Star Birds has about as gentle a start as any game possibly could. As a little crew of spacefaring avians, you’re tasked with gathering a handful of resources like water and sulfur from some nearby asteroids. Land on one, build a launchpad, drop some extractors to gather what you need, and link the two via pipes. Sorted.
There’s no time pressure, and you can’t go bankrupt—if you ever run out of money you can just wait until it ticks back up again, and you even get a little car you can use to drive around asteroids picking up chunks of bonus cash to speed things along.
Layers are gradually added—you start combining and transforming resources to get new ones, and then you’re setting up networks moving resources between asteroids to get things where they’re needed. But the production lines still feel simple and easy, and I was lulled into a cosy sense of security.
It’s what I expected from the new game from the developer of Dorfromantik. I spent many hours with that game’s board game-like puzzle, free to pursue ruthless efficiency but never really encouraged to do any more than just enjoy the rustic little scenes my tiles created. I figured chill was the studio’s niche.
But then about an hour in, just as you’re getting really comfortable, Star Birds starts to get a bit… intense. To complete quests, new resources are needed that demand increasingly elaborate production chains.
To make plastic we need to pipe hydrocarbon into refiners, and we make that by combining water and carbon in a chemical lab. Carbon itself must be made in a different chemical lab, out of methane and oxygen, and that oxygen must be refined out of more water. Oh, whoops, all the water round here is frozen, so we need to process ice to get it…
It was about the point where I was introduced to an in-game wiki of different resources and requirements that I realised I might be in a bit over my head.
Still no looming deadline or risk of financial ruin, but as a puzzle it becomes exponentially tricky. Each asteroid or planet only houses a small number of possible resources, making effective shipping between them vital.
Crucially, each one also only has limited space. All resources must physically travel through pipes to get where they need to go, and they can’t cross over each other. The buildings they need to move between are adorably chunky, but that means you can only fit so many in one location. To complicate things further, the planets and asteroids are lumpy 3D objects that you can rotate around. It starts to feel like trying to fit all the components of a circuit board in a functioning layout on the surface of a potato.
Factory reset
Factorio die-hards are probably chuckling at me already, and indeed a lot of this may be child’s play to those already well-used to more serious factory-builders. But by shearing away many of the usual constraints, Star Birds creates startlingly focused puzzles that can be just as overwhelming in their own ways.
Without economical limits or hostile wildlife or any of the common complications of the genre, there’s nothing to distract from the core problems at hand. How do I make glass over here and get it over there without tying my whole production chain in knots? You just have to sit down and work at it until you’ve figured it out.
I’m fascinated and intimidated in equal measure. Despite the increasing complexity, friendly visuals and a tightly structured story do keep it really accessible for the genre, and those moments when your little enterprise all clicks together into one humming machine, it’s as wonderfully satisfying as you want it to be.
But there is part of me that sees goals this layered and goes into full puzzle panic. Each set of quests completed sees your birds move on to a new star system, and there is something about seeing a new blank canvas of planets and asteroids, with a seemingly insurmountable new layered problem to solve, that does make me feel more like a rabbit in the headlights than a space captain.
So, it’s certainly got the creative puzzle design and friendly interface of Dorfromantik, but not quite the same calm, rainy-day vibes. It won’t be my new comfort game, but if you’re looking for a cosy take on the genre that still has teeth to it—or you’re a NASA rocket scientist trying to find something to relax with on your lunchbreak—it might just be perfect.
Star Birds is available in early access on Steam now, and it’s currently 10% off until September 24.
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