Farworld Pioneers looks like a blend of RimWorld and Starbound

Out on Game Pass and Steam

Farworld Pioneers has the side-view construction and interplanetary exploration of Starbound, but adds the colony management of RimWorld. That sort of videogame-maths is useful, but in this instance it obscures the ambition of smooshing two huge games together. You should compensate for my shortcut description by watching the trailer below.

That's a lot of stuff, isn't it? You can play Farworld Pioneers in co-op or PvP, it's got guns, you can build huge bases, you can explore planet surfaces and underground, you can build a spaceship and blast off to a new planet, and you can recruit and manage colonists. I have no idea if any of these things in the game are good or fun, but imagine how long you could play it if they were.

As you explore planets, you'll encounter AI survivors who you can save and add to your growing base. Each has "stats, perks and flaws", and will improve depending on whatever task you assign them to. You can apparently set them to work, making them a doctor or a weaponsmith or farmer and so on, and assigning priorities to their task list, Dwarf Fortress-style.

Farworld Pioneers is the work of Igloosoft, a new studio founded by a former developer of RimWorld and Starbound - so it has a little of that pedigree, as well as the influence. It's out now on Steam for £11.51/$13.50/€13.31, as well as on Game Pass.