Well, jeez. 2013 sure was a year. A more successful year than we could have imagined, actually, and that's down to all of you! Thank you so much for your support, patience, and faith in us as we've worked to make Starbound the best game it can possibly be. An extra special thank you to our forum and IRC staff, who've kept our community a fun and safe place to be from the very beginning. They're the best.

Thanks also to everyone who pre-ordered, spread the word about the game, contributed to the community in any way or even started up unofficial fan communities, wikis, etc. The response has been amazing and encouraging and we love you all.

Of course, we're only just getting started.

Following our post-beta-launch crunch, we've been taking it relatively easy over the holidays.

Now that the new year has begun, we've got soooo much to do. Look out for the next big patch sometime over the next couple of weeks. It'll be a big one, and contains the much-anticipated final character wipe, among many other fixes and additions. You'll finally be able to get attached to your characters! Yay!

Also keep your eyes peeled for a better bug reporting system and more frequent community events, like small contests. Hoping to expand the newsletter somewhat as well in the coming months. This month's is more of a community spotlight feature-- look for exclusive content next month!

Happy New Year, everyone! It's gonna be a good one.

Love,
Chucklefish

Starbound was released just shy of a month ago, but you wouldn't know it by the amount of mods that are already available for download. At time of writing, 765 mods that have been uploaded to our official mod database. That's...a whole lot in just four weeks, guys!

We've added a few of these mods to the game already with the permission of their authors and plan to add more in upcoming patches. For now though, let's take a look at some of this month's most popular Starbound mods.

Princeofmar5's Fully Customizable Ship mod is the top rated and second most downloaded Starbound mod, and if you frequent our forums or the Starbound subreddit, you'll see why! Loads of players have been posting screenshots of their creations, and we've personally seen some really great customized ships on multiplayer servers.

An interesting alternative is WarStalkeR's Fight For Universe: Per Aspera Ad Astra mod, which includes a modular starship construction system. If fancy ship-building is your thing, do yourself a favor and check out both of these mods!

Tabula Rasa by SnoopJeDi and LowestFormOfWit is the most downloaded Starbound mod in our official database. It's a pretty simple mod, but has proven extremely useful to both modders and players. The Tabula Rasa serves as a unified crafting bench for modded content, simplifying the process of crafting modded items and making them more easily accessible. Nifty!

Creative Mode by aMannus serves to provide players with total creative control over Starbound-- an especially useful feature in this early stage of beta, given the impermanent nature of worlds and characters. And of course, like Minecraft's creative mode, it allows builders to go nuts building elaborate structures without having to scrounge around for materials. An essential mod for lots of players!

Last but not least, Industrialization: Starbound Edition is the second most highly rated mod in our official database! Inspired by and very similar to the IndustrialCraft mod in Minecraft, Industrialization: Starbound Edition allows players to craft complex machines that make life in the Starbound universe a little bit easier. All those machines, ingredients and craftables may seem intimidating at first glance, but fortunately the mod includes a quest line to set you in the right direction!

Through all the hype-fueled chaos of December's beta launch, members of the community stepped up to help each other out! From walkthroughs on how to survive the (often cruel!) Starbound universe, to guides on modding and making use of the ABC music system, and even mods created to help specific members of the community, you've all been awesomely helpful. Here are a few highlights and threads you may find useful!

Starbound Guides Master Thread
We've tried to compile all of the most useful user-made guides here!
Master List of Starbound Fixes
Community member satoru has compiled a list of all known work-arounds for current bugs and crashes and has been great about keeping it up to date! Check this thread first if you're having problems playing.
Epilepsy Settings Mod
A player experiencing problems with Starbound's space travel sequence due to epilepsy posted on our subreddit, and both /u/Encephalopod and /u/EriktheRed stepped up to make mods designed to solve the problem! We just thought this was awesome.
nightblue's Sketch Pad
An awesome artist by the name of nightblue has been spending her winter holiday drawing other community members' characters! She's not taking more requests at the moment (so don't go and flood her thread!), but the requests she's fulfilled are certainly worth a look.
Keeper's "You Are Starbound" Series
Keeper and Shardival have continued their "You Are Starbound" story game series-- a collaborative series of text adventure games based in the Starbound universe. Their latest story, "When Death Looms", was created with Twine and released just this past week. Check it out!