Starseed Pilgrim

The game was developed in Adobe Flash and was released in April 2013 for Windows and OS X. Reviewers praised Starseed Pilgrim 's game mechanics and the process of learning their interactions, but criticized the learning curve as steep. The game was a finalist for the Excellence in Design award at the 2013 Independent Games Festival.

• Title — Starseed Pilgrim • Developer — droqen • Engine — Adobe Flash • Platforms — Windows, OS X • Released — April 16, 2013 • Genre — Puzzle-platform • Modes — Single-player

Starseed Pilgrim is a two-dimensional puzzle-platform game. The player begins the game in a hub world consisting of floating platforms. From the hub world, they can enter a different platforming world, which consists of a floating platform made out of blocks. The player is then given a few 'starseeds' at random, and can plant them in blocks to grow plants. Each plant has a different growth pattern and interaction mechanic based on the starseed's colour: for example, pink starseeds create a slowly growing vertical plant, and their blocks can be dug up to obtain more starseeds. The player grows plants on top of each other in order to reach keys floating above, while staying ahead of a corruption originating from the starting platform that steadily corrupts blocks. If the player touches a corrupted block, they are transported into an inverted version of the current world: plants and blocks turn into open space, and the previously-empty space turns into solid blocks. The player navigates this inverted world to return to where the starting platform was; there, the player can use a key they collected to return to the hub world. This also allows the player to bring with them any unused seeds from the platforming world, as well as any starseeds collected in the inverted world. The collected starseeds can then be planted on the hub world's platforms in order to gain access to other floating platforms.

Starseed Pilgrim was developed in Adobe Flash by Alexander Martin, also known as droqen, an independent game developer from Toronto. droqen released an initial prototype of the game on October 11, 2010, and completed most of the game 18 months before release. Ryan Roth contributed the sound effects and music, and Mert Batirbaygil created the art and visual assets; droqen also credits Allan Offal with providing important feedback during development. The game was released on the distribution platform Steam on April 16, 2013, for Windows and OS X. This release was done through an agreement between the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Valve Corporation, the developer of Steam, that offered all 2013 IGF finalists a Steam distribution agreement.