Clue letter: 'The goods are now on Dabih Basin IV'

About this game

Developer: Chucklefish · Publisher: Chucklefish · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Pixel art · Screen type: Encyclopedia / Codex

More Starbound screens in the Gallery

What to study

Starbound delivers quest clues as physical paper: a short letter, in a handwritten-style face on a stained sheet, names a planet (Dabih Basin IV) and a warning, and nothing else. No quest marker, no objective checklist, no reward line; the clue is the whole screen, floating over the still-open inventory and storage windows so the player reads it in the middle of looting. That restraint is the design worth studying: the document trusts the player to remember a place name. Note the trailer burn-in at the bottom of the frame: 'FOLLOW THE TRAIL / FIND CLUES AND TRACK DOWN YOUR TARGETS' is trailer caption text, not game UI. Frame at about 0:38 in the Starbound 1.4 Bounty Hunter Update trailer (Steam).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

diegetic-document modal-panel

Components

Parts on screen.

Document Window

Screen inventory

• Readable letter on a paper document panel with close (X) control
• Letter text: 'Lackey, The goods are now on Dabih Basin IV. Make sure you aren't being followed. Regards, Icy Smokey'
• Character window header ('Teoxoc / Your inventory and equipment') and Office Cabinet Storage window visible behind the letter
• Coffee-stain and fold marks on the paper texture

Top 3 colors

#1b2119 21%#e3e2be 20%#5c4d4c 18%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Chucklefish, Starbound screenshot: Starbound 1.0 Launch Trailer (Steam) and Starbound 1.4 Bounty Hunter Update trailer (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Chucklefish.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-11-03. verified 2026-11-02: targeted extraction at 0:38 from the official Steam trailer, pixel-matched to the audited filmstrip frame (mean abs channel diff 2.09) and inspected visually at full resolution; full letter text confirmed legible; trailer caption burn-in confirmed at the bottom edge

No published Chucklefish fan-content policy found (checked 2026-11-03; only Chucklefish Mod Terms located, which cover mods, not screenshots); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h.

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.