seeing a single malicious sloth (spoilers: theres 5 keys and 2 sloths). even if you do get caught, the lost key event only occurs once, and you can still get 3 keys.

on the compatibility: i'm. really not sure what's up //: rm2k3 is a little funky on compatibility with vista and up i think. i did a little google digging and i can't say for sure what the problem or solution is, but someone suggested on these forums running as administrator and in checking "disable display scaling on high DPI settings" in the compatibility settings but......... that sounds kind of close to what you had to do already ahah
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
I'm so glad this got a hidden gem spot, because that is indeed what this game is. I know the Little Prince story quite well and you have done a beautiful homage to that haunting tale, but still put your own aesthetic and narrative spin on the story.

The additional details you included were subtly done, phrased and delivered in such a way that those who do know the source material can recognise them and get a small almost in-joke feel from them and for those who have never read the novella can use them in clues in deciphering or speculating as to the true nature of the characters and their fate, their search for certainty and peace and the value of unlikely and almost impossible connections.

Seriously well done.

Oh a more technical note, anyone who has some problems with the compatibility might want to have a look at these articles, they give some pointers and solutions.

http://rpgmaker.net/articles/1029/
http://rpgmaker.net/articles/887/
While I do not know the Little Prince story, this is a very sweet little piece of a robot befriending with a star.
I quite like all those star references in stories and in the creation of their life .. it is also interesting that the sloths look like yourself (albeit a little bit bigger).
There certainly is something haunting and sad hidden underneath, but I could not finish this game yet, as I am stuck after I sent the letter on the far-away satellite. Could someone please tell me what I need to do next? (rather, what I can do?)

It is a little bit shallow so far, but this might change.
@nbuhi aaaaaa i'm rly excited that my game's been featured!!

also i'm extremely flattered to have my game called a worthy homage! it's impossible to stand next to a giant like the little prince but i'm glad the hints and other influences come through. i definitely wanted this game to be playable without having read the book, but i hope a certain special meaning emerges for readers.

thank you so much! also for the links yo

@kylaila the sloths looking like the protag was a happy accidental carry over.... those two sprites were some of the first ones i created long before i actually started writing the game and i thought it would have been cool to have a smaller robot protag and larger robots of the same line. then at some point they turned into sloth gods haha. it also fits more with the little prince.... re: baobabs. imo even w/o the sake of the game you should definitely give the little prince a read.

ahhh yeah i realize that level was very poorly designed /: here's a hint to the solution!

thanks for the feedback! i think the brand of sadness is a little too much Surface Level Angst so i can definitely agree x: but also i really like games that can hit the sad stuff in the fewest words + without too much indulgent discourse: wither and penpalz come to mind.
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