Startron
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
Startron is an ASCII-based space colony sim where you can mine, harvest, build and automate your way across a procedurally generated cosmos. Lead a crew of sentient cats (or dogs) as they take their first steps out and discover the mysteries of the cosmos.
Automation
Build, colonise, then harvest the resources of the cosmos on a truly astronomical scale. Defend your infrastructure from other lifeforms - but try not to endanger the locals.
Procedurally Generated Cosmos
A sprawling web of interconnected stellar systems awaits you in your own unique cosmos. Binary systems, black holes, wormholes, pulsars & more play host to various hostile and friendly locations!
Fully Customisable Worlds
Each planet, moon, asteroid cluster and gas giant can be modified and manipulated to your needs. All formed from strange compounds which you'll use to your advantage.
Retro ASCII Graphics
Embrace the 90s DOS aesthetic with charmingly retro graphics, including fully 3D environments - all rendered in ASCII (Codepage 437 to be exact)!
Ever-Evolving
Startron is an ongoing effort, with new features being added as and when - and always for free.
Startron has been designed to bring you back to a simpler time - when games had grand scope, but weren't necessarily infinite. The cosmos in Startron is large, but not so large a single person couldn't get to most of it. The planetscapes and moonscapes follow a similar philosophy where there's plenty of space to do what you need, but not so much that it feels irrelevant. We hope we've got the balance just right!
The art style was chosen for similar reasons, as we found it affords players (and developers alike) more creative control to produce something truly wonderous.
Startron is a procedurally generated space sandbox game written in C# using mainly codepage 437 for graphics The concept of Startron was inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Factorio, No Man's Sky, Rimworld & Starport: Galactic Empires
Programming, design and artwork by Rogo Darius
Intro music by Moonlit/Byte Garden
In-game music by DNcrystal, Rtyper, DebtSmart & Rogo Darius
I release updates for Startron on a semi-regular basis so stay tuned! If you'd rather look at some of the other stuff I've made with my tiny dev team in the past, check out Rogo Digital. Or for some other personal projects of mine, check out Rogo Darius.
Project started 2020.6.2
Current version as of 2025.10.1 is v0.144
Join the official Startron Discord here!
Either download Startron:
- from this itch.io page below
- from the Starton website
- from Steam
Disclaimer: Native versions require .Net runtimes installed
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Startron is coming to Steam 21st of September!
Just lost some time to this and I really enjoyed it.
Glad to hear it - let me know if you face any problems or have any suggestions :D
Well it could use a tutorial, but it didn't take me long to figure out what's what. Has a very Starflight/Star Command vibe to it, which is a VERY good thing.
I'm having an issue:
Unhandled exception. System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: The new console window size would force the console buffer size to be too large. (Parameter 'height')
Actual value was 50.
this is what i got before the window closed itself
Hi, assuming you're running on Windows, this problem should be fixable by doing the following:
This is all dependant on your monitor resolution though as Startron works best at resolutions above 1280x1024.
Alternatively, see the support section here for how to set the "squished" property in the startron.cfg file if this is not already happening by default.
Let me know if you get it sorted :)
i have a startron.runtimeconfig file, is it the same thing as starton.cfg? as it keeps mentioning that, but i dont have that file if it isnt the same
It's not the same file
startron.cfg either needs to be added manually, or is modified with the in-game options menu
Cool. :) And great productivity releasing new version every few days. This is nice example of how CI/CD project should look like.