Star Birds News

We're thrilled to announce that the demo for Star Birds is launching on June 9th right here on Steam!


Download the Star Birds demo for free, jump in, and finally experience what it's like to build your own space factories and guide the Bird Crew on their interstellar mission.

This is your first chance to get hands-on with the game — and we can't wait to hear what you think.

The official Star Birds demo gives you a free sneak-peek into the gameplay and campaign that awaits you in the Early Access release of the game launching later this year. It features the first two campaign levels, and an additional replayable and procedurally generated Expedition Level where you can hone and further develop your skills on your own. Plus: Look forward to kurzgesagt-inspired story cutscenes! 🦆

So get ready for the Steam Next Fest! June 9th. Demo. Play it for free.
Are you as excited as we are?

Let us know in the comments — and don’t forget to wishlist and follow to stay updated! 🚀

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[h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3]
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.

Check out the Cozy & Family Friendly Games Celebration 2025! The event takes place on Steam this weekend.


Toukana is part of it with our first game Dorfromantik & our new title Star Birds which we develop in collaboration with kurzgesagt.

[h3]🌳 Dorfromantik[/h3]
Dorfromantik is a peaceful building strategy and puzzle game where you create a beautiful and ever-growing village landscape by placing tiles. Explore a variety of colorful biomes, discover and unlock new tiles and complete quests to fill your world with life!

[h3]🚀 Star Birds[/h3]
Star Birds is a relaxing asteroid base-building and resource management game. Discover and mine countless asteroids, create production networks and guide your flock of spacefaring birds to new interstellar horizons! Stay tuned for the Star Birds Demo coming in June …


Enjoy a lot of great games and discounts from May 29 until June 02! Thanks to rokaplay for organizing the Cozy & Family Friendly Games Celebration! ☕


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[h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3]
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.

We know you're all waiting to dive beak first into the Star Birds demo coming this June. To sweeten the wait, we've put together an overview of where you can already get a sneak peek of the demo.



[h3]Channel Overview: Watch Demo Gameplay[/h3]
The public demo of Star Birds launches in June. We have sent demo keys to some selected streamers and content creators. Here's when to expect their Star Birds Let's Plays. We're thinking of stopping by the chat, who of you will join us?

• @Drae
• 🗨 Language? English
• 📅 Date? June 1st, 2025 - Time TBA
• 📺 Channel? YouTube

• @Nils
• 🗨 Language? German
• 📅 Date? June 1st, 2025 - 6 PM CEST
• 📺 Channels? Twitch, YouTube

• @Blitz
• 🗨 Language? English
• 📅 Date? June 1st, 2025 - Time TBA
• 📺 Channel? YouTube

• @Spuzie
• 🗨 Language? English
• 📅 Date? June 3rd, 2025 - 4 PM CEST
• 📺 Channels? Twitch, YouTube

[h3]Will There Be Story Spoilers?[/h3]
In the demo we focus on the game mechanics, i.e. the mining of resources and the building of production networks. The narrative will continue to unfold with a more detailed game version later this year. After all, we don't want to spoil players who are primarily interested in the story part. 🌌🪐😲

So, as long as you keep your space helmet on, we think it's safe to tune in!



[hr][/hr]

[h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3]
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.

Today we want to introduce you to the crew. To the birds that populate the space station in Star Birds. We show you how we came up with a strong cast of characters, and how we brought the kurzgesagt birbs to a 3D universe. And not to forget their roles on board - as we will send them on a mysterious mission ...

[h3]Getting Dressed for Space 👩‍🚀[/h3]
Sure - a game called Star Birds needs spacefaring birds. Cheerful supporting characters who lead you through the story, in dialogues and campaigns. But how to recruit them?

As a first step, we analyzed the birds that we discovered in the YouTube videos together with our project partner kurzgesagt. Their body parts, their emotions, their animations. We were looking for an elegant way to equip them for their space mission. By replacing the head feathers with accessories such as pilot's caps, and their body plumage with space suits.



[h3]Modular Bird Generation 🦉[/h3]
The next challenge was to send the 2D YouTube birds to a universe where they will become the main act of various dialogue scenes and the quest givers for the delivery missions. To do so, our teams (Toukana🤝kurzgesagt) had to create a skeleton that could be animated in our game. In Blender, we converted the SVG Vector graphics into flat mesh shapes, attached them to the skeleton and a rig and now ... they're alive!

Finally, we added gradients and a splash of color in Unity. It was important for us to think about variation of the birds in a modular way. Easily swapping body types, shapes and colors. Internally, we call our tool the "2D Bird Generator".




[h3]Creating Interesting Characters 🐔[/h3]
As you will not control and play your own bird character in Star Birds, but take on a managing role, our teams had to double down on the birds supporting the gameplay and narrative, leading you through the story. One of the most difficult questions was where in the game we wanted the kurzgesagt birds to appear, and where the gameplay should stand on its own.

To make the gameplay and narrative fit together, we imagined them as main charaters of the cutscenes and dialogues, operators of the buildings and machinery and quest givers. To make them interesting characters, we gave them specific professions as Scientists or Engineers, Workers, and of course last but not least - a Captain to keep every member of the crew focused on the mission... in theory ;)

You can look forward to seeing the result in Star Birds soon and meeting the bird crew! Fully clothed and commissioned. 🚀



[hr][/hr]

[h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3]
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.

Star Birds will be available as a public demo. Playable for everyone from June 2025.



We are going to release a demo for Star Birds! After internal playtests in Q1, we are looking for your feedback. There lies a huge value in your various gaming experiences and backgrounds as Star Birds will be a game encompassing a broad genre mix:

🏭 Factory Builder
💎Mining & Resource Management
👽 Mysterious Story Campaign
😍 Relaxing & Fun Gameplay

We're on a mission to find the perfect balance.
Between easy-to-pick-up fun and rich, rewarding depth. Between laid-back sessions and immersive complex production network mastery.
This demo is just the beginning, as the game will launch into Early Access sometime this year.

[h3]Get ready to explore, experiment, and enjoy the ride.
[/h3]

This demo is designed to give you a first glimpse of the game's core experience. It's a chance to explore the gameplay, get a feel for the game flow and design, and dive into the heart of the adventure. We're looking forward to your feedback!

To keep things clear, here’s what’s ready for you now—and what’s still on the way.

💁‍♀️ Included in the Demo (June 2025):

• Central Game Loop - Build production facilities and mine resources
  
• Establish Production Chains - Optimize your space factory and set up interplanetary transportation lines
  
• Meet the Crew - Jump into the Star Birds story and go on an adventure with the birbs
  
• Gameplay Tutorial - New to the factory building genre? We've got you. The demo can be played by experienced players and curious beginners alike.
  
• Challenge level - to test your acquired space mining skills and compare to other players
  

🙅‍♂️ Not Included in the Demo:

• Full Story Experience - The demo will just include the beginning of the story campaign, many more mysteries await you in the full version
  
• Fine-Tuned Balancing - For this we need your demo feedback, there are certainly still points to optimize in the system
  
• Full Content of Resources and Buildings - We will provide a selection that is relevant to the scope of the demo run
  
• Bigger & Late-game Challenges - Looking for a higher level of difficulty and a mission beyond tutorial stage? Find it in the final version of the game!
  

The demo will be available for PC in 12 languages. Downloadable here on Steam.

The best place for your feedback is our Discord server. On Discord, we will activate an upvoting tool in June that will forward your most urgent feedback directly to the dev team. 🙌


[hr][/hr]

[h3]Wishlist Star Birds & Join Our Newsletter[/h3]
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.