Mucky Foot Productions is a team of developers partially made up of the old Bullfrog team that worked on Dungeon Keeper with Peter Molyneux in the past. Dungeon Keeper also happens to be the closest game with a similar style to Startopia and makes a good starting point for comparisons. Startopia is an enjoyable futuristic strategy game that sets you in the same position that Captain Benjamin Sisko endeavors with on Deep Space 9. That's right, you are the administrator of various big rotating space stations and its your role to make sure the inhabitants get what they want, be it spiritual nirvana, a relaxing break, goods to trade or even emergency medical assistance. This is as hard as it sounds, never mind the alien plagues (trust me, they're a shock when you get one), meteoroid showers, bomb planting spies and a tough trading market. Throw into this the fact that there can be others on the station vying to oust you and you've got a real challenge on your hands.

The story reads as follows. Set in the aftermath of a huge intergalactic war between powerful and aggressive alien races, a once thriving network of space stations and planets have been left lifeless. You will lead the way in rebuilding the network of space stations to a standard accepted by the individual alien races. The game progresses by placing you in increasingly more difficult situations where you must take the space station from an empty disintegrating husk and turn it into whatever your patron wishes. Each race has its own angle on things, from the health orientated greys to the bio-deck loving Karmaramas. The station is split up into 16 sections, with three decks on each station. At the outermost part of the ring you find the Engineering Deck, this is the most functional part of the station and the place where you will spend most of your time. This is where you build the crew sleeping chambers, the cargo facilities, the medical and research rooms, the space dock, a factory, power generators and so on. Closer to the center of the station you find the Entertainment Deck. This contains the station shops, bars, discos, theme rides and what amounts to a brothel amongst other things. At the innermost circle you can find the Bio-deck. Here you get to grow plants to produce valuable raw materials, create lakes and scenery for the tourists and workers to enjoy, as well as being a place to build spiritual monuments for the Zedem monks. Ironically enough, but in keeping with history, the spiritual end of things can be a very lucrative business indeed.