Demo Recap

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Wow – we’re absolutely overwhelmed by the number of players who checked out the Star Birds demo and the heartwarming feedback you’ve shared! Seeing so many of you dive into our game and enjoy what we’ve built means the world to us.[/p][p]Beyond the kind words and excitement, we’ve also received a lot of valuable, constructive feedback. You’ve pointed out what worked, what didn’t, and what could be better – and we’re listening closely. Now, we’re hard at work integrating these insights into the game as we prepare for the Early Access launch. [/p][p]We’re absolutely thrilled to see how many of you are already bringing the world of Star Birds to life with your own passions and creativity. Whether it’s taking part in the very first Star Birds Community Event (results coming soon!), unlocking the first hidden items in the main menu, or even diving into early speedruns — it’s been amazing to watch. [/p][p]Now we want to take a moment to recap what we’ve learned from the demo, and share a bit about what’s coming next.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Stats & Hard Facts - Skyrocketing Numbers 🚀[/h2][p]

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• [p]Over 100,000 players have already played the Star Birds demo since its launch during Steam Next Fest on June 9.[/p]
• [p]The demo reached over 40,000 players on the very first day.[/p]
• [p]Star Birds climbed into the Top 10 most-played demos of the Steam Next Fest, peaking at over 3,000 concurrent players.[/p]
• [p]The demo reached #13 on the Steam Next Fest leaderboard for most-played demos.[/p]
• [p]It earned more than 1,000 user reviews with a 95% “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating during the event.[/p]

[p]And that is also to your credit! 🙏[/p][p][/p][h3]Community Quotes From the Review Section:[/h3][p][/p]

[p]"This feels like a game tailor made for my brain, calming and chill music, fun graphics, and resource management, it ticks all the right boxes." - redtailia[/p]

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[p]"Absolutely love the relaxed and simple structure that becomes step by step a little more complex over time, without getting too insane :D" - Artsuad[/p]

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[p]"It has birds in it" - Rick (... after over 3h of playing [p][/p][h3]Gaining Wishlists During Steam Next Fest[/h3][p][/p][p]Providing a well-liked demo, has propelled Star Birds into the Top 100 of Steam global Wishlist ranking. [/p][p][/p][p]👉 Right now Star Birds is #95 on the global Steam wishlist charts with over 350,000 wishlists. 🥳[/p][p][/p][p]As an indie project, Star Birds relies heavily on word of mouth and YOU – and that’s where Wishlists come in. For you as a player, they don’t cost you anything, but for us, Wishlists are a powerful tool to gain more visibility. Your Wishlist has been a tiny click for you, but a rocket booster for us. We have Lift-Off! 🚀[/p][p][/p][h2]Community Feedback - What We Learned From the Demo 💡[/h2][p]

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[p]Asteroid by @Devilpuppet[/p]

[p]Asteroid by @Poucks[/p]

[/p][p]Yes, we read all your feedback. We really do. Thank you so much for the constructive response — we’ve received over 3,000 messages filled with reports, ideas, and suggestions. We feel incredibly lucky to have such a thoughtful and engaged community that not only supports the game, but actively helps shape its future with smart, detailed input.[/p][p]As we go through everything you've shared with us, our first priority has been to ask: What’s preventing players from actually getting into the game? Whether it's hardware compatibility issues or frustrating softlocks, we want to make sure everyone can start playing without roadblocks. We're also looking closely at which quality-of-life improvements we can realistically implement before the Early Access launch — especially as a small team.[/p][p][/p][p]Here’s an overview of improvements and iterations that are currently sitting at the top of our to-do list for the Early Access version of Star Birds.[/p][p][/p][h3]Hardware: Optimize for More Devices 🛸[/h3]

• [p]Performance issues, especially during cutscenes or certain UI interactions - performance & stability improvement high on our list![/p]
• [p]Widescreen & hardware support - we're working on supporting wide screens and resolving incompatibility issues with certain graphics hardware (esp. noticeable when cutscenes aren't working on some devices)[/p]

[h3]Content: Keep the Mission Going! 🦆🐧🐦[/h3]

• [p]Tutorial break points and softlocks causing frustration - we're aiming to get rid of all of them and have a smooth onboarding experience in our release version[/p]
• [p]Sometimes asteroids are generated in a way that they are frustrating to play on - we plan to improve the generation algorithms to have better control about the different kinds of asteroids that can appear[/p]
• [p]"Demo nice but short" - we're working hard on lots of additional content coming in our release version. Campaign levels progressing the story, expedition levels with high replayability and achievements for special challenges[/p]

[h3]Intuitive Design: Make It Feel Good 😍[/h3]

• [p]Pipe handling finicky - we want to improve this to make drawing pipes more satisfying[/p]
• [p]Desire for additional hotkeys and keybinding support - super helpful to hear your suggestions and expectations so we can make the controls as intuitive as we can[/p]
• [p]Wish for concrete numbers to understand requirements & optimize production - we want to keep the UI clean but also want to find places to provide all the necessary information to play optimally[/p]
• [p]Star system map readability - this becomes more of an issue the bigger the level gets, so definitely on our list![/p]

[p][/p][p]With all the amazing community engagement over the past days, we’ve decided to keep the demo online for a while before the Early Access Release. That way, you can keep jumping in for a relaxing round after work, shave a few seconds off your speedrun time, or finally check it out if you haven’t had the chance yet.[/p][p]Thank you again for being such an engaged, supportive, and kind community. Please keep being the thoughtful, constructive, and collaborative crew you’ve shown yourselves to be — you’re truly fantastic. [/p][p]Honestly, we’d go to space with you. 🪐🧡[/p][h2][/h2][p] [/p][hr][/hr][p] [/p][h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3][p]Star Birds is an indie project by Toukana Interactive and kurzgesagt. We are over the moon to have such an amazing community. You are the reason why this project exists. If you want to support us, Wishlist the game here on Steam, and tell your friends about it. If you would like to be the first to read content like this and are looking for more in-depth insights, we recommend our newsletter – sign up at toukana.com/starbirds. [/p]

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