A number of the game's achievements reference various popular media:
• The "Rule Ten: Greed is Eternal" achievement is a reference to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition from the Star Trek series.
• The "No Redshirts Here" achievement, which is earned by making sure no crew members died before reaching Sector 8, is an infamous reference to Star Trek: The Original Series, in which the security officers, who wore red shirts, would often be killed off moments after being introduced.
• The "I don't need no stinkin' upgrades!" achievement is a reference to the popularized-movie version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which one of the characters makes the statement "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
• The "Some people just like to watch ships burn" achievement references the Batman film, The Dark Knight, namely Alfred Pennyworth quoting "Some people just want to watch the world burn."
• The "On a Wing and a Prayer" achievement is a reference to the song of the same name, which was popularized during World War II.
• The "Trustworthy Auto-Pilot" achievement icon parodies HAL 9000 from Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga.

The random default names for the crew were given by people who had pledged to the game's Kickstarter. Two notable default names are: Notch, creator of Minecraft, and Vitas Varnas, actor, occasional Game Grumps contributor, and writer for VGFacts and Did You Know Gaming?

There is an unused race within the game's data called "Ghost". It has 50 health and is immune to suffocation damage. It's rumored that these were originally part of a scrapped event but they can be re-enabled by editing some of the game's files.