Star Birds News

[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]

[/p][p][/p]

• [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]

[p][/p]

[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]

[p][/p]

[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]

[p][/p]

[p][/p]

[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]

[p][/p]

[p][/p]

[p][/p]

[p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Notes[/h2][p][/p][p]UX[/p]

• [p]added a "run in background" toggle in the settings menu (not localized into all languages yet)[/p]
• [p]some polishing for level 02 at sections that caused confusion & softlocks[/p]

[p]Bugfixes[/p]

• [p]score & station level tooltip now closes when clicking anywhere outside of it[/p]
• [p]fixed rockets sometimes visually getting stuck and collecting above the launch pad[/p]
• [p]fixed camera jumping around when switching to map while placing a building[/p]
• [p]prevent canceling necessary quests in level 01 and 02, which cause the tutorial to stop progressing[/p]
• [p]fixed supply quests not respawning when canceling while they're already complete (also prevent canceling a completed quest in general)[/p]
• [p]changed compression format of cutscenes, which could cause a black screen for some hardware setups[/p]
• [p]fixed some causes for new excavation quests not appearing in level 02[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]The best place to give feedback is our Discord server. There, we are running a Smart Ticketing System: Leave feedback, vote up change requests and bug reports from other users, and help us to prioritize tasks in the further development of Star Birds. [/p][p][/p][p] 🙏Thank you so much everyone for the overwhelming response, all your feedback, comments and bug reports! This helps us a lot to prioritize and identify issues with the game. We're trying to address the most critical issues as soon as we can. Please be patient though, since we're a small team and might take a while to address specific issues you're experiencing!🙏 [/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]The Demo is out! And we are sure there are some star hunters in our community. Show us your stats and favorite asteroids!

[/p][h2]How to Participate[/h2][p]Included in the Star Birds Demo, there are two tutorials + an Expedition Level. You will find your Star Score at the end of the Expedition Level.[/p][p][/p]

1. [p]🧭 Play + finish the Expedition Level (will be unlocked when you have played through the two tutorials)[/p]
2. [p]📸 Take a screenshot of your level endscreen, showing your stats + an asteroid (pro tip: use your arrow keys to select your favorite asteroid, use your mouse to rotate it and choose the most beautiful view)[/p]
3. [p]💁‍♂️ Share your screenshot with the community [/p][p][/p]

[p]
We are looking forward to impressive star counts and less number-driven, but aesthetically beautiful asteroid shots alike. Regardless of whether you are a resource optimizer or a wholesome gamer: dare to share!

[/p][h2]Where to Share?[/h2][p]Took a screenshot? Share it [/p]

• [p]here in the Steam Community Hub [/p]
• [p]or on our Discord server 👈 [/p]

[p][/p][h2]Win Early Access Keys![/h2][p]Among all screenshots uploaded between June 10 and June 16, 2025, we will raffle off 3 Star Birds early access keys. 🔑 Terms and conditions apply. See official rules for details.


This is a great learning moment for us as a development team. What resources have you collected in abundance? Which ones didn't interest you? Are you min-maxers or do you want resource production chains filled to the brim?

Thank you to everyone who is participating in our first Star Birds Community Event. ✨

[/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]

[p][/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Notes[/h2][p][/p][p]Bugfixes[/p]

• [p]prevent level 01 soft lock: until the player places their first extractor on the correct resource area (iron), they receive the credits back - this should prevent running out of credits in level 01[/p]
• [p]prevent level 01 soft lock: until the player placed their second launch pad in level 01 (after the instruction is given), the credits are reset to 100 whenever it drops below 100[/p]
• [p]prevent level 01 soft lock: added more restrictions preventing the player from completing the water / titanium goal quest in level 1 before the rover mechanic was introduced: their credits are set to 15 instead of 25 (meaning 3 nuggets are required to afford the next extractor), building recall functionality is disabled and extractors in building inventory are cleared[/p]
• [p]prevent level 02 soft lock: no new excavation quest from Ruth was starting after saving and loading a game in sector 02 and completing the currently active excavation quest[/p]
• [p]fixed entering the wrong asteroid or showing a blank screen instead of the asteroid when selecting a different one or deselecting the current asteroid while the entering transition is happening[/p]
• [p]privacy buttons to access analytics privacy consent screen is now visible in Settings > Other[/p]
• [p]interplanetary connection no longer works with right click (could cause connection drawing getting stuck)[/p]

[p]Other[/p]

• [p]implemented resolution dropdown in graphics settings. Should only allow resolutions with aspect ratio of 16:9 or lower (so no wide screen) - on wide screen, it should set itself to the highest allowed resolution[/p]
• [p]added labels above Toukana & kurzgesagt in credits screen[/p]

[p]Disclaimer:[/p]

• [p]The Star Birds demo doesn't currently support wide screen monitors - instead, the game will be displayed in 16:9 with black borders on the sides. This is a workaround for now and we fully intend to provide proper wide screen support for the release version![/p]
• [p]Star Birds also doesn't have official Steam Deck and Controller support yet. We plan to add both in the future![/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]The best place to give feedback is our Discord server. There, we are running a Smart Ticketing System: Leave feedback, vote up change requests and bug reports from other users, and help us to prioritize tasks in the further development of Star Birds. [/p][p]
🙏Thank you so much everyone for the overwhelming response, all your feedback, comments and bug reports! This helps us a lot to prioritize and identify issues with the game. We're trying to address the most critical issues as soon as we can. Please be patient though, since we're a small team and might take a while to address specific issues you're experiencing!🙏 [/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]Day One Recap[/h3][p]
Thank you so much for playing the Demo on Day one of the Steam Next Fest, over 30.000 of you have went on a mission into space with the Star Birds already! We are overwhelmed and couldn't be happier!

We are at 123 Reviews with an amazing 95% postive - that's incredible!
If you enjoyed the game too - you can help us out a lot by leaving a positive review.

[/p][h3] A Thank You From Us to You[/h3][p]
As a big Thank you we want to give you a free ingame Item:

Click on the gift/present button in the top right of the main menu and use code "getmug25" to unlock the mug, it will show up on the bridge in the menu next to the captain.




Stay tuned for the next days we have some cool things up our sleeves, a Community Event and more!

Thank you to everyone for being awesome! 🐔

[/p][hr][/hr][p]
[/p][h3]Feedback and Reviews[/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, give us some feedback, leave us a positive review, 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]