We are Chucklefish games, developers of indie game Starbound.

Will you add Kerbals to the game?

That would be really cool, if I can get in contact with them and they'd like us to, we will :)

How long do you plan to update starbound for after release? Will they be large updates (new race/weapon type etc) or just bug fixes?

This is copied and pasted from a forum thread I posted on the subject:

Hi guys,

A lot of people have been asking lately how we plan to support the game after release. So I wanted to fill you in on what my plans are.

I know that now, more than ever, people are buying into games as an ongoing service. Players want a game that will evolve, improve and provide new experiences post release. And to many that ongoing service justifies the price of admission.

So, to respond to that demand. The Starbound team will continue to update the game for a long time after release. Not only that, but we'll be putting together a second team that will exclusively handle weekly, small scale, content updates whilst the original dev team works on bigger, more involved updates.

Eventually the original dev team will be ready to move on to a new project, whatever that may be - sequel, new IP, etc. When that happens, the secondary team will become the primary update team and I will personally continue to oversee and work on all updates to the game.

I will ensure there is always a team in place to continue updating the game for as long as people are playing it.

All of this is on top of us opening the game up massively for players to create their own content, both in game and via modding.

Let me know if you have any more questions or concerns I can answer.

What's the plan for the Starbound Modding API? Will it be available at beta? At release? After release? How extensive will it be? Will it be powerful enough to support coordinated mods in the vein of something like IndustrialCraft or BuildCraft?

Your friendly neighborhood warfaced

The API will be available post release, but some forms of modding might be possible from beta, adding content will be possible and very easy. New guns, npcs, armors, objects and so on are extremely easy to add to the engine as it's all data driven.

Exactly what you'll be able to do with the API is hard for us to say at this point, but the plan is to make it extensive.

Will Starbound feature a "Borderless Window", "Fixed Window" graphics option?

I recently bought me a new monitor and discovered that it makes things so much easier, since you don't have to alt-tab out of games to access the browser or your emails anymore and can just move the mouse to the second monitor.

The window is resizable at any time, so you can just maximise it and get a full screen window. Though it will still have the title bar. It'd be nice if we can add a proper borderless fullscreen mode. I'll look into it :)

What advice would you give to an 18 year old that wants to go on to do what you do?

Learn a relevant skill, make sure it's a skill you enjoy and learn to get things finished. Actually completing + shipping things is one of the key skills we look for, there are so many wonderfully skilled people out there who struggle to see things through.

What's going to happen to all the pre-money?

We've been financing the game out of our own pockets on a revenue share. A bunch of team members were beginning to struggle, a couple had to take on second jobs. The game would have been completed all the same but the money means we'll be able to focus entirely on development and get things done a ton faster.

If we reach our stretch goal amounts, we'll be able to pay for some additional content without delaying the game at all. Allowing us to put in things like new races.

Please don't add stupid memes. Please don't be Borderlands 2/a total reddit pandering game.

Please. Please.

We'll keep the meme level very low

Can you describe the multiplayer architecture of Starbound? Will we be able to run our own servers?

I ran a Terraria server for a while, and it was a lot of fun, but the architecture allowed for any number of hacks and exploits to become commonplace. Some of these could be stopped by using one of the third-party server mods, but many client hacks were totally unstoppable.

With Starbound, have efforts been taken to provide a more secure multiplayer experience?

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the game. I've pre-ordered and I'm going to run a dedicated server if such is possible in this game.

You can indeed run your own server.

We've take some steps to add extra layers of security, but I'll be honest it's a battle that it's possible to dedicate an almost unlimited amount of time to and still come away from without being 100% secure.

For that reason we've tried to take a balanced approach, working in security where we can without going overboard and delaying development.

• Will there be planets with multiple biomes?

• Will we be able to dig down into the cores of planets?

• Can planets be wiped of all life?

The engine handles planets of multiple biomes and we actually used to have multiple biomes enabled. In the end we decided to give each an individual biome so the planet had more of an identity (think jungle/desert planets in starwars). To make up for that we added sub-biomes. An example of a sub biome would be an oasis in the desert.

You can indeed dig down into the core

Planets can't be wiped of all life at the moment as monsters continue to spawn, but enough people are asking for it that we might have to work something out that enables that post release.

How big has Starbound gotten compared to how big you originally planned for it to be?

Big in terms of features? It's actually no bigger, even a little smaller maybe as we've cut away some stuff we felt was over-complicated or unintuitive.

It's still totally crammed with content though and seeing the content listed in a database or a list of items is a little overwhelming.

Seeing as the Novakids are now most likely going to be added in-game due to the amount of money coming in showing no signs of slowing down, I have to ask: There are hundreds of race suggestions out there, what made you choose the Novakids, and can we expect to see more races added further on in the game development, either before or after release?

A big part of it was the Cowboy aesthetic. But also, we've got humans, we've got a mechanical race, a flower race, an animal race, and so on. The Novakids are far enough removed from everything we have already that we didn't feel as if we were treading the same ground.

Are you sorry for having everyone spam my twitter feed about Starbound?

Only joking, my actual question is what do you think of YouTube Gaming Media like NorthernLion/TotalBiscuit? Are you for that type of coverage or are you more into "traditional" press.

I think both youtubers and traditional press are very important and likely cater to quite different audiences. I'm a big fan of some of the letsplayers out there.

If I had more time I'd love to do a let's play of my own one day, streaming and recording is really fun.

Maybe the dev team should do one for Starbound

I think you really should make some kind of let's play or trailer for Starbound soon, so it will convince more people to preorder the game. There are some demos on youtube, but they are fairly old and therefore not very good for that purpose. There should be something you could show without spoilers but still interesting.

We're working on it :)

What happens when you first start playing Starbound? Where do you start, what are the first things you should/have to do?

You start out with some backstory and end up stranded above a pretty peaceful planet. Your first task is to learn some basic survival, then it's getting your ship running again :)

Since your team is based internationally, how do you all keep in touch and updated? Any specific tools or services?

We're all on IRC an unhealthy amount, we use mumble, skype, google docs, dropbox, a bunch of other services. Working remotely has become a lot easier lately.

Our goal is to open an office and work together though, there's still nothing quite like it :P

Will there be space combat? Like boarding and starfighters maybe?

We'd like to do a kind of multiplayer FTL style combat system post release. With each player manning different systems on the ship, putting out fires, fighting boarding invaders, etc. I've got it all mapped out in my head. We just need to finish the game first :P

[deleted]

Yes, they're in. Happy cake day!

what is the best game you've ever played?

Oh man, that changes daily.

I'm massively into fighting games, so street fighter is probably the game I play the most when I can find time. I also love platforming, RPGs, roguelikes and sandbox games.

Kyren is massively into Cave story, keeps telling us we have to add the jetpack gun to Starbound.

We know that the game was revealed much sooner than you guys wanted. How has this affected development/the game? Have you found yourselves taking in ideas and adding more in or feeling the pressure and cutting more out than you originally had planned?

It has made things a little more stressful, games are often in development for a number of years before reveal so ours was very very early. So it's understandable that people ask us what's taking so long.

However, it does mean that the community has been involved in development from the get go and I think that will only make the game stronger.

Give me a job.

Send us a CV when we open offices :P

Will the Novakids emit a glow in-game because they're made of plasma? Or will they be like everyone else?

They'll emit a feint glow, they won't light up a cave however.

What sci-fi universes have you taken inspiration from for this game? It looks awesome by the way :)

Despite the setting, I think there's actually more fantasy present in Starbound than hard sci-fi. Though there's an awful lot of inspiration from Doctor Who :P

Thanks for the key :)

Anyway; What inspired Starbound?

I was actually originally making an iOS, scifi, platform game, the engine for which allowed players to 'fingerpaint' their own platforming game levels and share them with other players online. That idea evolved into what Starbound is now :)

Considering just how diverse everything is with unique planets, monsters, etc. How will more "unified" elements, like fuel, be handled ?

Can you make the same fuel from different ressources ?

A lot of planets share some of the same basic materials, coal can be used as a fuel for instance. The major unified element is the games currency.

The idea is that 3d printing technology has advanced so far that '3d printer fuel' has become a Universal currency. The currency is called pixels and it can be used for trading and crafting.

A few questions I have would be:

How much does the roadmap correspond to the beta vs. the actual final game? As in, when the bars are all at 100% is that the game release or the beta?

Will you set up an official thread for suggestions from the community for post-release content? It would be great if there was a way for the community to vote certain ideas to the top to make sure they get noticed by the devs.

How in-depth are you planning for quests to be? One of my favorite things about quests spawns from the Elder Scrolls series. I love having lots and lots of random little side quests to do that are really key to the game, but add a lot of depth. So basically, will the quests be main storyline only?

What are the mechs going to be like? I haven't heard a lot of info on mech systems, so I was curious how they would be used in the game (for attacking, mining, transport... so on)

What has your biggest frustration been with developing Starbound? Was there anything you were planning on adding to the game that just became too difficult to add?

Will there be humanoid NPCs that could become followers? Like your playing as a human, but recruit a Floran from a village to travel with you and help you fight.

Will there be unique weapons? I know that your weapon generator has tons of random combinations, but will there be a unique sword/gun you can only get from certain quests or by finding it, so on.

How in depth are the boats in the game? I saw a screenshot with a boat once. Are those still in definitely a huge fan of the idea of ships in the game.

What is the feature you are most proud of with Starbound? The "randomness" of it all? A specific race? The idea of infinite things to discover and do? A certain biome idea?

Thank for your time if you respond to all of these, I know your busy people! I look forward to the game! I have pre-ordered and eagerly await.

100% would be the final game, though not everything is on the roadmap.

We're actually looking at an upvote/downvote section of the suggestion forums to make it easier to see what people want most.

There are going to be a ton of side quests that aren't at all related to the main story. These quests will be somewhat procedurally generated and unlimited in number.

Mechs will have a bunch of different uses, they use the players energy bar for power and can be beamed down from the players ship.

Our biggest frustration was probably the space station. It just wasn't working the way we wanted it to work in a multiplayer environment. Unless each player wasn't present 100% of the time the group played, they would miss the evolution of the space station. We ended up giving each player their own ship instead (though you can still invite other players to your ship). This turned out way better than what we originally had planned.

There are humanoid NPCs and some of them are friendly. We've been discussing followers a bit lately and are still deciding exactly how it should work. I think it's easy for follower NPCs to lose their identity and become glorified pets.

There are indeed a bunch of unique weapons

The boat will mostly be a way to cover the water in ocean biomes, because mashing space for long periods of time can be a little annoying. Post release it'd be fun to add fishing, and it'd be great if you could do that from the boat.

I'm most proud of Starbounds gameworld(universe?) and atmosphere. It's so entertaining to spend time in that it's fun to play regardless of what your goal is.

What kind of libraries are you using to develop the game?

Everything is more or less from scratch in C++/OpenGL, we're making use of SDL and OpenAL

What kind of success do you think Starbound will have upon release? Do you expect it to win many awards and critical acclaim?

Whats the overall sense of morale at Chucklefish?

I would like it if it did! We're happy with what we're doing and we have very high standards! So I'm confident.

Chucklefish is super happy right now, everyone is so happy with the response and so grateful. We're pushing even harder to get the game done sooner.

Hey guys!
Are there any plans for being able to change a planets ecosystem? (Think of Spore: Bringing new plants, animals, changing the temperature etc)

Probably not at release, but it's a highly requested feature. So perhaps after launch :)

Is there going to be bows(weapons) in the game? -IceKing

Yes :)

Why did you choose the name Chucklefish?

Longggg story..

Geeze I'm seeing you everywhere today man (poe from irc) ;)

What's your favorite feature going into Starbound?

The game is full of features, but actually my fav part of the game is probably the atmosphere. Torches crackle, kyren did an absolutely beautiful job on the lighting, the wind howls, trees sway, the environment feels very alive and it's very enjoyable just to spend time in the world.

What made you so confident you could take on such an amazing and ambitions project such as starbound?

I've been involved with a bunch of games in the past, but Starbound was scary. It's a game that has no obvious place at which to say "Ok this is done, let's ship it!" and that makes figuring out how far away you are difficult, which has it's own implications in terms of motivation and keeping positive.

Now though we've pretty much completed all of the hard parts, particularly the really difficult engine tech. So now it's just sticking to the plan (which is now fully defined) and getting it done. :)

I heard there is a HUGE amount of generation in this game. Can you elaborate?

The universe, worlds, biomes, trees, guns, armor, melee weapons, npcs, dungeons, the sky, the weather, underground layers and more are all procedurally generated/have procedural generated elements.

Thank you for making my perfect game. Seriously, it looks incredible.

This might have been answered before, so anyone could potentially answer this. But what is my ships progress tied to?

My character? My server? My account?

If I co-op with a friend, do we both advance? Or when we split up does only one of us end up with an awesome ship?

It's tied to your character :)

You'll both advance

Roadmap Questions: Can you clarify whether or not everything that's shown on the roadmap progress bars will need to be at 100% before beta? Also, can you comment on if there will be any easy way to tell that a section of the roadmap has been updated without us dissecting each screen every time?

Not everything has to be at 100%, I guess 100% would mean completely bug free and I think it's ok for beta to have some non game breaking bugs.

I think I'm going to add an update log to the roadmap, or find some other way of indicating which markers have changed since the visitors last visit.

Will running a server be easier than doing so for Terraria? I've always found it a cripplingly annoying experience to do so for just a couple friends.

Seriously looking forward to this.

It'll be super easy :) We'd like to make use of the steam API for that.

Where do you get your inspiration from? And tips for a young lad wanting to become a programmer/coder freak ?

The programming club at reddit is a good start. Also open source projects are a wonderful place to start practicing your coding skills, the staff are usually extremely friendly and supportive and you often have a well documented framework to start with.

Our inspiration comes from all over the place, from games like Symphony of the Night, Cave story, Minecraft etc to games like Skyrim for how we want our villages and NPCs to feel.

If there's one thing that the games industry isn't lacking its inspiration :)

How will you manage to have all these user-created NPCs and guns, still have the game fit with the lore you've made for the different races and not break the fourth wall.

Are you referring to the preorder tiers?

If so, the buyers get to name NPCs, but not exactly create them. We're also asking that players limit the names to non-offensive, non-copyright, non-leetspeak/symbols. So it should be ok.

Gun wise we're going to be working with the guys who decided to buy the gun tier to make sure we end up with a gun that they're happy with that fits nicely into the game and is nicely balanced :)

How did you come up with the preorder tier rewards?

Or

How did you come up with the ingame tiering for equipment and what-not?

Our goal with the preorders was to speed up development and we took a look at the time that would be required to send out merchandise and it just wasn't plausible. So we did our best to come up with a bunch of fun game related rewards.

We also didn't want to offer any in game exclusives, because we're pretty against that at Chucklefish. We wanted to give people the ENTIRE game, regardless of what tier they order.

In game the tier of equipment is governed by a bunch of equations and stats :)

Why not a little and simple editor inside the game, you can create your vanity helmets pixel by pixel like a pixel artist, and and share your creations with friends inside the game and even make it works in Steam Workshop

It's a cool idea, but it'd require a ton of time to get it working properly. It's something to consider for post release :)

Also, are we going to see an introduction for the Hylotl race?

That's coming soon, promise! They're a little different to the other races.

What's your favourite book? Has it affected the way you made Starbound in any way?

My fav book is usually the last one I read. I just finished reading the three books of the demon cycle / painted man trilogy. They're incredible and another major inspiration for in game villages and lore.

Hey guys, first of all thanks for doing this.

My questions are:

You guys used to talk about being able to capture and train monsters in the world (possibly even teach some to fly or swim), is this going to be in the game still?

Second question, is digging/mining an important part of Starbound (as it was in Terreria). By this I mean, is there many layers to explore underground (including some hidden dungeons and treasures). What about building upwards? How high can you build, will there be skyworlds with treasures again?

Catching monsters is still possible!

Digging and mining is very important indeed. There are many layers that differ from planet to planet, interesting caves and lots of things to find :).

You can build a long way upwards, until you reach space.

I have few questions about planets geometry. Will the planets be cyclic or will they have left/right borders? Could you please give some estimate on a worlds sizes? How many blocks they will be in width/depth?

You can indeed run all the way around a planet and end up in the same place. Size wise the engine is capable of infinite planets in every direction, but we have a bunch of set sizes to match the size the planet appears in space.

[deleted]

Thank you! <3

How "populated" with "stuff" are the underground areas of the planets. In most of the gameplay vids I've not seen much down there in the way of materials, items, and other things to discover. Obviously way alpha on the vids/pics, but can you give us an idea?

They're full of ores, plant life, monsters, 'smashables', liquids, stuff we haven't revealed yet :)

Will starbound boss fights be sorta like megaman, with the needing to dodge things while fighting ?

That's the idea, we're actually designing "boss rooms" so we can make the fights very structured.

Do you respond to E-Mails? I sent one with no response, if it just takes a while take your time, but I wanted to make sure I was contacting you in the best place for a formal letter.

I do indeed, I actually did an email purge recently and responded to 600 or so emails. Did you email us at contact AT chucklefish DOT org?

Aspiring journalist here currently voluntarily working at an internet gaming radio station. My question is this: How open would you be to letting me take a short train ride into London and letting me give you a good interviewing on a game I've been obsessing about for what feels like forever?

We can talk about that :) send us an email. I'm always up for meeting people in London

When Are you guys planning to release preorder also from steam?

We're hoping we can bring the beta straight to steam, probably without a preorder.

Question about hunger. I know it's optional, but how is it going to work? Is it going to eventually damage you if you don't eat, or will it heal you over time (like minecraft). If the second one, will there be food that heals you?

Thanks.

When you get too hungry you starve and die, simple as that. There is food that heals you too though.

Do you guys have any plans of putting this onto the Vita?

That would be really cool ;)

I know Chucklefish was one of the lucky teams that got their hands on one of the pre-launch dev units of OUYAs, so I was wondering, are you still planning on trying to port Starbound to OUYA? I never saw a section for it on the RoadMap, and if so are you going to be working on it after the full release?

It'll be a post release port if we do it, we need to run a bunch of tests and see how well the engine runs on android, but it's looking very portable right now.

What's the difference between the experimental and "Starbound" soundtracks? Are the experimental songs going to be used? Or are they just "test" songs, as I saw many of them on Curtis's soundcloud. And I love you guys, I really do <3

Some of the experimental songs will be used, perhaps most of them. But we might mess with them a little more. The Starbound soundtrack tracks are all completely confirmed :)

Grabbed the first key, thanks. Question: Was holding your own crowd-funding preorders directly related to the Kickstarter/Amazon Payment fees and the lack of Paypal option?

There are a bunch of hidden costs in Kickstarter, and they were a little too much for us. Also we kind of just wanted to do it our own way.

Kickstarter is a wonderful service, but we wanted to show that is is possible to do it yourself.

I remember reading a quote from you that was basically your desire to have something called a "Director" mode in Starbound. Essentially a way to pre-generate areas, planets, NPCs, etc, so they have unique dialogue, etc. A bit like sitting in the AI Director's seat from L4D2.

Still planning to do that at some point?

That's wayyyy up there on the post release update list.

You can read my IRC spam on that here http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/director-mode.5522/

will there be mechanics to cater for pvp within starbound? i was a big fan of the terraria pvp scene and really want some of those gamemodes to work in starbound!

PVP works already, and there's going to be an optional always on PVP mode for people who want a day Z style experience in a sandbox world. Post release we're going to add a bunch of PVP game modes.

STARBOUND GOTY ALL YEARS

TIY/MOLLY ETC. COME VISIT US IN BARTS STREAM YOU BUMS!

ILL BE RIGHT THAR

What is your all time favorite piece of music from a game? :)

I realllly like vast, immortal suns at the moment

I've been trying to look at all the available footage I can find for this game but it's all over the place. I understand you are trying to keep information at a minimum to not ruin a surprise, but I think you could benefit from a trailer at this point to entice more people to donate.

How do you keep organized among the team and decide on what you are going to work on?

Agreed, we're working on a trailer :)

We have frequent meetings and we're chatting to eachother all day.

How do you guys feel about some people deeming Starbound as just "Terraria in space"?

I, for one, don't consider it that, but once Starbound was announced and some early screenshots and videos were released I know many people responded with "Oh it's like Terraria but in space."

People made the same comparison with Minecraft when Terraria came out. I think Minecraft, Terraria and Starbound are part of an emerging genre and it's only natural for people to compare a new game to games they know.

When games of this genre become more common, I think people will start saying "It's a -genre- game", rather than making a direct comparison.

You've talked about and demonstrated a wiring Logic system in the past. Will this system have gates? And will one of those gates be a custom gate with variable inputs and outputs connected to a LUA script or something of the sort?

We're planning to add gates, Kyren is geeking out over the wiring system.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how juicy would you say your game is?

I might be somewhat biased :P

How much mining will you be doing in Starbound compared to Terraria? Do you have to spend a lot of time mining on each new planet you visit?

It is a big part of the game, though thinking about it it would be an interesting challenge to try and get through the game without mining.

I may have missed it on the Pre-order FAQ, but when will we be naming our NPC's? Is that like an email sent out?

Also is there a way to choose the NPC that you named in every game or is it a random generation thing?

We'll be sending out an email to everyone that bought the NPC naming tiers. They'll be added to a pool from which NPCs can be named, but you will have to find them.

What elements of the games you're drawing inspiration from are you planning on emphasizing the most in Starbound?

We're really putting a major emphasis on exploration, atmosphere and freedom. I like to think we take inspiration from things our favourite games HAVEN'T done yet.

Good job, all of you people that got here first and DIDN'T MENTION YOU TOOK KEYS. Would've saved me clicking through all of them :(

Thanks for doing the AMA, though! I've been following development since announcement. Very excited for the game!

1. How early is space travel going to be hours-wise? That's probably my most anticipated feature!
2. How long does it take for you to code a single item? Graphics and all.

You'll be stranded on a planet with no fuel at the start, but if you know what you're doing you can get off of there very quickly indeed. It's just to ensure we don't throw players in with the sharks.

It depends on the item, if it has a COMPLETELY new function and requires new engine code it can take a little while. If I want to add a new gun, npc, armor, with its own stats and behaviour, I can do it in about 2 minutes with no programming required.

System requirements?

We haven't put them out just yet because we're still optimizing. It runs at a really solid 60+ fps on my entry level macbook air though.

Also, how is armour sectioned up? is it helmet/chest/legs, or does it include boots/gloves?

Helmet, chest, legs and back

What's been the biggest inspiration for Starbound's story? Is there going to be much pop culture references? Is it going to be light hearted or more dark/serious?

There are a few references in there, but nothing over the top or in your face, no arrows in the knee!

Starbounds aesthetic is very light and often quite humorous. Examining objects and items in the world often gets you a funny message. However the lore and some of the intro sequences are pretty dark and play with very adult concepts.

Thank you very much for the key! Redeemed 5dGzA7edTk6p

No worries :) try the soundtrack!

Say that a person decides to buy Pixel Tier twice. Aside from obviously getting two Steam Keys, would the person also get another Starbound Beta Invite that he can give to someone else, or would it only go to the person who bought the Pixel Tiers? Also, when you're referring to '1x Copy of Starbound', do you literally mean like a physical copy of Starbound?

You would indeed get another beta invite. The 1x copy refers to a download from us :)

When do you anticipate the beta going live, first, second, third or fourth quarter ? Month ? Will there be mining ? I have seen no such thing in videoes yet. I really hope there will be as it looks like a really good game for resource collection :)

There is indeed very in depth mining, each planet is built of multiple layers compromised of different materials. There are a whole bunch of different tools to mine with. Many different ores and materials to find.

I don't want to promise a quarter right now, just because it'd be my head if I turn out to be wrong.

Great job on the pre-orders! Excited to see your next stretch goal!

You mentioned that dungeon blocks will have some item of power that gives them indestructibility. And that once that item is removed the dungeon will be deconstructable. Will we be able to put the item BACK to make dungeon blocks invulnerable again?

Right now you can't, it's destroyable only and not an item that can be picked up or crafted. If we can figure out a good way to do it without enabling griefers that might change.

Ive had a lot of fun messing with the Character creator for Starbound, and I've noticed, the Glitches have a large amount of Head mods, and am wondering, will there be more in customization options for the other characters in the final build? I'm very happy with it already, but it's just a curiosity of mine.

There will be some more and a small selection of the Glitch head options will be removed because they don't work very well with some armors.

how has life changed for you outside of work since the successful round of funding?

what is your work computer like?

It's only been a couple of days so no real change yet, mostly we've been trying our best to keep the servers online, with very little sleep. That said though, developing Starbound has been a major struggle for us, funding it out of our own pockets. Everyone is so relieved now and motivation is at an all time high.

My work computer is pretty modest, a core i5 3.3GHZ processor, 4gig of ram and an HD6900.

Thanks for the Key :)

No worries!

how tall are you

EDIT: Oh man, those keys were gone a minute after the tweet was sent. :c

Around 5'9/5'10

What other stretch goals will there be for starbound?

That's a big secret :P at least until we reach the first.

What can we expect from Starbound in future updates and such?

What do you guys want it to turn out to be?

Take a look here: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/plans-for-post-release-content.10177/

I want it to turn out to be a Universe people can get lost in, both in the game and in terms of it's lore.

How does the NPC name get implemented? You said the names are randomly generated. Is there like a 25% chance for it to not be random?

We're able to get NPCs pulling their names from both a non random pool and a randomly generated pool :)

Do you have any plans after Starbound is released? Like, any new games or just having a well-deserved break for a bit?

For a long time after, it's all about providing updates and support for Starbound. You can read about that here: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/plans-for-post-release-content.10177/

We of course do want to produce more games in the future, we often have "What's next" discussions for fun.

Will we be able to host our own dedicated servers?

Yes :)

What game would you say has influenced Starbound the most?

That's a really hard question, there have been so many. I can tell you that right now Castlevania Symphony of the night is influencing the combat a whole lot.