Tune Den: Planet Explorers
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Tune Den post and there’s no time like the present. This time the feature is Planet Explorers.
I’ve mentioned this game very briefly in regards to Extra Life and early access games but I don’t believe I’ve actually described it before. It’s an early access game that’s this melting pot of a whole bunch of genres I like. First off, it’s very sandbox/open world so you can do what you like, especially in adventure mode where all of the crafting recipes are available to you from the beginning. It’s quite a large world to explore too, with a variety of biomes with their own alien plant and animal species. For more of a guided experience, story mode has a whole bunch of missions that unveil just what’s going on here, and the recipes slowly unlock as you make your way through the story. There’s also an element of space colony management where you can build a colony anywhere you want and recruit other colonists to join and aid you. You can assign them jobs like defence and farming so you can still go adventuring whenever you like. Speaking of adventure, there are many mobs to fight, from ones that are half your size to giant mechanical colossi that shot laser beams and fire multiple missiles at once. Killing them gives you some crafting materials that you’ll need, the others come from mining them out of the earth. It’s the building and crafting that are pretty awesome in this game. Like Landmark, the building is voxel based, although I’m not sure if it has quite the same degree of control. The masterpiece though is the creation editor where you can design your own melee weapons and guns, land/air/sea vehicles, objects, and buildings in just about any way you like. If you don’t want to make your own, you can just download other people’s ISOs to use as blueprints.
The latest trailer shows all of this a lot better than I could write.
Speaking of the trailer, some of that music they use for it is one of the tracks I’d like to feature. It’s my favourite one, called To the New World. I think it captures the adventure/exploration vibe very well.
My second favourite is Lost City Winter, which was previously known as Human Base. I can’t get enough of that violin, folks.
Then there’s the mellow and relaxing Grasslands track, which of course plays when you’re in the grassland biome.
And lastly is the title menu music, which is just awesome.
If there’s anything unfortunate about these tracks, it’s that there’s so few of them and they’re so short. If you’d like to hear all of them, I’ve made a playlist on Youtube.
Find out more about Planet Explorers on their website, or visit the website of the composer, Aakaash Rao.