Happy April, Chronicle Readers!

For ages now, a lot of you guys have been asking us...er, lots of questions, but chief among them:

1) When can you preorder the game?

2) How will beta be handled?

3) How far along in development is Starbound?

4) WHAT'S THE RELEASE DATE?

We can finally answer three of those questions!

Today we're opening up a pre-order on PlayStarbound.com via the Humble Store. Pre-ordering a copy of Starbound for $15 will grant you access to our beta when it's ready and a digital download of the extended soundtrack that will update as we add more tracks.

But if you feel like grabbing some extra goodies and throwing a little more support our way, we've got a tiered system allowing for just that, with rewards ranging from things like  a forum badge, input on a hat design, an in-game statue created in your likeness, an NPC named after you, and more!

A key thing to remember here is that preordering Starbound gives you access to its beta when it's ready, and while we're working every single day (seriously, what even is a weekend?) to make that happen as soon as possible, we can't give you a solid date just yet.

Yeah, we know that's pretty vague. How are you supposed to know how far along we are, or what we're working on right now? 

Well...

Click the banner above to access the Roadmap to the Stars! Styled like a classic JRPG overworld map, the Roadmap is designed to show you guys exactly what we're up to and what needs to be finished before we can release a beta. It also serves as a useful organizational tool for us!

Click on a map marker to bring up a list of tasks, each with their own description and progress bar. The sprites hanging out on each map marker represent the main developers working on each task! They'll move around a bit as development progresses.

We wanted to mix it up a little this month with a Community Spotlight feature, showing off cool things our community has created. First up...

Vector Squared is a weekly community-oriented newspaper run by a handful of awesome forum-goers-- nababoo, Keeper, Strife, WackyWocky, ReverseShadow, shardival and Jonesy. They report on recently released screenshots, community goings-on, popular suggestions, fan art, and more. Their thread is an awesome way to catch up on Starbound-related news you may have missed in the past week!

The Weekly Monster Fanart Thread is a more recent addition to the forums, cropping up a few weeks ago when forum user R3MI decided to doodle each Friday's randomly generated monster from here on out. The idea caught on, and we've had quite a few people contributing their interpretations of what our MonsterBox spits out. We're looking forward to checking this thread each week!

Human Translator's note: our most accurate translation of the Avian word "lusty" ( which is, of course, pronounced with an audible 'squawk') approximates, in our language, to "flatulent". This stage reading is the best example we have of the budding Avian performance culture, which seems to only have started after first contact with ours.
However, it is important to note that this transliteration is from a damaged document, so large parts are missing.

SCENE: Ext., Avian temple suicide tower. Grants-You-Wings, an Avian priestess, is lecturing a group of young Avians on the afterlife.

Grants-You-Wings: "...and as you hit the ground, your soul will ascend into the Aether, to be judged by Kluex himself."

First Student: "But what if we don't die when we hit the ground?"

Grants-You-Wings: "Then you have been chosen to stay on our mortal plane to serve Kluex and Rahe."

First Student: "That makes sense- hey, what's that smell...?"

OFF-STAGE: An ominous rumbling/fluttering sound shakes the stage.

Grants-You-Wings: "My apologies. I have been very lusty recently."

Second Student: "I'll say! That's worse than the smell of a village full of Grounded!"

Grants-You-Wings: "Now now, we don't talk about them here."

First Student: "I think I'll take my chances with the mortal plane."

ON-STAGE: First Student steps towards the edge of the suicide tower.

First Student: "Grants-You-Wings, your lust is driving me towards the edge! Literally!"

Grants-You-Wings: "Yes! Students, look at this young Avian as an example! He is committing his soul to the Aether!"

First Student: �I resign my fate to the arms of Kluex!�

ON-STAGE: First Student falls off of edge of stage, screaming briefly before a loud thud heralds his arrival on the ground. Second Student strolls over to the edge and visibly winces.

Second Student: �By Rahe, you can even smell it over here!�

ON-STAGE: Second Student dives off the stage. A second thud is heard.

Grants-You-Wings: �Yes! Kluex, guide these souls to the Aether!�

OFF-STAGE: Second Student begins to call for help; he has survived the fall.

ON-STAGE: Third Student, unable to bear the priestess� flatulence, begins to move towards the edge of the suicide tower.

Third Student: �Better not keep him waiting.�

ON-STAGE: Gagging from the smell, Third Student takes a running leap off of the edge of the stage.

OFF-STAGE: Second Student starts shrieking.

Second Student: �No! Don�t fall on me! Don�t fall on-�

OFF-STAGE: A slightly more wet thud, then silence.